At the conclusion of the five USEF Olympic Show Jumping Selection Trials there are still a few questions to be answered. 

Round 5 today, March 9 in Wellington, Fla., didn’t lack for drama.  Laura Kraut continued her reign over the top spot in the standings, riding Cedric to just 1 time fault to finish the five rounds with just 7 total faults.  Nicole Shahinian Simpson is right on her heels, as she and SRF Dragonfly jumped to another clear round today, finishing on a total of 12 faults to claim second place in the trials.

But the biggest news was the lack of Will Simpson and Carlsson vom Dach in the line-up today.  Simpson and Carlsson had been tied for second with Shahinian Simpson and had jumped clear rounds in Rounds 2, 3 and 4.  But he pulled Carlsson out of the trials due to physical reasons.

“Saturday morning at about 5 a.m., there was a big thunderstorm and we speculate that Carlsson had some kind of trauma in his stall,” Simpson said.  “We don’t think he got cast, but he might have flipped himself over.  He hit his neck, withers, and might have even knocked himself out.  When we go there at 6 a.m., he was almost neurological—he was backing up and almost falling down.

“Since then, with the help of a chiropractor and acupuncturist, he’s made a miraculous recovery.  He’s 100 percent sound, he has 90 percent mobility in his neck to the right and 100 percent to the left.  I rode him this morning and at about noon, I jumped him through a 1-meter combination.  He jumped beautifully, except for the fact that he was exhausted and had no energy.  He just wasn’t ready to jump today.  There was no way I was going to risk serious damage to the horse.  He’s a fighter and I’m the same way.  I watched all those horses jump today and I wanted to be out there and I’m sure he did too.  But that’s the way the sport goes sometimes.”

Simpson jogged Carlsson in the veterinary inspection following Round 5 this evening and the horse passed.

Simpson’s Olympic dreams aren’t quite dead yet—the Olympic selectors have the power to subjectively name one more horse-rider combination to the short list.  They’ll meet tomorrow, March 10, to discuss the situation and finalize the 10 horses and riders to travel to Europe this summer.

For sure, Beezie Madden on Authentic and McLain Ward on Sapphire are on that list—they received bye spots before the trials began.  And Jeffery Welles and Armani were named to the short list after jumping two clear rounds in trials 1 and 2.  The 10-deep short list will be divided into two teams of five, both of which will compete at Super League shows in Europe this summer.  After the Aachen CSIO (Germany) in July, the selection committee will announce their finalized five-horse team for the Olympics in Hong Kong.

Should Simpson be named to the list, the top six horse-rider combinations from the trials will complete the list.  They would include Kraut on Cedric (7 faults), Shahinian Simpson on SRF Dragonfly (12 faults), Anne Kursinski on Champ (23 faults), and Charlie Jayne on Urbanus (24 faults).  Christine Tribble on Vegas, Kursinski on Roxana 112 and Kate Levy on Vent du Nord are all tied with 25 faults—some complicated mathematics will break the tie and decide who completes the list.  The announcement of the final 10 should come tomorrow, March 10.

Kraut couldn’t be happier with Cedric’s efforts over the five rounds.  “He’s just an amazing animal,” she said of the 10-year-old gray gelding.  “He knows he’s not supposed to knock rails down and if I stay out of his way, he can do anything.  The one rail he had was for sure my fault.  He’s really grown up a lot through this experience.”

Round 5 of the trials was held within the $150,000 CN U.S. Open, which Kent Farrington won aboard Up Chiqui.  Shahinian Simpson was the only selection-trial rider to jump clean in Round 1—she jumped off on SRF Dragonfly and took sixth in the class with two rails in the jump-off.  “I got greedy,” she said simply.  “It was the end of the trials, she’d jumped well and felt fine, and it was a lot of prize money.”

Jose “Pepe” Gamarra built a tough track today.  The hard questions came early.  From a vertical at Fence 3, riders had to ride a bending line to the water jump in either a long five or tight six strides.  Most opted to kick on for the five strides, but a lot had trouble getting the impulsion necessary to jump the open water clean.  Then, Gamarra again used a short approach to ask a question.  From a vertical at the end of the ring, riders had a quick bending six strides to get to a vertical-oxer-oxer triple combination at 9ABC.  A lot of horses ran out of jump by the back rail of the last oxer.  The front rail of the middle element was the only fault for Ward and Sapphire, out to stretch their legs. 

“She feels great,” Ward said of Sapphire.  “So many people had struggled with the triple that I think I overrode it a bit.  The rail was my fault.  It’s a luxury to have the bye to the short list and she’ll just jump a class here and there.”

The key for Kursinski in landing two horses in the top 10 of the trials was “consistency,” she said.  Champ is a new ride for her—the 9-year-old just got out of quarantine in January after being imported from Europe.  “He had 4 faults in the grand prix just before the trials and we figured we’d give it a go,” Kursinski said.  “He’s proven he’s a championship kind of horse—now we just need to get to know each other.  He’s a lot less green than he was two weeks ago!”

Champ jumped to a 9-fault round in Round 1, 5 faults in Round 2 and had just a time fault in Round 3.  Just one rail fell for him in each of the last two rounds.  Roxana 112 had scores of 4, 5, 4, 4 and 8 faults over the five rounds.  “It’s a good time for her to go to Europe,” Kursinski said of the elegant bay mare.  “She’s so great and consistent.  The trials were a real test every day.”

Charlie Jayne looks to be set to travel to Europe with Urbanus.  The chestnut gelding jumped two 8-fault rounds to start the trials, but then turned in a clear round in Round 3.  Rounds 4 and 5 brought just one rail in each.   With 24 total faults, they’re in fourth in the trials standings. 

Kate Levy’s one rail today on Vent du Nord brought her total to 25, tying her with Kursinski and Roxana and Christina McCrea on Vegas.

Already named to short list:
Sapphire/McLain Ward
Authentic/Beezie Madden
Armani/Jeffery Welles

In limbo for the moment:
Carlsson vom Dach/Will Simpson