Lexington, Ky.—Sept. 27
Seven weeks ago, Spanish rider Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton was giving birth to her first child, but yesterday, Sept. 26, she was back in the saddle and back at the top of her game at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
Alvarez Ponton crossed the finish line first aboard Nobby, the 15-year-old bay Arabian with whom she won the 2009 Endurance World Championship (Italy) and the 2008 World Championship (Malaysia). The pair’s final time was 7:35:44.
“It’s been really difficult to train and feed the baby and everything,” Alvarez Ponton admitted. “Last year when I got pregnant, I thought I could do [the 2010 World Games]. But everybody kept telling me it was impossible. I feel well. It’s like it never happened, having a baby. The only thing that’s different is that I can’t sleep through the night.”
Nobby and Alvarez Ponton, who are based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, stayed near the top all day. They were second at the first two vet checks and moved up to first during the third loop of the ride. The endurance course snaked around 26 private farms in Lexington and included 256 gates.
“[The course] was really, really difficult,” Alvarez Ponton said. “Really fast for me and really difficult. People say it is flat. It’s not flat at all. It was the most difficult race I’ve won with Nobby.”
HRH Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates came home 55 seconds later than Alvarez Ponton aboard Ciel Oriental, followed 1 minute and 22 seconds later by his son, HE Sheik Hamdan Mohammad Al Maktoum with SAS Alexis in third. The UAE team will take the team gold medal home with them as well.
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“I just took care of my horse. I enjoyed myself very much on this course today,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
Ponton’s husband Jaume Punti-Dachs, trains Sheikh Mohammed, the prime minster of the United Arab Emirates, and his sons and horses.
“It’s really a strange feeling, because I really wanted Sheikh Mohammed to be the World Champion,” said Alvarez Ponton after the race. “I think he deserves it. He’s the person doing more for this sport in the world. This sport is what it is now because of him. But I didn’t know he was behind. I thought it was the American and the French guy.”
The French team picked up the silver medal and Germany earned bronze. France earned an additional honor when Hanaba du Bois, a 15-year-old gray Arabian mare ridden by Jean-Philippe Frances, was named Best Conditioned Horse. The pair also finished fourth individually.
“The judges did not tell me why [we were named Best Conditioned Horse],” Frances said. “He felt very good. He felt the same at the end [of the ride] as he did in the beginning.”
The German team’s third-placed finish was a bit of a surprise for everyone, except the members of the German team.
“Endurance riding is a team sport. German riders have been internationally competitive for a number of years. Everything just came together this year,” said their chef d’equipe Ursula Klingbeil.
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Rough Day For U.S. Team
The U.S. team fared poorly on the ride. The only pair to finish, Debora Reich on DJB Juniper, placed 18th with a time of 8:42:55. Lindsay Graham’s Monk was eliminated at Gate 3 for metabolic reasons, Janice Worthington’s Golden Lightning failed the soundness check there, and Margaret Sleeper and Syrocco Harmony made it to Gate 4 before they were pulled. Heather Reynolds and Ssamiam won out in a gallop for fourth place but were spun at the final jog for soundness.
“He was just off in the hind end—really slightly, but it was there,” said Reynolds, of Los Gatos, Calif. “He felt good. He did get tired coming in, in the last two miles. And then when he saw the venue, he was like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ ”
“Sam” is just 9 years old, and the WEG served as only the second 100-mile race in his career.
“He’s our total underdog horse,” Reynolds said. “If this was a horse that I came into this event expecting to have great things happen with, I’d probably be crying right now. But I was hoping to go around and be in the top 20. So I’m pretty excited, even though we didn’t complete. I think he’ll be very exciting for the future.”
Out of 100 starters, 55 completed the ride, a 45 percent completion rate which was much higher than the 30 percent rate at the 2008 World Championship in Malaysia.
Be sure to visit the Chronicle’s WEG Endurance page and check out full endurance results at the WEG website.
