Rio de Janeiro—Aug. 11
Last to go before the lunch break, Germany’s Kristina Bröring-Sprehe leapt to the top of the scoreboard after a lovely test that scored 82.25 percent aboard Desperados FRH. The 15-year-old Hanoverian stallion was third to go for the German powerhouse team, pushing Germany way out in front on an average mark of 80.19 with anchor rider Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD still to go this afternoon.
“He was really great today,” said 29-year-old old Bröring-Sprehe, who scored a 9.1 for position. “I had a few mistakes in the piaffe and we lost a bit of rhythm, and we had one mistake in the zig-zag, but the rest was really great. It was very concentrated and I’m very proud of him.”
Her teammate Dorothee Schneider, who performed yesterday, sits in overall second, and U.S. rider Steffen Peter lies third with Legolas 92.
“It was one of Legolas’ best goes,” said Peters, 51. “It has always been my dream to deliver for my team. The Olympic Games are, for me, 90 percent about the team medal and the other 10 percent—or even less—is the individual medal. I’m so excited that Legolas did one of the best tests of his life, and probably one of the best tests of my life. It’s been a difficult road with Legolas; sometimes I didn’t know exactly which horse was going into the show arena, but he did not change one single bit from the warm-up to the show arena. There wasn’t one single point that we gave away. He delivered everything that I dreamed of.”
He appreciated that U.S. show jumpers and eventers cheered on from the stands, as well as his dressage teammates, to see the results of years of work.
“This was it: This was the test that I’ve dreamed of for my team,” he said. It’s just one of those awesome days.”
Peters’ score pushes the United States team provisionally into third behind the Germans and Dutch, without the fourth riders’ scores and the drop score coming into play. But fourth-ranked Britain sits nearly neck-and-neck with Team USA, with powerhouse couple Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro still to come this afternoon.
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Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour scored the highest mark so far for the Danish squad aboard Cassidy to slot into individual sixth.
“My favorite part was the fact that I could keep him quite relaxed in the canter,” she said. “Sometimes he gets super hot and just runs off, so I was quite proud and happy that I could keep him on the ground in the canter work. I was super satisfied at that.”
The final 16 riders complete their grand prix test this afternoon, including the United States’ Laura Graves and Verdades.
Live results are here.
Mollie Bailey and Lindsay Berreth are on the ground in Rio de Janeiro for the Chronicle and will be reporting with all the news, fantastic photos and behind-the-scenes details, all posted on www.coth.com. Your go-to page for all things Olympic is http://www.chronofhorse.com/2016-Olympics
We’ll have live blogs of competition sessions, Twitter updates, blogs, photo galleries, stories about each day’s competition and so much more. Don’t miss a thing—we’ll have everything you need to know. Also make sure to follow along on the Chronicle’s social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (@chronofhorse).
