But she’s consistently inconsistent, regardless of “her string”
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LHS…I agree she is inconsistent….and concerning that she runs for the win almost every time despite the ground conditions
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What makes you say she’s inconsistent? I feel like she consistently podiums in virtually every event.
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Looking at the breeding of the horses competing over the weekend, I see lots of Selle Francais among the top European nations’ horses (not just the French!). Yet it seems like they’ve never caught on in significant numbers in the US, although it seems like import tons of just about everything else. We had Manoir de Carneville a few years back, but I don’t remember many others (at least on the eventing side … I can’t speak for the showjumpers).
I know very little about the importing game … is there a reason SF seem to be rarely brought over, despite being pretty dominant at the upper levels across the pond? No real reason for asking, beyond curiosity!
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Agreed, but your post made me think of Boyd’s On Cue. She was scratched from Kentucky this year after “coming up sore” in training per an Instagram post from Boyd posted on EN. Anybody know anything more recent about her?
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sure you are knocking them. You always seem to be on a hate boyd and Phillip rant. You have been for years.
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If there’s one thing that unites us as a nation, we sure love to knock the leaders and root for the under dog. 
Phillip Dutton wasn’t even on the team and he’s still getting hate. 
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I’ve noticed that too. No idea why they aren’t being imported to the US but a lot of them went to Argentina a few generations ago for breeding and the average Silla Argentino pedigree is full of SF jumpers, as well as Holsteiners and Hanoverians. Great place to find a jumper IMO.
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I don’t believe there are as many of them, plus the ones I have seen are not always ‘dressagey’ enough in movement or flashy enough for the average American buyer. Great jumpers, though.
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15 is young now though! And he is about 1-2 rails normally or clear, but for team he is SOLID. Usually top ten 5* consistently. It’s a harder thing to do then it sounds. Think of any others in the US who compare over time.
signed President of BUG fanclub LOL
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I actually feel bad for Big Phil. All those years he carried the team and was usually the best performer, they finally medal and he isn’t on the team LOL Luckily he has his own medals.
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I don’t think Phil is necessarily out of the game yet either. His social media post when he left the training camp to go home was poignant.
A day later, one of the things that I find myself reflecting on as a US eventing fan and follower is that we really were solidly in the mix of the top 4. Another rail in our favor or against us here or there could have gotten us Gold or off the podium.
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I mean…Ariel. Who was not on the team (despite me yelling about it all over the internet. It’s almost like no one asked me at all?!) With her we’d have been gold, not silver.
signed President of the Ariel fanclub
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I don’t know, but my main riding horse is a Selle Francais x Arabian. The average horse person has no idea what I’m talking about when I tell them her breeding.
I do think we have very good SF representation in the jumper ring. And I think we use a lot of SF blood within other registries that are more popular in North America.
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No arguments here, member of that fan club too hahaha
Being based in France, and being an all-time admirer of the SF or AA breeds in eventing, I’ll risk the following answer:
The US don’t have the connections into the French breeding/EU export scene as much as they do with the German, Dutch or Irish ones.
Two reasons:
The French have improved the marketing of their horses significantly over the years (through shf-market.com ), but they remain fairly confidential outside Europe-based UL riders (except for a few people helping to source horses such as Banzai du Loir for Yamin, Amande B’de Neuville for Julia or Vassily de Lassos for Andrew, just to name a few)
The US will favor the English-speaking markets when it comes to horses (namely Ireland or German and Dutch breeders/dealers through go-betweens such as FE just to name one).
I guess it takes thinking out of the box and a good dose of curiosity, research and, of course, the right connections, to find a French unicorn!!! 
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But that’s one of those things that is only absolute after the fact. If Ariel had been a team rider instead of the individual, would that added bit of pressure have affected her ride in some way that she would have had a rail in show jumping?
Likewise, if Boyd had been further from the optimum time on xc than Tim Price and Ros Canter such that he show jumped before them instead of after… would that have maybe made a rail of difference?
Fun to think about when the outcome has been largely favorable; not so much otherwise.
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Certainly that’s possible in theory. However, her performance was perfectly in keeping with her record with the horse thus far. She did not exceed expectations for herself or her horse in any phase - she simply performed to them.
I am always of the opinion that you should put combinations on teams and expect them to do what they always do, not to show up and have a PB. For that reason, I have long since thought that Ariel and LMP fit the exact profile of an ideal team combination - low 30s dressage, and proven capability of finishing on it. She was unlikely to get an individual medal, and she didn’t, but statistically going in she would have been a great supporting team score, and in reality she would have been. Equally, and unfortunately proven to be true, it was statistically likely that Thomas and Bug would have multiple rails down on the last day (Mai Baum’s rails, by comparison, were a surprise), and that Bug would have xc time. I thought an error had been made in selection a week ago, and I still think so now.
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Based on your argument, the British Chef d’equipe should feel the same about selecting Yasmin Ingham/Banzai du Loir as individuals… which I doubt he does, in spite of missing on a team medal!
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The British Chef d’Equipe put three 5* winners with Olympic gold medals and a horse that’s an FOD machine and finished second at Badminton this year on their World Championships team. I don’t think anyone foresaw this outcome for Team GB. I love the US, but we don’t have any riders with any of those things.
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