U.S. Equestrian Team Secures Multiple Medals At Rio Olympics
By Rebecca Walton/Phelps Media Group
Following the 2012 London Olympic Games, the United States Equestrian Team refocused and revaluated with the goal of bringing home medals during the 2016 Olympics Games held this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With all of the athletes focused on accomplishing their personal goals and the goals of the United States, all three disciplines of show jumping, dressage and eventing made the podium.
“It worked out pretty well,” smiled U.S. show jumping Chef d’Équipe Robert Ridland after the team earned its silver medal. “All of our scores had to count; we knew that. They were all unbelievable. Unbelievably focused, they knew what their job was and they got it done. It was tremendous.”
SHOW JUMPING
The show jumping team final was filled with excitement from start to finish. After the team qualifier on Aug. 16, four nations advanced with scores of zero, but a technical track with a tight time allowed and three teams with only three riders shook things up quickly.
The United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Brazil all qualified for the team final with no faults. Kent Farrington, Lucy Davis and McLain Ward were all faultless over the track for the U.S. during the first team qualifier, while Beezie Madden brought home an eight-fault showing to be the drop score.
The next day, the Netherlands and Brazil each lost a rider due to disqualification, and the United States lost anchor rider Madden, when Abigail Wexner’s Cortes C sustained a tendon injury. Thus, all of the rounds for the three teams counted, and the loss of a drop score left no room for error.
Farrington was up next with Amalaya Investments’ Voyeur. They incurred just one time fault, while Davis and Old Oak Farm’s Barron had B of the triple combination down, adding four faults to the U.S. total and putting all of the pressure on anchor rider Ward. He was aboard Double H Farm and François Mathy’s HH Azur and crossed the finish line as one of only five clear rounds on the day.
“Azur has a big stride, so I did the options that were leave-outs, and that helped with the time allowed a little bit,” Ward explained. “I really thought she jumped as good as ever, if not better than the rest of the week. It was a round I’m proud of, and I’m proud of this team.”
There was still room for an upset, and when the Netherlands, Brazil and Germany each had rails from their third rider in the rotation, it sealed the silver medal finish for the U.S. team.
DRESSAGE
Allison Brock, Laura Graves, Kasey Perry-Glass and Steffen Peters represented the United States at the 2016 Olympic Games, and the all-star team did not disappoint. The dressage team earned a place on the Olympic podium with a bronze medal finish, which was the first medal for U.S. dressage since the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Team USA ended the first day of Grand Prix competition in third place, with riders earning personal bests across the board. The top six teams, which included the U.S., advanced to the Grand Prix Special — the phase that determined the team medals.
Accurate riding by Brock and a steady, willing effort on Fritz and Claudine Kundrin’s 14-year-old Hanoverian stallion Rosevelt, with highlights in the extensions across all three gaits, earned the pair a 73.824 percent score as the first down centerline in the afternoon team rotation.
Next up for the U.S., Perry-Glass and Dublet, her 13-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, had trouble early on with a costly break to canter in the first extended trot. They rebounded from there with their top-notch passage and excellent tempi changes boosting their score, and finished on a score of 73.235 percent.
Team veterans Peters and Four Winds Farm’s Legolas 92 also had uncharacteristic bobbles, however a fantastic final centerline helped them complete the test with a score of 74.622 percent, just above the average that the team needed.
As anchor rider Graves prepared to head down centerline, nerves were running high among U.S. dressage supporters and fans.
The team was sitting just fractions of a percent behind the Netherlands, and Graves’ ride would determine whether the U.S. could break its 12-year medal drought. The pressure only gave Graves added motivation. She asked Verdades to give her his all, and the pair’s nearly 13-year partnership paid off, as they turned in the best Grand Prix Special score of their career on the world’s biggest stage. Their mark of 80.644 percent secured the bronze medal for the U.S.
“The elusive 80 percent! We captured it… it exists!” Graves said. “I knew it was going well. You just always hope that your reflections match up with the judges. To see my teammates so happy and to have a personal best with a score I’ve been reaching for — it was the icing on our cake.”
When Wellington resident Robert Dover accepted the position as technical advisor and chef d’équipe for the U.S. dressage team, he created a road map back to the podium.
“I could not be more proud of our team, and it has been a real honor for me to be able to be their chef d’équipe over the last years,” Dover said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen in the years to come, because the depth of great up-and-coming Grand Prix horses that are just starting out right now will triple. I believe that in the next two years, you will see America take another higher podium finish. In the next four years, I think they will give any country in the world a very strong fight for the gold.”
EVENTING
It was a roller coaster weekend for the U.S. eventing team at the 2016 Olympic Games. Hopes were high with a strong team heading into the competition, but mediocre dressage scores left fans wondering if the U.S. would reach the podium. Then, two eliminations during the cross-country phase dashed hopes for a team medal, and the view looked even bleaker. However, Phillip Dutton continued to fight on, and after two rounds of show jumping, he found his way onto the podium for a bronze medal finish aboard Mighty Nice.
The team included Dutton with the HND Group’s Mighty Nice; Boyd Martin and Blackfoot Mystery, owned by the Blackfoot Mystery Syndicate; Lauren Kieffer and Team Rebecca LLC’s Veronica; and Clark Montgomery with Loughan Glen, owned by Holly and William Becker, Kathryn Kraft and Jessica Montgomery. The team was led by Chef d’Équipe David O’Connor.
After Keiffer suffered a fall during the difficult cross country phase and Montgomery was eliminated for three refusals, the U.S. was out of the running for a team medal. Heading into the final day of competition, Dutton and Martin had both added only 3.2 time penalties to their dressage scores after cross-country, and made a huge jump in the standings. Athletes had to jump in the team jumping final to qualify for the individual final — the final goal for both Dutton and Martin.
Martin and the 12-year-old Thoroughbred Blackfoot Mystery were not quite up to the challenge on the final day, after multiple rails, and all of Team USA’s hopes fell on Dutton.
Dutton and Mighty Nice, a 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse, left all of the fences intact during the first round, but the pair crossed the finish line just over the time allowed, picking up one time fault. Dutton and Mighty Nice advanced to the individual final in fourth place, within shouting distance of the podium.
The pair was not as lucky the second time around, lowering the height of a single fence, yet even with the four faults tacked on, Dutton remained in fourth place. Luck was on Dutton’s side when Australia’s Christopher Burton took his turn and lowered the height of two fences, subsequently boosting Dutton to the bronze medal position.
The individual bronze medal finish marked the first individual medal for the six-time Olympian, who won two team medals when he competed with Australia. It also marks the biggest career finish for Mighty Nice, a special horse for Dutton, who was formerly owned by the late Bruce Duchossois.
“It has been a great weekend for the horse,” Dutton said after the final. “He got a little knocked around yesterday, so I was just grateful to get here. It has been a great achievement for him. Bruce would be really proud of him. I was happy with fourth, and now I am quite ecstatic with third!”
With the 2016 Olympic Games completed, athletes now look ahead to the 2018 World Equestrian Games and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Working closely with the support of the United States Equestrian Team Foundation and the United States Equestrian Federation, the team will be focused on once again bringing home medals.
