RIO: Showjumping – Teams

Story Christopher Hector and Photos Rebecca Ashton

Jumping is on, and the atmosphere is back, especially when the first rider out, Luciana Diniz is Portuguese, that’s like family for this crowd. She is riding yet another of those amazing For Pleasure mares, this time Fit for Fun, so sweet, so careful. Clear round. We ended the day with three For Pleasures going clear – and two by Kashmir van’t Schuttershof..

I guess I will concentrate on the Aussies today, because for our team it is all over. We finished equal 13th, in last place – that is our worst result since Atlanta in 1996…

Still there were some highlights, like Matt Williams who produced a super professional round on Valinski S, never looked like touching a pole. It makes the demand that he come all the way to Europe to compete in a fifth rate qualifier, even more ridiculous. Matt is a thoughtful rider:

Matt Williams and Valinski S

“I went out there with a plan. I changed it after I walked the course, I saw that the first one did seven strides to the triple bar, I’d planned nine. Then I was l’m going to do eight, I’m never going to get seven- then it was just a matter of keeping on the time. I was quietly confident of the last line with him after I’d had that fault with him going into the double the other day, because he is such a smart horse, he doesn’t want to make the same fault twice. I knew if I had a good wall, I could ride him down to it, just sit still and let him jump that double. He tries so hard every time, he’s a bit of a genius.”

Matt Williams and Valinski S

“He’s a small horse, and it is funny the first time I ever rode him he jumped great but you just didn’t know where you were going to end up – how big he was going to jump. He jumps the same over a metre twenty as he does a course like this. He’s never showing off, he’s just doing what he has to, and he is fighting every time. Like I said to you the other day, he is the best one I’ve had. I’m very lucky to ride him.”

Matt finished the two rounds with 8 faults, in 30th and it looks like he will make it into the individual tomorrow with Edwina.

Then Scott Keach had a horror repeat of his last Olympic ride, in the cross country at Seoul in 1998 where he had a soft fall in the water. Today he had another soft fall at the water, and the decision to give him an automatic place in the Australian team looks even more bizarre, especially after his less than stellar performance in the Australian regional qualifier at Hagen.

Scott didn’t win a lot of fans when he just walked away from the water, leaving others to take care of his horse. At the presser, one hack asked: How are you feeling? (promise I didn’t ask that one)

“Marvelous… not really. It’s worse in a teams situation obviously, that’s jumping. The horse just stopped. The rider was fine. The horse was very, very spooky when I went into the ring, normally he is never like that, and the fresher he is, the better, because he needs to be impressed by all the jumps and everything. So I had him really fresh and feeling fantastic when he went out but he jumped the triple very ordinary for him. When I went and showed it to him, he was spooking and looking at it, I was cantering back across the ring, and he was spooking and looking everywhere. He didn’t do that the other day, so that surprised me.”

“He’s been jumping his water jumps well now for a couple of years, so I was surprised. It should have been okay. He jumped this water two days ago, fine.”

While I was talking with Matt, Edwina had a toe in the water with Lintea Tequila…

Edwina Tops-Alexander and Lintea Tequila over the water

What went wrong with Edwina at the water?

“It’s a little bit the same as what happened to Scott there. It’s seven strides on a right curve and we all walked it as a really forward seven but they are eating the ground here, so if you come on an inside line and move too early, they are getting there too early – and she just picked up one early, okay it happens in this sport, it’s just a shame but the rest of her round was amazing.”

Edwina and Lintea Tequila

When Edwina fronted the media scrum, it was just after the Spanish rider, Lucretia Cordon had had her round made more difficult by some guy yelling wildly from the crowd – no one knew what it was about…

“She’s pretty cool, she’s obviously focused on her riding, she wasn’t letting it get to her.”

Screaming man

And your round?

“It was great. My horse is jumping out of her skin, she’s in such good shape. I walked the line exactly how I rode it and it just didn’t ride how I rode it. Normally she hasn’t got the biggest stride, but here she is eating up the ground which is fantastic. My plan was just to go middle to middle, normal three, then really ride for the next four, and when I started to ride it, I started to think my god, I’m getting here a little bit too easy and then she picked off. If she’d had a small stride, I would have had it anyway. Other than that, we had a good recovery. The last line got quite easy for me where normally I would consider doing an add down there, it’s something for me to think about for the next few days and focus a bit on that. But I am very happy with the result, she couldn’t have jumped better, she tried her heart out.”

Lots of trouble in the triple?

“First of all the poles are short so it looks a little boxier, and the horses back off a little more, and you have to keep them a little more between hand and leg. Towards home, the distance is quite normal, I think the blocks underneath are causing the horses to look down. You have to come in riding it very good and just think about the vertical before you think about the oxer, then the next vertical. It’s a very scopey combination, one stride, very wide oxer in the middle, it’s tough.”

Edwina finished 26th with 5 faults out of two rounds.

James Paterson Robinson and Amarillo had two down…

How are you my friend?

“If I left them all up, it would have been better. He jumped very well, he was unlucky in the triple combination, he stepped on his shoe. I think that’s how he got the fault, it was a bit of an unusual fault, he lost the shoe, I heard it go. The jumping for the rest was very good. At the water he didn’t just jump far enough, but it is a difficult water, and the line is riding really difficult today, so I was happy with him. I thought I came there well, he could have just tried a little harder over the water.”

James Paterson Robinson and Amarillo

James finishes with 17 out of the two rounds.

The big kids are having fun with eleven going into the individual on zero faults:

Christian Ahlmann and Taloubet Z, Sergio Alvarez Moya and Carlo, Daniel Deusser and First Class, Kent Farrington and Voyeur, Peter Fredericson and All In, Eric Lemaze and Fine Lady, Meredith Michaels Beerbaum and Fibonacci, Harrie Smolders and Emerald, then two for the home side, Pedro Viness and Quabri de l’Isle, another Brazilian, Doda de Miranda and Cornetto K and Maikel van der Vleuten and Verdi.

Doda de Miranda and Cornetto K

Wow that is going to be some fight… and my fave, Jeroen Dubbeldam is sitting there on just 4 faults with Zenith, I’d still take a lazy punt on him.

Jeroen Dubbeldam

There’s four teams on zip faults: Brazil, Germany, Netherlands and the USA, with the French with just one time fault… I reckon the Dutch will come up trumps, but that my friends will be the next exciting episode – tomorrow.