WEG 2018 Day One

Story Christopher Hector

Pics: DigiShots   Monique de Smit and Kenneth Braddick Dressage-News

The working journo usually develops a sixth sense, the disaster-is-about-to-happen button at the back of your skull, and it was buzzing away as we hit the final lead up to the WEG in Tryon. Reports of unfinished facilities were in full swing… when suddenly in the last week, half a dozen sponsors are announced for major events, you just know that these are last minute deals to save face, real sponsors want value for their promotion dollar, starting twelve months out. It took only one taxi ride with a local to get an earful of how chaotic the WEG site was on every level, and how unpopular Mark Bellissimo was with the locals, particularly local tradesmen who allegedly were finding it hard to get paid for their work, or so the good old boy behind the wheel would have it. This may be totally untrue, but it is an indication of the feeling in the area

Four years ago at the WEG in Normandy, after I wrote my OpEd, Worst Ever Games, the Alltech press officer, became a regular correspondent. But what can we do to make things better, she asked. I said that one of the major causes of difficulty for my travellers were the female toilets in the grandstand, they were of the old squat variety and soon became squalid as well. How about some portaloos? And to give them credit, the next day there were about eighty portaloos lined up next to the stand.

Seems at Tryon, the process was in the reverse. Apparently the air conditioning and the toilets do not work in the main press centre (like the loos are not finished), so someone ordered some portaloos, which duly appeared outside the centre. This apparently offended Mr Bellissimo’s sense of propriety, and the loos disappeared as quickly as they had appeared… Or so the local rumor goes.

When we actually get to the site, it looks like a construction zone, everything is messy and half-finished. They have been bravely saying that they have sold 7000 dressage tickets, but there’s more like 70 punters in the stand when the first horse enters. By the end of the first morning, the arena is still less than half full.

I suppose the good news is that if the hurricane Florence hits, there won’t be so many to evacuate. According to the weather reports, the bad weather should come tomorrow afternoon and the worst the day after. I am seriously worried about the cross country track. It has only been down two years, we are not dealing with 500-year-old Badminton turf here, and I remember Jerez where the newly planted grass disappeared quickly as the horses galloped over it, and it wasn’t even raining.

My friend Alexis Helleyer is tough in the nicest possible way. Here she is at her first big tournament, and she is asked to represent the next day. The horse gets through the second trot, but Alexis has to warm in under the supervision of the vet. She doesn’t let it get through to her and rides a lovely neat test, she certainly did not look out of place, and her score – 67.36  – was perhaps a trifle mean.

Otherwise, everything is going more or less to the script. The first German rider, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl riding TSF Dalera BB, puts on a smooth, harmonious show. The Trakehner mare is getting more power behind every outing, and the final piaffe is glorious. Score 76.677, first with all the judges, save Susie Hoevenaars who preferred Spencer Wilton and his De Niro gelding, Supa Nova, 74.581. It’s another solid test from the British anchor, lots of super engagement, and another tactful rider.

Spencer Wilton and Supa Nova, a solid test from the British anchor

Steffen Peters is somewhat over-marked (surprise surprise did I hear you say). The Dutch bred gelding has a little piaffe instead of an entrance halt and is hoppy in passage and with a real backwards tendency in the piaffe. 73.494.

I am sure Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén is a very nice person, but I don’t want to watch her ride Don Auriello in trot ever again, short and nothing behind, frantically waving in front, 73. 106 but the judges are a bit all over the place this time, with placings on 4th to 11th.

Weltmieser is never going to be the scopiest pony in the land, but Brett Parbery is a great showman, and he is getting every available point with a harmonious, smoothly flowing test. Bingo, Brett has crested the 70 wave, 70.109 and the traditional chant of Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie rings out across the stadium.

Dorethee Schneider has the San Remo gelding Sammy Davis Jr revved for the test of his life, and she is chasing Jessica’s score, getting closer with every movement, but in the end, they come up just 1.6% behind the leader on 75.062, before the Swede, Juliet Ramel and the Dutch bred, Buriel KH come leaping out of left field to score a 75.233% – and this time the judges are not in agreement. The Swedish judge, Annette Fransen Iacobaeus, has the horse winning on 76.957 (better than Dalera’s score!), Susie Hoevenaars also scores it first and above her score for Jessica, while two judges, Germany’s Katrina Wuest, and Denmark’s Hans-Christian Matthiesen have the pair fourth, with Anne Gribbons goes one lower, fifth on a score of 74.239. Britain’s Andrew Gardner and the Dutch judge,Mariette Sanders-van Gansewinkel have the horse second. It certainly is a most attractive picture, and how nice to have a new face at the top.

Glock’s Dream Boy and Hans Peter Minderhoud are another pair to set the jury into conniptions.  Fourth with Susie Hoevenaars and Mariette Sanders-van Gansewinkel but ninth with Katrina Wuest. I’m with the German.

I caught up with Brett Parbery as we waited to Alexis to go, and obviously, given the state of disarray at the site, the question was, what is it like out back?

“It’s been pretty good actually. We came in on the 7th and we missed a few of the early teething issues, but the basis of the venue is quite good. The footing is good, the stabling is good, all those things are working.”

Your groom has somewhere to sleep that is not a tent?
“That’s the beauty of coming to America on our way in. We’ve been sleeping in one of the Reiners’ Goosenecks right on site. We are actually fine but there have been a few issues with the grooms, but here we are, day one of competition, and we are ready to go.”

It’s been a bit rough for Alexis, spun at her first international show…
“I must say, she has handled it so well. She’s made for this, she has mental toughness – same for Elliot. They both handled it very very well. She went through on the second trot up, the only unfortunate thing was we had to make a decision on the team order. Mary Hanna was going to go first, and she was happy to go first, we wanted to give Alexis an extra day, because she hasn’t had a chance to train.”

Have you got a trainer?!
“No, no… but we couldn’t miss out on the second, third and fourth positions in the draw so we had to put Alexis on first in case she didn’t make it through because if she didn’t get through, we would have missed out on our third position. It was unfortunate but it was one of those decisions we were forced to make, but every one was happy with it, and she’s as mentally tough as anyone.”

Have you ever been to an international teams event before without a team trainer?
“Ton is down there, and he is available for us to use. Kristy is training with Ton, and he’s been helping me a little bit. Mary has Patrik, and Alexis has Elliot. But Ton was also helping Alexis a bit. It’s all good.”

As long as we don’t get washed away…
“That’s the worst part.”

I caught up with Alexis after her test…

They discovered a few new ways to put pressure on the newbie in the team…
“We obviously had to think about the team when deciding the order, and if there was a chance that I wasn’t going to get through, we didn’t want to put pressure on the other three team members, and that’s fine, so I was first on if the horse trotted fine. I think being in quarantine for two days, without his rider, was a stress on the horse.”

It was an abscess?
“We don’t know for sure it was an abscess, there was a bit of separation in the foot whether it was from being in a different stable, or as a result of the flight in the crate – it’s just one of those things that you don’t quite know.”

Were you confident you were going to get through this morning at the second trot?
“Look the horse trotted, the horse trotted well both days, it was just that the surface they used for the trot up was not the surface we are competing on. The horse trotted on concrete yesterday, perfectly fine. The horse trotted on the surface we rode on, perfectly fine. It was just when I trotted him up, there were quite a few holes on the surface, and me being a bit nervous in that situation, I was petrified. It wasn’t my horse, it was I have to go up here, down, and then they made me re-present… Elliot trotted the horse today, really well. I think the Ground Jury really tried to help the situation. I got to ride him yesterday for the first time in quite a few days, I knew the horse was fine, I could feel the horse was even in the reins, and it was a good feeling. I would have loved to have been able to train into this competition, but we just have to go with what we get, and I had to go in with one day’s work, and that’s what I got.”

But it was a nice test…
“Look, he made no major mistakes. I know the horse can score better. He got a little bit affected by the atmosphere, I was only able to get into this arena to walk, before the test, and when he came in today, he went WOW! I also had so many stewards and vets watching me, they watched my whole warm up, waiting for me to make a mistake. It was stressful, really really stressful. I have never been in that situation, I don’t wish that on anyone. I said to the other guy whose horse was held, I said to him they are really helpful, I just tried to give him a bit of encouragement, but I wouldn’t wish my warm up on anyone.”

But it must do something for you inside your head, to know that you can handle that stress and still come out smiling…
“There were moments when I thought, wow, I don’t know if I can do this. But it shows something about the horse, even though he has done under a year at Grand Prix, he is trained. It’s an amazing partnership that I have with him, and we get along really well. I know that we can do better, but at least I could get in there and do a test with no major mistakes, and I can come through with it. I hope the rest of the team do just as well.”

On the weather front things are not looking good, this just came through in my email:

Today’s update from the National Weather Service, stationed onsite at TIEC for the duration of WEG, shows that Hurricane Florence is now expected to make landfall near the North and South Carolina coastal border on Friday evening. The projected weather pattern here at TIEC will be heavy rain on Sunday evening into Monday and possibly Tuesday, with winds peaking on Sunday evening at 30mph with gusts of up to 40mph.Thunderstorms today and tomorrow afternoon are not related to Hurricane Florence.

 I haven’t seen the cross country track yet, I am told there are patches of nothing but mud already. I seriously doubt whether we will see any cross country at this WEG…

Full Results at end of Day 1 here: https://tryon2018.com/eventResults/2018/1587/resultlist_D1