Same. I’m sure they are hoping that history will repeat itself! :lol:
I believe this is younger Mark’s first and last trip to Medal finals, so sadly, we probably won’t.
The rain! Yikes! When the camera is pointed out of the ring on the judge’s side, you can see the rain against the dark rail :eek:!
Thank you - lol - I realized it after I paid up. But that’s ok. There are worse ways to spend ten bucks and I’ll certainly use it to catch up on the trips I missed (among other things)! But I swear on two different occasions, I saw a graphic on the USEF Network site that had Sunday’s date only.
Two observations so far…
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The course doesn’t seem to be overly difficult. You’re not starting out jumping a massive oxer away from home. It also isn’t heavily stride dependent aside from the combinations so seems fair to a variety of horses.
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That being said, I’m seeing some uncharacteristic stops/spooks/etc. I’m from PA and I know around here we never show in a cover arena like this one, especially not the big equitation. I would think the same may be true for those from other regions, the exception being the south where covered arenas are more common. I suspect this is the first time many of these horses haves showed in this type of environment. I would imagine the rain is not helping. Also, I’ve seen a lot of stops at the first jump which doesn’t seem particularly “spooky” but I did notice that there may be an optical illusion created with the two jumps behind it.
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Standby after 90 (apologies for any spelling errors as I add first names):
Grace Debney
Zayna Rizvi
Skyler Fields
Augusta Iwasaki
Celia Cram
Mimi Gochman
Cara McFadden
Gigi Moynihan
Ashleigh Scully
Mackenzie Carreras
Alexia Rule
Keirsten Antoniadis
Maeve O’Donovan,
Audrey Schulze,
Baylee McKeever
Amira Kettaneh
Mark Leone
Ava Strohmeyer
Austin Kawitt
Stella Buckingham
Josselyn Mersereau
Gwyneth Babington
Nora Andrews
Layla Kurbanov
Jessie Goodwin
I loved Gigi Moynihan’s trip. They have her 8th (#70). Maybe I just loved her horse, Quantico, he has such a lovely canter and rather flat jump—excellent for the equitation.
There is no way Dominic isn’t winning so far—it was beautiful!
I loved Gigi too, but that horse goes a bit slow. Her round was a little dull for me… lacked the brilliance of Zayna and Grace (still amazing of course).
im curious what they do with Dominic. Definitely in my too 3!
That outside line? 2 and 3, I think? The Dover fence to the natural and green? The horses that stop at the second fence seem to be shocked, shocked, I tell you that it’s there.
(and I’m from PA, too, and had once experience in an arena like this, at the VA Horse Center decades ago)
I think the course is actually quite a bit tougher than it looks. It’s allowing the good riders to show off without punishing the weaker riders too badly, but showing up their weak spots. It would be even harder if it were in the Farm House arena for sure.
While the first oxer isn’t as big as some years, it’s very solid in appearance and has definitely backed some horses off. The first line rides forward in 4 - many haven’t made it up that soon enough and encountered a boo-boo there. Jump #2 is very airy and that has backed a few off as they jump into that line.
The natural rail at 4 has caught a few who didn’t ride it strongly enough. The one-stride to the skinny at the end has gotten a lot - if you don’t shape the turn correctly, the distance gets away from you. The Swedish oxer after that has caused quite a few faults as well. It’s open and some horses have jumped it very awkwardly. I like that the last line is a bit quiet to show the control at the end of the course. It also rewards the horses who may be a bit greener for making it around.
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I liked how forward Ellie Ferrigno’s round was, though I’m not sure if she’ll get counted down for her horse bouncing around at the beginning.
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From behind, the first fence looks like a lot are over jumping it—could just be our angle.
The four line was getting longer and longer for a while there—seems it is better now.
It’s interesting to watch how soon the riders look for the green skinny fence—several have just blown right by the turn.
I wasn’t keeping a card or anything, just a loose organization of riders I liked. Of those I saw I had Zayna over Grace- both comparable forward, smooth rounds from soft and stylish riders, and I liked Zayna better as I thought Grace lost her position in the air at times, particularly the right angle to the single green. I had Augusta third, Kiersten in the mix, Baylee towards the middle. I had Amira down towards the bottom but noted her horse was inconsistent in the contact.
That’s all off the top of my head as I stand here grazing my horse, who’s happy I was too lazy to set the course in ground rails today. On the other hand, my mother has asked me to give her and I quote “a boot camp lesson” on him tomorrow as she’s preparing to show at the end of the month and I’m not sure she remembered how I get at medal finals time. :lol:
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That green skinny seems like a good test. Lots of riders end up crawling to it and I imagine it really stands out if you can make the turn while maintaining a forward pace toward it.
I only had the chance to watch a few, but I felt like the course did a nice job of separating them without traumatizing too many. I think that’s an important factor, especially this year, when a lot of them probably did not get to show as much as usual.
Sure, some kids went right back to hitting the horse show trail as soon as things opened back up over the summer, but not everybody had the opportunity to do so, based on geography and travel restrictions.
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I love when I agree with the standby list haha! Great judging so far
Evidently she did. Not a lot of riders added from the 3rd group. I think only 5.
That was a rough group for sure!
I thought the same when I saw the course. It’s enough questions to separate the top tier but it penalizes those who don’t understand the questions without risking harming them. Medal finals as opposed to the Maclay always has to do this but this year is an exceptional case and I think the course design accounts for that well.
That natural vertical is attractive.
From the view on the screen there is a jump behind the first fence that also has the green fuzzy stuff and appears to almost blend in above the rails of jump one. This could very well just be the screen angle and not what the horses are actually seeing.
I agree with you, I think jump 7 (the skinny) is one of the hardest questions of this track. You really have to land from the combination with the horse between your seat and hands and find a good distance because the turn to it is quite short and appears to catch some riders and horses by surprise.
