Great Britain’s rollercoaster performance in the Samsung Super League series took another upswing as they won the Nation’s Cup at the Rotterdam CSIO, June 20-24 in the Netherlands.

The United States team hit a distinct bump in the road with their last-placed finish, but American spirits were buoyed when Laura Kraut finished the week with the win in the $134,600 Longines Grand Prix of Rotterdam.

The British finished last in the Samsung Super League Nations Cup at La Baule (France) for the May season opener, but they were victorious in Rome (Italy) in the end of May, only to drop to last place again in St. Gallen (Switzerland) in early June. Their Rotterdam win boosted them into second place in the series standings, safely out of reach of bottom-rung relegation which, at this halfway mark of League shows, has an unfamiliar figure facing possible expulsion—the United States.

The U.S. teams finished seventh at La Baule, eighth in Rome, and had a brief respite from the misery with a third place in St. Gallen.

“I was really quite relaxed today walking the course,” said U.S. chef d’equipe George Morris after the Nations Cup. The team of Richard Spooner on Cristallo, Margie Engle on Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold, McLain Ward on Sapphire and Beezie Madden on Authentic looked good on paper, as all but Spooner are veteran international representatives for the United States.

Spooner, new to the Super League this year, has proven himself with a clear round in each of his three starts—La Baule, Rome and St. Gallen.

A Tough Test
Dutch course designers Rob Jansen and Kris Van Gelder built a stout track with a tight time allowed. “It rode big,” commented Madden, who had a single rail in each round. The first challenge for the riders came at the orange and blue combination—fences 5ABC—a 1.50-meter square oxer, one short stride to a 1.55-meter vertical and then two long strides to a 1.50-meter oxer, 1.70 meters wide. Scope was tested, and rails rattled and hit the ground 26 times over two rounds.

A quick swing right had riders facing an airy, very delicate 1.60-meter gate before galloping seven direct or eight wide strides to the water followed by a “reel-’em-in” seven strides to fences 8AB, a Samsung blue-and-white one stride. Fighting to establish control after the water caught a dozen horse and rider combinations, faulting at 8A, including Ludger Beerbaum on Goldfever in Round 1 and the Netherlands’ Gerco Schroeder with Eurocommerce Berlin in both his attempts.

Riders wasted no time around the corner to the next challenge, an option line consisting of a wide triple-bar, followed in four continuing or five steady strides to a green arched plank over a liverpool, and then a scope-stretching, very forward four or an abrupt five strides to fence 11. Near the end of the course, with just the Longines oxer to finish, fatigue was evident as horses’ fault tallies doubled at these two efforts in Round 2.

Germany, normally an efficient machine of clear rounds, managed only one from Marcus Ehning and Sandro Boy in their second try, having pulled the front rail of the triple bar in Round 1. The team finished fourth on the day, their lowest placing to date but still  keeping them at the top of the overall leader board with 25 points.

It was Great Britain—or Team Whitaker—who led from wire to wire. Michael Whitaker with Suncal Portofino, despite hard rubs at the delicate gate, the triple-bar and the penultimate oxer, started them off with a clear. David McPherson and his 12-year-old Westphalian stallion AK Pilgrim II contributed two artfully executed fault-free performances, one of only two double clears of the class.

John Whitaker and Peppermill lightly rubbed the airy gate but downed nothing for another clear.

Ellen Whitaker on Locarno joined her uncles and despite a zig-zag spook after the water to fence 8A, had but 1 time fault in Round 1 and a single rail in Round 2. Great Britain was the only team to come back penalty-free for Round 2, followed by Belgium with 7 penalties and Switzerland with 13.

“We targeted Rome with our best horses and riders. At this show, everything seemed to fall into place,” said Great Britain’s chef d’equipe, Dirk Ricketts. When asked about the team’s zero or hero placings, he laughed. “So, we’ll be last in Aachen [(Germany) on July 6], win at home at Hickstead [(England) on July 27], be last again in Dublin [(Ireland) on Aug. 10] and win in Mannhein [(Germany) for the European Championships]. That’s all right!”

What Went Wrong?
But it was the U.S. team who had even foreign chef d’equipes perplexed.

Margie Engle’s Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold downed six jumps and added time faults during their initial attempt and only bettered the score by one less rail in Round 2. Accepting Engle as the drop score, Morris thought that they could still stay in the top three as he had saved his heavy artillery—Ward and Madden—for last.

But when the first rail of the first jump fell for Sapphire, followed by three more plus time faults on course, U.S. hopes grew dark. The mare rallied in the second round to fault only at the tall vertical, fence 5B.

“She warmed up fine despite the muddy schooling conditions, but once on course she just didn’t feel right on the hard-packed sand,” said Ward. “With her long stride, usually I walk even the long lines, and today I had to add to the oxer [fence 11].”

Spooner and Cristallo did their best, with just 4- and 8-fault performances. And Madden and Authentic anchored the team with two 4-faults goes. But they couldn’t overcome the faults total accumulated by Sapphire and Quervo Gold.

Even German chef d’equipe Kurt Gravemeier said, “George, something’s not right.” Morris didn’t rule out that the horses, having just arrived in Europe, may have picked up a bug en route. Blood tests were run but showed no discernable abnormalities.

With four shows remaining—including the September final in Barcelona, Spain, where points are doubled—the United States trails the elite pack, a single point behind Sweden. An opportunity to avoid expulsion may come during Hickstead and Dublin when Continental teams’ focus will be on the European Championships in Mannheim, Germany.

The question of why the United States is sitting last at this point Morris summed up in his economical fashion: “Depth. We lack depth. Not at the Nation’s Cup level. Not at the grand prix level. But at the Super League level. Just look at the numbers: Germany, Belgium and Great Britain have used a pool of nine riders to field the four Nation’s Cup teams so far. I’ve used seven. Our good ones are among the best in the world, but we need more of them. We can’t keep going to the same well week in and week out. We had a great show here in the other classes, but we need to have things go our way in the Nation’s Cup.”

Anthem Brightens The Day
Laura Kraut put the disappointment of watching her compatriots struggle in the Nations Cup aside before the Longines Grand Prix of Rotterdam and rode long-time partner Anthem to a thrilling win to conclude the show.

Riders from six countries populated the 10 jump-off qualifiers, including Kraut and her partner of eight years, Anthem. In the initial round, trouble spots were spread out through the course but particularly toward the end.

“I knew I had to pay attention to the vertical [fence 11] after the pair of oxers,” said Kraut, who went 45th of the 49 starters. The rail fell a dozen times as horses got to it flat.

Second to last to jump-off against the clock, Kraut saw Marcus Ehning and Sandro Boy ahead of her send timber flying as they tried for a distance that wasn’t there to the last. And when she turned the corner to the final oxer, “I heard George screaming and I figured I better get going,” Kraut said.

Get going she did, stopping the timers fractions of a second faster than Ludger Beerbaum on Enorm. Kraut admitted that there wasn’t much of a secret to the 16-year-old Anthem’s longevity: “He’s a tough horse, but he’s been a winner from the very first week I rode him,” she said.    

American riders had a great show, discounting the Nation’s Cup, winning four classes and placing well in others. In the competitive young horse classes, Beezie Madden and her 7-year-old gelding Danny Boy (Clinton—Alexis Z) won two classes. Kraut picked up a third with the 7-year-old gelding Canecko Z. Madden on Select and Kraut aboard Le Prestige St Lois collected prize money in 1.50-meter and 1.45-meter classes respectively, while Richard Spooner rode Apache to a placing in the 1.50-meter joker class.

In the 1.50-meter classes, the best score from each group of five riders plus three additional “lucky losers” advance to the jump-off. Margie Engle on Hidden Creek’s Wapino jumped a quick clear in her group only to be beaten by teammate McLain Ward on Quo Vadis by .02 seconds. Coming back to jump again, she flew around the course, drawing whistles of encouragement from the Dutch crowd to cheer her on.  Her time of 39.00 was not beaten a second time by Ward, who held up fractionally on two rollbacks, finishing fifth. Less than a second separated first from sixth.