Come on the best team/combinations won it is a sport. Just like the best horse / rider combo will win the individual. Me I’m Australian and normally they do well … but yeah I am also a New Zealander so that Bronze was their first medal (they are on the board:lol:). Nothing to be disappointed about and I know I could never do better!
One thing that REALLY stuck out in my opinion (who is a jumper rider and not XC even if I’ve been a bit involved thru friends):
The horses that won medals jumped like true jumpers, not one “XC jumper” in sight…
AND Sandras horse came back with a vengeance, looked really tired at the end of the XC test (which Sam and Wega did not) but jumped like a true champion thru both tests yesterday.
Three really superhorses (and riders)…Saw an interview the swedish telly did with Sandra Auffarth and when they asked her why the germans do so well she said “we practice a lot!” and laughed… maybe the answer to Danny Emersons article? 
Would not say no to the gray on your team Magistrat-something though…looked a bit hesitating in XC but a beautiful horse!
Could the difference between the success of the German program and the U.S. program be as simple as the fact that the Germans grow up with a VERY strong dressage foundation? Every kid there does both dressage and jumping, and the dressage culture is so deep-rooted, the kids get a great education in it. IOW, they are learning from the time they start riding not only how to do a good dressage test, but also how to use good dressage fundamentals to help build a horse into a better jumper. Even the jumping and event coaches there have STRONG dressage skills.
I suspect very few U.S. eventers really focus on dressage as they are growing up the way the Germans do. Seems most U.S. kids just want to run and jump, and dressage is considered a necessary evil for those that do eventing. And how many of our event coaches have the same depth of knowledge and experience with dressage the German coaches have? We don’t have the same deep-rooted “dressage culture” even amongst our dressage riders!
Will Coleman posted some interesting info about his mind set now after his experience in the Olympics on his facebook page. He talks about some of things people on here have mentioned. Concentrating on more dressage work. The level of the international competitors. And more.
http://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/profile.php?v=feed&id=186268038070138&ref=stream&__user=744108092
Just to compare; if Will Coleman had stayed on his dressagescore like Michael Jung did he would have ended up 4th!
Not saying that to win gold it would be a great idea to work on your dressage but still, the top was doing extremely well in the jumpingphase comparing to for example Mary King and the brits. Not to mention the guys of our swedish team, Ludwig forgiven, he´s only 21 but Niklas should have kept it together and we would have won a bronze with the team… Mr Pooh is a good jumper normally…not as good as Wega but still… lucky us that Sara did so well!!
[QUOTE=LucyShow;6470942]
Just to compare; if Will Coleman had stayed on his dressagescore like Michael Jung did he would have ended up 4th!
Not saying that to win gold it would be a great idea to work on your dressage but still, the top was doing extremely well in the jumpingphase comparing to for example Mary King and the brits. Not to mention the guys of our swedish team, Ludwig forgiven, he´s only 21 but Niklas should have kept it together and we would have won a bronze with the team… Mr Pooh is a good jumper normally…not as good as Wega but still… lucky us that Sara did so well!!:)[/QUOTE]
The Swedish riders I saw go XC looked awesome, the two guys and Sara are all I saw. I think the Swedes were one of the surprises of the Olympics and did extremely well.
DownYonder, thanks for putting it in really basic terms. It does seem that for many dressage is considered a ‘necessary evil.’ Perhaps it’s a matter of recognizing that the horses and riders don’t have to be competitive with international Grand Prix dressage riders, but they do have to be competitive in dressage amongst their eventing competitors. I recognize that not all horses (or riders) can event, nor can all succeed in dressage. But for a competition where dressage is a requirement, there has to be mastery of the elements to do well.
I watched the replay of the show jumping last night on my DVR. I must say that I was not impressed by Tiana at all. She was drug around that course by her horse and did not look like an olympic contender.
Watching her XC I was really scared for her and was glad she made it out alive. I’m not sure why she was picked for the team as she obviosuly doesn’t look to be of the same caliber of everyone else on our team. Will, PD, KOC and Boyd all looked like they were riding their horses…Tiana looked like RM was riding her. I don’t know if it was just a bad event for her this weekend but I think it was too early to take her.
Woot, Sweden!
[QUOTE=LucyShow;6470942]
Just to compare; if Will Coleman had stayed on his dressagescore like Michael Jung did he would have ended up 4th!
Not saying that to win gold it would be a great idea to work on your dressage but still, the top was doing extremely well in the jumpingphase comparing to for example Mary King and the brits. Not to mention the guys of our swedish team, Ludwig forgiven, he´s only 21 but Niklas should have kept it together and we would have won a bronze with the team… Mr Pooh is a good jumper normally…not as good as Wega but still… lucky us that Sara did so well!!:)[/QUOTE]
Lucy, glad to find you on here so I can personally congratulate you on behalf of your countrymen/women - BRAVO!!! You guys were FABULOUS! What I would give to swing a leg over that Wega… (I love a grey anyway) She is SOME HORSE. I was just terribly impressed with your team, and I know everyone else was as well. No more, “Sweden who?” going on - you guys have arrived in Eventing, for sure! Keep up the good work. :winkgrin:
Does anyone have any idea how much time CMP was in the US in 2012 before the 12 were chosen? How many days in total? And when?
[PS - You also rocked some awesome threads in Dressage… Not that attire counted, of course, but I adored those shads they were sporting. :D]
Lucy, I ditto RiderWriter’s post. The Swedes were all outstanding, and it looks as if you are set for 2014 in eventing.
Can you tell me something about Goldmine xx? On the AVHS website it looks as if he might still be standing, since his last registered foals were in 2011.
[QUOTE=subk;6470159]
But then if you didn’t have a string of horses and access to deep pockets to buy them CMP wasn’t interested either. He wanted to START with good moving and scoring dressage horses and go from there.[/QUOTE]
Ok, I am NOT an eventer, so I really don’t know a thing about this - but I do know Amy Tryon most definitely did not have deep pockets (Poggio II = the original “bargain basement” horse, at least), and she made our Team under CMP… I guess she was an exception?
Again, I’m the last thing from an expert with zero “insider knowledge,” I’m just asking so please don’t flame me!
Thanks for posting the Will Coleman link. Very thoughtful and impressive review of where he’s at after the Games.
Here’s another thing. The Pan Am Games this year (not sure about previous years) were only a 2*. The European Championships are 3*. Not one rider from the Pan Ams went to the Olympics; all but Buck Davidson are just coming up the ranks. They did well, but again we’re talking two star instead of four star. If those riders get serious coaching and good horses, perhaps the future is bright.
The FEI recognizes that eventing in the Americas is not up to the standard in Europe and took action in accord.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;6470330]
Not only this, but CMP was the coach in 1996 and 2000, when DOC rode on the Team and medalled. He was a good coach then, apparently, for the sport as it was then…[/QUOTE]
Was it CMP or Wofford that helped DOC medal? I know Jimmy coached both Karen and David, just don’t know when he stopped. Also Jimmy coached the Canadian team pre DOC and IMO very well could have put the basics in place for their 2010 WEG performance.
Yeah, I’m still bitter Jimmy isn’t our next coach :mad: but I’ll take DOC over CMP any day!:yes:
See, I’d like to see Tiana on a team again. I thought the beginning of the ride was freaky, and she was caught of guard at the stop (she had a great line in) at three, but she rode the crap out of that horse and by 2/3 of the way around, the horse was gaining more and more confidence and he finished incredibly strong. You could see the shift in his way of going when he started to have fun and she rode the genes out of him. I think he has lots of potential, but he needs more experience in electric venues and she needs to ride him like she did at the end from the moment they say go.
Mary Kings ride was not nice. I’m sorry, but it was pretty bad. She rode by the seat of her pants, her horse was flipping her the bird, but was honest as hell. He wanted the jumps and just went for them, but it could have easily gone the other way for her. If there were penalties for taking out flags, she’d have plenty. She sure made the ground crew work on xc. I was a bit shocked she came out of it the way she did to be honest.
[QUOTE=LucyShow;6470873]
One thing that REALLY stuck out in my opinion (who is a jumper rider and not XC even if I’ve been a bit involved thru friends):
The horses that won medals jumped like true jumpers, not one “XC jumper” in sight… [/QUOTE]
Agree. And KOC rode the course like a jumper rider, not an event rider.
Let’s see: CMP married the dressage coach years ago–why hasn’t the dressage subsequently been first rate?
He’s dropped the dressage in favor of the SJ route–why wasn’t the SJ first rate? (I believe that Karen had her own SJ coach–and the improvement shows).
Plus: Karen rode every step of the CC–and it showed too.
Let’s wait and see what happens. It was semi-embarrassing for both the US and Canada. Perhaps everyone will come back with strong resolutions to change everything under a fresh new regime.
I don’t think that the German horses are that much different than the horses here could be. We have access to the same stallions that the Germans use.
Maybe we need better mares and better testing of youngsters to identify the best ones. I think most baby horses in EU have been through some sort of testing/approval and the ones who don’t make the grade go away.
We don’t have an endgame for those not-good-enough horses here like they have in EU. Do we kind of cripple along trying to make silk purses out of sows ears instead of putting our dollars into the cream of the crop?
Maybe we don’t develope our horses the same way that the Germans develope their horses. Maybe they weed out the lesser performers and consentrate on the sounder, better horses.
They do compete their horses a lot. They have a completely different way of doing that with young horses than we have.
They have access to more and better venues than we have access to, at least for where I live. The horses are constantly going to “tests” where they may do dressage and a short XC, or dressage and just show jump, or just XC. They mix it up and go all the time.
The costs are lower to compete in Germany than they are here and you don’t travel much to do it either. I can say that because when we add in our travel costs from where we live, it is waaay cheaper to live and compete in Germany.
The entry fee for DDs most recent CIC was 66 euros. It was done in one day, it was 10 minutes from the barn and there was no stabling needed. Everyone slept in their owns beds at night. If you times that entry fee by 10 CICs you pay the freight, so to speak. And they do a CIC every two weeks.
The horses qualify thru a different system than they do here and are out doing the CICs from the get go. I now have quite an education in the differences in qualifying for CICs in the US as compared to Germany. I have a lot less hair now too!
I hope that DD comes home for a while this winter and she is hoping that we gather up enough money to get them back at some point, but then we will consentrate on saving up to send her and the next young horse back to Germany.
Besides, the way she talks about how she plans to change the way we do things here at our farm, she kind of scares me!! I think the DH and I may be too old and tired to keep up.
[QUOTE=RiderWriter;6470994]
[PS - You also rocked some awesome threads in Dressage… Not that attire counted, of course, but I adored those shads they were sporting. :D][/QUOTE]
OMG I know! I loved, loved, loved their shads. Fab!
