The U.S. Land Rover eventing team at Great Meadows Photo courtesy Leslie Threlkeld/USEA
At the World Equestrian Games Preparatory Trials at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia the US Chef d’Equipe David O’Connor set the shortened cross country course up to be a series of exercises similar to what competitors may see in Normandy and spectators were encouraged to attend all phases of the event to give the competitors from the US and Canada plenty of atmosphere to undertake their dressage, show jumping and cross country phases.
US Eventing WEG team member Boyd Martin and his relatively new ride, the 12 year old Hanoverian gelding Shamwari 4 earned the top dressage score of 42.0 to lead the field.
“I’m pleased with him,” said Boyd, despite some exuberant moments in the flying changes “Obviously there’s a couple parts of the test where we’ll be looking to improve come Normandy, but I think we’re at a good place now where we’re just smoothing out little details.”
He is also expecting to produce a “smoking test” after a few more weeks of building their partnership. Overall, seven American pairs scored in the 40s and within six points of one another
Boyd Martin and Shamwari 4 Photo courtesy Leslie Threlkeld/USEA
Boyd and Shamwari 4 maintained their lead after producing a double-clear round while Hannah Sue Burnett and Harbour Pilot also jumped a double-clear round to hold on to second place. Moving into the third position with yet another clear round was Phillip Dutton riding Mighty Nice, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the late Bruce Duchossois. Phillip is listed as an alternate on Mighty Nice while Trading Aces, eighth after show jumping with a double-clear round, is his US team horse.
“I’m pleased with where they’re at as far as having a month to go before the Games” he said
The next day the U.S. Land Rover eventing team jumped clear around the cross-country course
“This was not supposed to be a test, it was supposed to be preparation,” O’Connor said. “This was about preparing the horses in the best way and thinking about all the three different phases. We wanted dressage in a place that had atmosphere… and last night was just unbelievable. You had [several thousand] people there watching the show jumping adding the environment for the horses and the riders under pressure.
"There was a great crowd today, but the questions were more about stuff that everybody is going to need to practice, like a half-circle, we’re going to see that in Normandy. A lot of the exercises were set on three strides because this course designer uses that three strides a lot—three to an angle, three to a corner. That was the idea of it.”
The weather conditions on cross country day were ideal and the footing received high praise. “The turf here at Great Meadows has the ability to be the best with their ability to irrigate and produce the same footing every single time that the riders need to do something. That’s a huge benefit for the riders to feel like they’re preparing their horses and can go and put everything on the line, leaving nothing on the table"
According to O’Connor, the only one of the USA team who has seen the WEG venue, the footing is brand new and the terrain is very hilly “We’re expecting it to be a cross-country dominated competition.”
Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice Photo courtesy Leslie Threlkeld/USEA
Phillip Dutton and his reserve horse Mighty Nice powered around the course to take the lead while Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM finished second, just 0.2 penalties behind Phillip
“Everybody wants their horses really fit before we get to France so it was a good chance to have a proper gallop,” said Phillip “All credit to the organisers; we couldn’t have hoped for a better weekend.”
One of the most experienced riders on the team and a member of the gold medal winning team at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Kim Severson, commented that this has been the best prep event for a major championships that the team has ever had.
“The final outings are generally not as smooth as this was,” Severson said. “I think David did a great job with giving us enough to jump without feeling like it was too much. The ground couldn’t have been better and show jumping was great. I was very pleased. If I was still a selector I would be very pleased with today.”
In 2010 Canada won the WEG team silver medal and Canada’s 2014 WEG team members Jessica Phoenix and Selena O’Hanlon were also participating in the Preparation event at Great Meadows while another Canadian, Hawley Bennett-Awad was competing in her last event at Rebecca Farm, Montana before flying to Normandy, France on August 14 for the World Equestrian Games.
Hawley and Gin & Juice at Rebecca Farm Photo courtesy USEA
Hawley and her little thoroughbred mare Gin & Juice finished 17th at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky – moving up from 48th after the dressage with double clear cross country and show jumping rounds. At Rebecca Farm they put in a personal best score of 47.1 to lead the CIC3* after the dressage and had a steady round on Ian Stark’s cross country course to incur ten time penalties.
“Ginny was awesome,” said Hawley “She stayed in a rhythm right out of the box and I couldn’t have asked for a better go. I feel very, very confident about getting on that plane and riding overseas.
“I know I can kick her on and go for the time and that is my job next month in France, but today I had to go for a steady round. That’s what I did and now she’s in the barn chowing down!”
The event was won by Matthew Brown and Super Socks BCF while Gin & Juice, who had not been out competing since Kentucky, was a little exuberant resulting in four rails and dropping to fourth place. If Hawley gets the talented mare under control for the show jumping in Normandy, they could definitely be a combination to look out for.
