Team USA Assesses Its Rounds

By Staff Report August 6, 2012

The top eight teams from Sunday’s jumping will contest three coveted medal slots today. The U.S. barely squeeked by, riding in on a two-way tie for seventh. A stellar performance combined with the frontrunners spilling an abundance of rails could see the USA atop the podium, though admittedly, it’s a longshot.

But hey, Germany and France didn’t even make the cut (sitting 10^th and 12^th, respectively). Saudi Arabia and Brazil were the two that upped their game this year, reshuffling the top of the deck. Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada round out the top eight.

“As a team I wish we were in little better position but we are all fighters we can come from behind,” said Rich Fellers (Wilsonville, OR), who along with his little wonderhorse Flexible anchored the American performance as the only ones to go clear at Sunday’s first round of team competition (Aug. 5).

“I always ride for clear rounds,” Fellers said, noting that none of the teams remaining in the competition are without a shot.

Fellers felt that Bob Ellis’ Sunday course suited his horse and the level of difficulty was spread around the track. “I thought it was a super course. It had all the variety.” Monday will present “a different course and a different day. And it is sport―anything can happen! We are not so far out of it.”

Of the incredible Flexible ―16-year-old Irish Sport Horse stallion owned by Harry and Mollie Chapman―Fellers said, he was “just a little more on his game and a little more dialed in. He gets better as the week goes on.”

Chef d’Equipe George Morris shuffled the original order of his riders Sunday, installing Fellers in the anchor position after Beezie Madden (Cazenovia, NY) and Coral Reef Ranch’s Via Volo were eliminated in the First Individual Qualifier on Saturday.

The 14-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare was jumping so big and so hard that she jumped herself into a significant amount of trouble at 9a, the first part of the second of three double combinations.  Madden brought her back, only to have her stop again (at the second part), which got them the gong and an early exit from the ring.

“She was jumping amazing, and I planned to do the steady eight (strides) there. In hindsight, the way she was going I could have done seven,” Madden said. “She just went so far left and landed so dead I was heading for the standards.”

Madden said the horse “hasn’t shown a lot this year. We schooled her a little to come here, but she was very impressed with the place,” Madden noted of the overwhelming atmosphere, before a packed stadium of 23,000 fans. “She’s never done anything like that before.”

But Madden and her mare returned to form on Sunday. The three-time Olympic medal-winner (two team Golds and an individual Bronze) rode a calculated round, dropping only one rail, at the first part of the double combination. A similar jump to the one that flummoxed them the day before, the mare rolled one on the front end out of the cups.

“We jumped her over a combination after we came out of the ring (Saturday) and (Sunday) we did some rails on the ground and jumped a very small jump to get the rideablity better,” Madden noted, explaining the recovery plan. “I think she’s more relaxed in general.”

There were also some tense moments for 18-year-old Reed Kessler (Lexington, KY) picked up one time fault in Saturday’s first Individual Qualifier, and she found herself trying a bit too hard to ensure that didn’t happen again with her mare Cylana. She jumped a confident round but had two rails downs, which landed her 47^th and took her out of the running for an individual medal (only the top 45 advanced).

A ferocious competitor, she is determined to regroup and do better for her team. “I am mad at myself because I can do so much better, Kessler said. “My mare jumped beautifully.”

McLain Ward (Brewster, NY) led off the U.S. effort Sunday for the second day in a row, and jumped another great round on Grant Road Partners’ Antares F. A foot in the water at the massive Liverpool was their flub, and Ward took ownership of that mistake.

“It was maybe a little rougher than I would have liked,” the two-time team Gold medalist said of the Sunday performance. “We had the problem with Beezie, and you have in the back of your mind that you want to log a score so maybe I was overriding a little bit. I got to the water a bit early, rider error, but he jumped well. It’s a long week.”

Ward was pleased with the 12-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg gelding but was realistic about what is going to be needed to win Team Gold. “You don’t win Nations Cups with four faults,” Ward said.

The Nations Cup resumes August 6th at 6 a.m. PDT in reverse order of standing. The U.S. Team will jump second.

–Rider interviews conducted by Joanie Morris.

 

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