Tamie Smith Takes on Europe

[Benchmark]

Surprised not to see any coverage of this from EN but it looks like Tamie will be spending the fall on the European tour with her top 3. She has Danito, Mai Baum, & California entered in the Nations’ Cup in Arville this weekend, which I think technically can serve as a U.S. team based on the extremely vague FEI rules (don’t quote me on that).

I know she’ll be in Aachen with Mai Baum as well & I assume she’ll take him to Pau. Probably Boekelo for Danito or California. Maybe Pau for Danito too depending on how the leadup goes. Really happy to see her getting to mix it with the big guns in Europe, definitely well deserved.

[AmmyHunter]

Agreed, glad to see her getting these opportunities - she’s earned it. And she has a great chance to be competitive at high profile events, and regardless of how they place it will be valuable experience. I’m sure there will be plenty of coverage when Aachen rolls around, and it will be fun to follow along on her social media.

[Willesdon]

Two 5* opportunities left in Europe, Bicton (put on at short notice) 5* in the UK and then Pau in France in October.

Arville, Belgium, the listed entries shows Smith riding 3 horses in the 4*-S. The Nations Cup is a team competition with 4 riders in each team.

Aachen?

[Benchmark]

Per the FEI nation’s cup rules here, you only need 3 for a team & it doesn’t necessarily specify 3 different riders, just that the team “is composed of 3 or 4 athletes from the same nation.” The U.S. also ran a three horse team in Aachen 2019 (Deniro Z, Islandwood Captain Jack, Z), you just don’t have a drop score. I know Mai Baum will be in Aachen for sure since the team has already been announced (Mai Baum, Off the Record, QC Diamantaire, Leamore Master Plan).

I’ve got to say I think both Erik Duvander & Jenni Autry deserve a lot of recognition. It just feels like there’s much more thought going into who’s going where when & where they’re focusing their resources. There seems to be an actual strategy vs. previous leadership teams that just seemed to fill entries without much thought beyond that individual competition.

[Jealoushe]

Go Tamie! I am eager to follow her along on her journey!

[Jealoushe]

So far looking pretty impressive: https://live.rechenstelle.de/2021/arville_08/leaderboard04.html

She’s in good company:

1.	475	Ingrid KLIMKE		SAP Hale Bob OLD	319,5	76,07	23,9	1.
2.	451	Sophie LEUBE	*	Jadore Moi	314,5	74,88	25,1	2.
3.	414	Dirk SCHRADE	*	Casino 80	305,0	72,62	27,4	3.
4.	426	Lara DE LIEDEKERKE-MEIER	*	Ducati d’Arville	305,0	72,62	27,4	4.
5.	423	Tamra SMITH		Danito	296,5	70,60	29,4	5.
6.	464	Tamra SMITH		Mai Baum	294,5	70,12	29,9	6.
Latest
Result	Pferdezuchtverband Sachsen-Thüringen e.V (from 2005) (DSP SATHÜ)	gelding	black	15	by LOREDANO 2 out of RAMIRA by RIKE	GUNTER GERLING	ALEXANDRA AHEARN, ELLEN AHEARN & ERIC MARKELL		Judge	Points	Percentage	Rank
—	—	—	—
C	148,5	70,71	6.
E	146,0	69,52	6.
7.	456	Michael JUNG

[Willesdon]

[quote="Benchmark, post:4, topic:763384, … you only need 3 for a team & it doesn’t necessarily specify 3 different riders, just that the team “is composed of 3 or 4 athletes from the same nation.”
[/quote]

So you think 1 rider with 3 horses comprises a national team rather than 3 riders with 1 horse each? Interesting.

[FitToBeTied]

Good for her. More US riders need to be spending time over in Europe. You can’t up your game when you don’t play against the best on a consistent basis and the best are based in Europe.

[Benchmark]

I have no clue at all to be honest… the FEI does some weird things.

[Willesdon]

@Benchmark

I have no clue at all to be honest… the FEI does some weird things.

Not that weird. A Nation’s Cup team is generally three or four riders, with best three scores to count. The FEI likes to have consistency across the disciplines so because 3 or 4 riders in the team is usual in showjumping and dressage they repeated the same pattern when the eventing Nation’s Cup was introduced in 2013. It runs at 4*-S level.

[Janet]

@Benchmark

“is composed of 3 or 4 athletes from the same nation.”

I am not 100% sure, but I think the FEI definition of" athlete" is the rider, not the horse.

See, for instance,

Rule Refresher: 2021 FEI Rule Changes

which says
“Failure to wear protective headgear shall result in a yellow warning card being issued to the athlete.”
“The use of cameras on Athletes…”
“An Athlete’s decision to wear a camera…”
“Any Athlete who leaves the venue after a fall without submitting to the examination required under this Article will automatically be issued an Eventing Recorded Warning …”

All of those clearly refer to humans, not animals.

[Sharon]

Arville. anyone see the stream to see what happened? Tammi retired MaiBaum mid course on cross country. I missed her rider but watched quite a bit.

[MyDarkPassenger]

Tamie is really great on communicating her plans/results on Instagram Mai Baum is targeted for the nation’s cup at Aachen with a planned run today at Arville through fence 11ish as a prep.

[LovieBird]

Stopping after fence 11 is so odd to me. I heard her reasons, but it still seems strange.

[Willesdon]

6 mins 46 time, 38 jumping efforts in the 4* - S

lf one wants to just run as a preparation, why not drop down a level to the 3* and have a good, confidence boosting pootle around?

[Benchmark]

I would assume to practice the same level of dressage & show jumping she’ll see at Aachen. They’re riding CCI4* Test B in Aachen which is the same test she road in Arville this weekend. This would be the first time Mai Baum has done that test in a competition since the spring with all the focus on the 5* test for Kentucky then the Olympic test after that.

[Willesdon]

If the horse is established at 5* it doesn’t need to run half a 4*. But I’m only a keyboard warrior and I’m not riding her horse!

[knic]

Wasn’t Kentucky this year his first 5*? Wouldn’t call that established and his rideability on XC has looked questionable in the past.

[Jealoushe]

She had good runs. Excited to see how she does at Aachen!

[Marigold]

@LovieBird

Stopping after fence 11 is so odd to me. I heard her reasons, but it still seems strange.

It’s more common than you think. Michael Jung used to do it (might still do it?) religiously at Kreuth with his big guns every April. Wreaked havoc with a lot of people who liked tracking such things because the FEI doesn’t always show the difference between a 20 + subsequent RET and a RET for other reasons.

Sam: https://data.fei.org/horse/Performance.aspx?p=1BF401A6C3AFA1137C32DAB3587471EC
Rocana: https://data.fei.org/Horse/Performance.aspx?p=29CD384B88B4C433F2E23536F95C3B1F

You don’t see it so much in places with a strong national level system (German riders almost exclusively ride FEI competitions instead of national levels at the upper levels, which is why their records are so much longer) because why pay for an FEI entry for that purpose, but I imagine Tamie did it because she was already going to the event for another reason and there was no point hauling to a whole other place just to pop around a bit.

@Willesdon

If the horse is established at 5* it doesn’t need to run half a 4*.

Really depends on the horse. Zenshera is established at 5* and pretty much only runs 5*s with one or two leg stretches at national levels now (nonsense of COVID aside). Tom McEwen has been pretty open about the fact that if he doesn’t run Toledo around something quite slowly prior to a big run, he’s almost impossible to hold xc. They are individuals, and should be treated as such.