Lexington, Ky.—Oct. 6
The U.S. team got off to a remarkably good start in the show jumping competition at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games when Mario Deslauriers and McLain Ward placed first and second in the speed leg and put the team in first. Their case of four-faultitis dropped them to third, but still within striking distance for a medal.
But tonight, it all fell apart.
Laura Kraut was the only U.S. rider to post a clear round tonight aboard Cedric. Lauren Hough had 12 faults on Quick Study, Mario Deslauriers 13 on Urico, and McLain Ward 8 on Sapphire. Falling to 10th place overall in the final, they failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. The United States will now have to rely on their team at the 2011 Pan American Games to earn that qualification.
Hough’s 12 faults didn’t get the U.S. team off to a great start tonight.
“There is no excuse. He is a horse that can jump eight rounds if he needed to. He wasn’t tired, and he felt super sound. It was just a bad night and it’s not a good night to do it,” Hough said.
“The end of my warm-up was not good; he stopped a few times out there which is uncharacteristic of him,” she added. “I think he was just a bit rattled. He doesn’t knock fences like that down. At fence 2 he got into the front pole. The distance was good, but I think he left his brain out in the schooling area. It’s the worst day in the world to do it, but this is the sport, and you have to keep going. I’ve got some good teammates, and I’m devastated but that’s the sport, so onwards and upwards.”
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Hopes rested on Deslauriers to post a clear, so the U.S. team could possibly drop Hough’s score. But it wasn’t to be. Urico, just a 9-year-old, jumped way in the air over the triple bar that had replaced the open water for the night class and came down on the back rail in a dramatic fashion.
“My distance was fine. I think he was just trying to jump too high and he got himself in trouble a little bit,” Deslauriers said. “Then I kind of lost my stirrup, and I couldn’t keep it going to the plank so I had to make a circle. I was trying to catch up the time a little, but I was already a little late. I was trying to bring it home without doing too much more damage.”
A medal dropped out of sight for the U.S. team, especially since the Germans just kept jumping clean rounds. And when both the last two riders for Belgium and France jumped clean, they moved into bronze and silver.
Kraut went clean much to the delight of the crowd, but the incomparable mare Sapphire just wasn’t on form either. She and Ward pulled the same innocuous-looking rail that they’d had the day before, and they also dropped another pole at the last oxer. Their 8 faults also dropped Ward well out of contention in the individual standings, though he and Kraut both qualified to jump in the final individual qualifier on Friday.
With his two rails, McLain Ward has dropped to 26th in the individual rankings. Kraut, however, moved up, and is now in 19th individually.
“The weekend just didn’t happen,” said U.S. chef d’equipe George Morris. “The first night [when the U.S. team placed first in the speed leg] was exactly what I wanted to happen because that keyed us up to be in the lead. The next night, we held on, but it just wasn’t our horse show after the first night. There’s not one reason, because each horse had their moment, and each horse didn’t have their moment.”
