Following Canada's Equestrian Team

Today was the first day of show jumping competition with the Round 1 of Team and Individual.

The course itself is quite beautiful, with some very Mexican-inspired jumps including an homage to the Day of the Dead (which happens Nov. 2) and of course Tequila.

It’s a steep learning curve for me understanding how the points are calculated during the various rounds of competition. Today was based on speed, with each rail being first converted to 4 seconds added to your time. Then at the end, a formula is applied which converts everyone’s time to penalty points. The leader is award 0 points, and 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. are then given penalty points. And this gets carried with each rider throughout the remainder of the competition. So even though Eric Lamaze (our top placed Canadian) currently sits in 11th position, the reality is that less than 1 rail separates him from the current leader. And with 4 more rounds of jumping to go before all is said and done on Saturday, it’s still very much anyone’s game.

Same is true for Canada’s current 5th place team standing. Less than 9 points separate the top 5 teams….and judging by the rounds I saw today, there were very few horse/rider combinations who looked truly comfortable on the course. So tomorrow should prove to be interesting! The final 3 medal countries may look quite different than what today’s standings are showing…and Canada is still very much in the medal hunt.

Here are some pics from today’s activities. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to the Country Club in time to catch Jill’s ride as Tina & I had to make a trip to the Village. Check out Ingate Ringmaster Extraordinaire Pedro’s outfit for today…makes me wonder what he has up his sleeve for tomorrow’s team medal finals!

Team Results

Individual Results

The last few days have been almost a complete blur, and sadly the blogging has been sorely lacking. I’ll do my best to catch up on the last few days, but right now I want to talk about today.

I have to say I have found it a challenge dealing with 2 separate venues which are about 40 mins – 1 hour from each other, depending on the traffic. When I am at one, it feels like I am neglecting the other.

Today got off to a somewhat dubious start when I ran out of shampoo to wash my hair (while in the shower), and found out first hand the disadvantages of a hotel having the shower gel and mouthwash be the exact same colour. I was wondering why the shower gel was extremely runny when I poured some on myself in the shower…then the minty smell hit me 🙂
It could have been much worse…..I could have been standing at the sink after brushing my teeth with a mouthful of bubbles.

Tina and I started our work day with a quick visit to the Country Club to check on the Jumpers. All is good there, with Team Vet Sylvie Surprenant saying that the horses actually are feeling a bit frisky during their light schooling sessions. All systems go! Tomorrow is the Jumper jog at noon, and I’m hoping to make it back from the airport in time (Eventing horses head home tomorrow am)

We then made our way out to Club Hipica for Eventing’s stadium round, with EC President Mike Gallagher, EC CEO Akaash Maharaj, 2015 Equestrian venue owner Craig Collins and his colleague Jimmy Weir, to cheer on Canada.

It was a gorgeous day for a horse show, and our Canadians did us proud! They rode away with Team Silver, with James Atkinson, Rebecca Howard and Jessica Phoenix all going through to the final individual round.

It was a much trickier course for this round, with riders having to make some aggressive turns within a short time frame. Our guys looked incredible!! And it was a real nail biter when Jessica came in as the last to ride. But if she was feeling any kind of pressure, it sure didn’t show. She layed down a clean round to grab the Gold with Hannah Sue Burnett grabbing Silver and Buck Davidson winning Bronze.

What was even nicer than seeing Jessica’s huge smile was seeing how excited and proud her horse owner Don Good was.

I was very honored to be invited to Eventing’s celebratory dinner tonight. There must have been at least 40 people there….a huge long table outside by the pool. Team Coach David O’Connor gave quite a passionate speech, thanking the riders, grooms, owners, and all of the support team who make everything possible.

Chef d’Equipe Graeme Thom also gave a great speech, and it really struck me just what a great team Eventing really has which I firmly believe is a huge contributing factor to the consistent success over the past few years. I absolutely can’t wait for them to take London by storm next year!

But the dinner highlight had to be the entire team jumping into the pool fully clothed….including DOC himself. Now that’s what I call team spirit. And no…sadly I did not have my camera with me.

It’s another early morning tomorrow. I’ll be heading out to Club Hipica to be there while Eventing loads up the equipment and horses for the trip to the airport. It will be yet another plane ride back home full of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals between Canada and our American friends.

I really wish I could figure out how to add captions to the photos….and I can’t believe my batteries ran out just when Jessica was about to ride her gold medal round!!!.

Don’t forget to check out Tina’s blog for more photos
http://dunkiddin.tumblr.com/