Versailles, France—Aug. 1
The U.S. Show Jumping Team’s day started with a bit of upheaval. Just about an hour before the team jumping qualifier began at the Paris Olympic Games, the U.S. Equestrian Federation sent a press release announcing that Tokyo Olympian Kent Farrington would not be competing, and reserve rider Karl Cook would be taking his spot.
Though unexpected, this was a possibility Cook had been preparing for: Under Olympic rules, teams may substitute a rider up to two hours prior to the start of competition.
“It’s what we were mentally preparing for,” Cook said. “When we get called up, we knew how late it was before the start. What we decided was the right strategy was to prepare like we were jumping. Even if we weren’t, you had to prepare yesterday, last night, this morning. I came with blue pants [on today], but I packed everything as if I was showing. Mentally I was showing. Even if I didn’t, I had to do it like that. So it was easier if I got called two minutes [before the deadline] to go, ‘Hey, you’re jumping.’ It wasn’t like, ‘Oh [no!]’ I gotta, like, get out of bed and throw clothes on. That is the job of the alternative.”
Despite the dust-up to its plan, the U.S. team accomplished its goal: qualify for the team final on Friday. And the riders did so in style. Both Laura Kraut (Baloutinue) and Cook (Caracole De La Roque) turned in clear performances.
“We obviously had a change to the team this morning, putting Karl and Caracole into the line-up, and they really stepped up to the plate for us in a big atmosphere,” Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland said.
That took some pressure off anchor rider McLain Ward. While he didn’t want to make a major mistake, he knew could afford a penalty or two on Ilex (Baltic VDL—Calendula). He did add a rail and two-time faults to bring the team’s final score to 6, but that put them in second place for the day behind Germany, which turned in a faultless performance. Great Britain wast third, with the fastest time among a group of 8-fault teams.
“I was thrilled,” Ward said. “I knew going in that we had a pretty big margin of error, so I made a plan to just be a little conservative and make sure there wasn’t a big blow-up. I mean, you saw Peder [Fredricson’s] horse stop at the wall—and what age is he?—you know, you notice it. I thought it looked so great. It was a very light rub, but not a big deal.”
Cook was second in the team rotation, and he turned in a clear round with “Cara,” a 12-year-old Selle Francais mare (Zandor—Pocahontas D’Amaury, Kannan).
“I think when you’re doing it, it feels a different way than when you finish—there’s relief, joy, happiness; you feel proud,” he said. “You felt the weight when you arrived. You feel the weight until you pick up the canter to start the round. Once you pick up the canter, then everything kind of just goes away, because you don’t really have enough mental ability to do both of those, because it takes so much focus.”
It was a very different experience from the pair’s performance in the opening round of the Pan American Games (Chile) last year, where they had a rail and Cook was nearly unseated in the opening round. But Cook said he used that as a learning experience.
“She’s committed; she loves this,” he said. “This is all she loves to do. She gets so excited. I would say she’s zero percent stressed and 100% excited. She’s just better than me. We’ve had some issues in the past, of course, so we had to learn from them. Back at home on the flat [and] when we’ve jumped her since then, preparing for here, it’s about trying to learn from those lessons. With the pain of the lesson, you learn from it.”
Cara has a specific warm-up. Cook gets on earlier than he would for most horse and takes his time on the flat before getting off for seven minutes while his groom, Tessa Falanga, changes her bridle, and they relax before starting to jump.
“I’ll jump a couple. I’ll let her stand, and then I’ll jump a couple more,” he said. “Then you see in the ring, before I started, I was standing. I didn’t try to stop her and back her up or get her active or any of that. It was just calm, calm. And then we start.”
Kraut, who is a team Olympic gold medalist, was the team’s first rider with her Tokyo Olympic partner Baloutinue.
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“It was pretty nerve-racking before I went in,” she said. “It’s never a low-stress event at the Olympic Games.
“The course is very, very technical and big,” she added. “And the course builder, I’ve been jumping his courses quite a bit lately and he has a way of sneaking in things that are far more difficult than they appear to be. As he’s done today. I’m just very fortunate that I have an absolutely amazing horse that he was in the zone, and he was on it.”
Frenchman Gregory Bodo is collaboration with Santiago Varela Ullastres of Spain to design the Olympic show jumping tracks.
In Tokyo, Kraut was still getting to know the 14-year-old Hanoverian (Balou Du Rouet—Utika, Landor S), having only started riding him a few months before, but now their relationship is well-established.
“My last Olympics with him, I’d been riding him for about two months, so I hardly knew him at all. We hardly knew what he liked to eat,” she said. “So it was really comforting to come here, and this time knowing the horse, and I feel like both of us have formed a partnership. And I think he trusts me, and I certainly trust him. We had a warm-up yesterday, but I felt completely confident that he could go in there and do it today. It’s just whether I would myself.”
Ward, who is competing in his sixth Olympics, is no stranger to playing strategy in qualifying rounds.
“I think all the team performed brilliantly and look very good going into tomorrow,” he said.
Tomorrow’s final is a clean slate, so teams just needed to be in the top 10 to earn their spot. The results from today do determine the order for tomorrow. As today’s leaders, Germany will be the last to jump, and the U.S. will be the second-to-last.
“It’s a whole new competition. And you know, I purposely made sure that Richie [Vogel] has to go last and get all the pressure, so I think it was a plan well-executed,” Ward said with a grin. “No, the horses feel great. A little few hours down here to refocus. I think it’s not only obviously important, job one is to qualify, you never want to take that for granted; this sport is strong. But I think also, how did the horses feel? … They felt fresh, they jumped well, and I think that brings you into that final strong.”
Ridland praised the team’s performance in qualifying through to the final.
“Laura and Baloutintue are veterans and set the tone with a clear round right toff the bat,” he said. “Karl and Caracole have been on a real hot streak and rode a well-executed round for our second clear. McLain and Ilex are looking strong, and the entire team is feeling ready for tomorrow’s final.”
No substitutions are permitted before the team final unless for a medical or veterinary issue. The individual competition is separate from the team competition, so if the team chose to do so, Farrington could swap with another U.S. rider to compete in the individual championship.
Germany Is The One To Beat
Germany turned in clear rounds from all three of its riders: Christian Kukuk (Checker 47), Phillipp Weishaupt (Zineday) and Richard Vogel (United Touch S). While Vogel was the last to jump today, he said the order for the team final has yet to be decided. Kukuk would likely go first because that’s his preferred position, but the other two could be interchangeable.
“Obviously it gives us some positive confidence that all horses felt in good shape, looked very good, performed well, and rode very focused,” Vogel said. “I think all three German rounds were smooth, and there weren’t really tough situations in the course. So that makes us optimistic for tomorrow. But we’re also aware that it starts from zero, and besides a good starting position, there is not so much achieved yet. So we have got to keep that up and perform on the same level tomorrow.”
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Vogel described the course as challenging but fair. “It was a technical track, so delicate,” he said. “The course designer did a very smart and clever course, in my opinion, not just a big, massive, brutal track. It was a smart and delicate track in my opinion. He played with colors, with obstacles that had light material, a wall, and that caused some troubles. All of this we could expect. And I think tomorrow is gonna be a little bit more.”
There were a few surprises, however. Sweden, the defending Olympic champion, finished eighth today after its anchor rider, Peder Fredericson, had a run out at the wall (Fence 11) with his veteran Catch Me Not S.
“I was very good until the wall, and I don’t really know, maybe I turned a little bit tight on it and then he got a bit surprised and didn’t know he was supposed to jump it. So he stopped,” he said. “And that really surprised me, because I had a very good feeling. With this format, when all three count, I have a bit of pressure on me to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“But we were lucky,” he added. “We made it to the final, and we start new tomorrow. So for the sake of the results, it doesn’t really matter. But of course, I would have been happy with a clear course.”
Switzerland failed to make the final, finishing on 24 faults. All three riders Steve Guerdat (Dynamix De Bélhème), Pius Schwizer (Vancouver De Lanlore) and Martin Fuchs (Leone Jei) picked up faults.
“The course is very demanding, but that’s what we expected,” Guerdat said. “It looks very similar to what we had in Tokyo, kind of the same course. So nothing new. So we expected that; I expected this kind of difficulty.”
Guerdat said that the way jumps were set into the corners, even in a big ring, coupled with long distances made the course difficult.
“Those are not excuses we can use,” he said. “When we come to the Olympics, we have to be up to what the Olympics is and not hide ourselves behind silly excuses.”
Brazil also did not qualify. Its lead rider, Pedro Veniss, jumped a clear round with Nimrod De Muze, but was later eliminated when blood was found on the horse’s flank.
“Elimination under this rule does not imply there was any intention to hurt or harm the horse, but the FEI discipline rules have been put in place to ensure that horse welfare is protected at all times,” according to a statement from the Fédération Equestre Internationale.
The “blood rule” for show jumping requires a horse be eliminated if blood is found in the mouth or on the flanks. The team’s anchor rider, Rodrigo Pessoa, opted not to jump the team qualifier with Major Tom, but he is still eligible for the individual qualifier, which will take place Monday.
The Chronicle has a reporter on site at the Paris Olympics. See all of our coverage here.
