Can someone explain to me why it makes sense for Tamie Smith to fly from CA to NC to compete at Tryon while Phillip Dutton, Boyd Martin, and Liz Halliday-Sharp fly from the east coast to CA to compete at Galway Downs? Aren’t both venues offering a CCI 4-L? Why didn’t they each stay on their respective coasts and save USEA a lot of money in travel grants? What am I missing?
It allows riders to compete at venues and address environmental challenges that they would not experience in their home turf. For Tamie, competing at Tyron forces her to show she can run a horse in humidity. For the other three it’s a combo of having to deal with California’s dry and very manicured ground AND bringing a spotlight to west coast eventing. I evented in area VII and every year local-ish pros went east to compete but big named riders from the east coast rarely to never came west. (Excluding the JrYr champs at Rebecca)
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I would say that East coast UL riders will also have Tryon As a back up 4*L of something were to go wrong at Galway.
I guess that’s true, although it’s only 2 weeks later. But maybe if they don’t even start XC at Galway for some reason.
Just my assumption, but it feels like these 4 are the current frontrunners for Tokyo & this is really the only opportunity to test them outside of their comfort zones this year. Always good to get horses & riders in venues, terrains, climates, etc. they aren’t necessarily familiar with. Obviously no one is using these travel grants to compete internationally this year, so this is the next best option.
Tamie, Liz, Boyd, & Phillip basically have their B string at Galway & their A string at Tryon. Tryon will be the important weekend & I think if these 4 do well there, they’ll be the primary focus for winter training ahead of the (presumed) Olympics next year.
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If I were aiming for Olympics I would think about spending time in a climate / altitude as close to that of the Olympic destination
It’s also about traveling with horses too. And finding out how they handle it all.
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Exactly. I bet all the horses are flying. Before flying across the pacific for the biggest competition of their lives, it’s good to acclimate horses to the airplane experience, know how they recover from long flights, adapt to new climates, and what you need to plan for to compete shortly after travel. Since no Americans can show in Europe this year, I imagine cross country US travel was their only option.
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My daughter took her horse and headed east to spend some time in the humidity of FL to learn how he would handle those conditions. He also needs to run on grass, and as it has turned out, in pouring rain and muddy footing. We already know he can run and on a manicured track, so he is expanding his experience.
I have my fingers crossed that the 4L at Tryon is able to run. It’s supposed to start raining this weekend and continue on to Tryon weekend.
Judging by Tamie’s Instagram posts, looks like they are driving across the country.
