France’s two reigning champions have put them on top of the Olympic eventing at the end of cross-country, showing that the refusals they each had in their last warm-up event were nothing to worry about.

          Nicolas Touzaint and Galan De Sauvagere, the 2003 European Champions, and Jean Teulere and Espoir De La Mere, the 2002 World Champions, each jumped perfect rounds to move France up from second to first, on their team dressage score of 113.4.

          Touzaint and Teulere provided two of France’s three clear rounds (Didier Courreges and Debat D’Estruval had the third), the only team, besides sixth-placed New Zealand, to accomplish that feat. Touzaint said he was “absolutely confident about the fitness and preparation of my horse, and you’d have to ask our team trainer for the secret.”

          Kim Severson kept the U.S. team in fourth with a smooth and super-fast round (17 seconds under the optimum of 9:46) on Winsome Adante, a gallop that’s put them in the individual bronze-medal position.

“I had more horse than I’m used to all the way around, stronger than ever. I’ve never had him that way before,” said Severson, adding she wished she’d jumped some steeplechase fence in warm-up to settle him.

Darren Chiacchia and Windfall are 12^th, John Williams and Carrick are 19^th, Amy Tryon and Poggio are 22^nd, and Julie Richards and Jacob Two Two are 36^th. The team is 6 penalties behind third-placed Britain and 16.2 penalties off France’s lead.

          Great Britain vacated the top spot and fell to third when Pippa Funnell and Primmore’s Pride finished 28 seconds slow. Primmore’s Pride–winner of two full-format four-stars last year–looked unimpressed with this course, objecting to Funnell’s attempts to shorten his massive frame and long stride, and she looked a combination of exhausted and disappointed when she finished.

          The award for the day’s two clutch rounds should have gone to Ingrid Klimke of Germany and William Fox-Pitt of Great Britain, the fifth riders on their teams. German top scorer Bettina Hoy had galloped slightly cautiously on Ringwoods Cockatoo and rung up 3.6 time faults, and the three teammates who followed her each had similar time faults, while the French were recording their three clear rounds. So Klimke, the top German scorer in 2000 on Sleep Late, put the gray gelding in fourth gear right from the start and finished 19 seconds fast–even though they parted company when Sleep Late’s hind legs slipped out from under him as they turned between fences 15 and 16. But Klimke held on to him and immediately leaped back aboard.

          Klimke’s separation was at first ruled a fall, until the ground jury decided while she was still on course that it hadn’t been caused by a jump and shouldn’t be penalized. But technical delegate Mike Etherington-Smith said the ground jury was so amazed by her time that they checked it when she finished.

          Fox-Pitt and Tamarillo, winners of the mud-soaked Badminton CCI**** (England) in May, made no mistakes whatsoever, looking like the veteran cross-country artists they are the whole way around.

          Chiacchia and Windfall finished 2 seconds fast to provide a key U.S. score. Like Severson, Chiacchia found Windfall keener than usual today. “He was more full of run here [than at Kentucky],” said Chiacchia.

          Severson, Chiacchia, Williams and Burns each gave their horses a “pipe-owner” early this morning, two to three hours before competing, then did basically their normal horse trials warm-up. Tryon gave Poggio a little gallop yesterday since he’s very strong on cross-country.

          Williams said he’d done something similar at Kentucky and that it worked again. He said his 1.2 time faults (3 seconds slow) resulted from losing time between minute markers 8 and 9. Both Burns and Tryon had warned him of the need to be well ahead of the clock before then and not to take back. “I thought I was far enough ahead, but the course designer was very clever and gave us two very busy minutes from minutes 7 to 9, and I lost the time and couldn’t get it back,” said Williams, adding that Carrick was “spot on” on all but fence 7. There, he said, the close distance was his mistake.

          Tryon was also 3 seconds slow, and Burns and Jacob Two Two were 4 seconds slow, having lost just a little too much time late, after being well up on the clock.

          Phillip Dutton’s score is now counting in the fifth-placed Australian total after finishing 10 seconds fast on Nova Top. Rebel Morrow, the team’s youngest rider, is the team’s leader on Oaklea Groover, despite finishing 4 seconds slow. Olivia Bunn and GV Top Of The Line contributed a round that was just 3 seconds slow to the team’s total.

          The Canadians finished all five riders today but have fallen from 12^th to 13^th place. Bruce Mandeville and Larissa were the fastest Canadian, adding 10.8 time faults to their dressage score of 66.4, which had been one of the drop scores. Gary Roque (on Waikura) and Mike Winter (on Balista) also jumped faultlessly, but Roque added 45.6 time faults and Winter added 16.8. Hawley Bennett suffered two refusals with Livingstone, and Ian Roberts fell off Mata-Riki when he refused the coffin, but finished. 

          Here are the day’s numbers: 55 horses finished without jumping faults, 16 of them with no time faults. Another 14 had 4 time faults (10 seconds slow) or fewer. There were just six horses with one refusal, and one horse (Livingstone) had two refusals. Seven riders fell off, and four horses fell and were eliminated. One of those, Over And Over, ridden by Joris van Springel of Belgium, is currently being evaluated in the veterinary clinic. Chief veterinarian Leo Jeffcott said they’re “not sure yet of the diagnosis, but it is a very serious injury.”

          Austrian rider Andreas Behrer, the first rider on course, wasn’t seriously injured when Raemmi Daemmi flipped at fence 21 (the bounce into water) and both crashed into fence 22. Behrer quickly stood up and appeared to have a broken nose.

          Surprisingly, three of the falls were at the same fence, involving two of the world’s most experienced and accomplished riders. When Heidi Antikatzidis cut short Greek hopes when Michaelmas hit the narrow C element of fence 31 with his knees and tossed her painfully to the ground, it looked as if she’d just made a mistake and been going too fast. But 10 horses later, multiple Olympian Andrew Nicholson of New Zealand did exactly the same thing, and then two horses after him three-time gold medalist Andrew Hoy of Australia did it once more. All three remounted and finished. No other horses faulted at this fence.

          Course designer Albino Garbari doubted that changing late-morning lighting had caused the falls. He thought the last group of horses might have been more tired than the riders had realized and unable to react quickly enough to a tight distance. He said he was surprised that only three riders took the long option at this fence.

          The jury is still out on this format. “I don’t feel like comparing the old and new formats. It is too early,” said Touzaint.

          Said Severson, “We still have a lot to learn about it.”

          Williams, who has expressed his concerns about how fast the horses have to go to make the time and his preference for the traditional influence of the full speed and endurance day, said this afternoon, “I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

          But he did say of the course, “I was always leery because it appeared too easy, but I didn’t want to say it was before I rode. Now that I’ve ridden, I’m willing to say that the course was a bit too soft. I came to the end thinking I hadn’t done anything.”

          The team show jumping will be held late tomorrow afternoon. Then after a two-hour break, the top riders will jump a second round, under the lights, to decide the individual medals.