United States Eventing Association

Shannon Brinkman's Last Blog from Pan American Games!

In case you missed any of the action at the 2007 Pan Am Games down in Rio, get the inside scoop with photographer Shannon Brinkman. She kindly provided the USEA with a daily blog of her adventures down in South America. Although it's a bit of late news, it still makes for great reading - thank you, Shannon!

Sunday, July 22

It is a good thing that photographers and journalists don't have to pass a soundness test. I think about half of us would not be brave enough to present ourselves (probably a good thing), and the ones that were brave would be immediately thrown in the vet box with the vet shaking her head 'no, don't pass this one!' in other words, we are not always the fittest bunch. I was no exception this morning; a bruised heel had me limping around.

The judges passed all the horses though a couple were ouchy, notably the horse representing Jamaica ridden by Samantha Albert. That horse later had a stop in show jumping and many rails. I can understand why under these circumstances the judges pass horses that might be spun under other circumstances, these riders have worked so hard just for the honor to represent their countries and themselves. And none of the horses were head bobbing lame, just stiffer than normal.

Heck, I was stiffer than normal. Puffy clouds dotted the sky as the riders walked the show jumping course. Frank Chapot and George Morris imparted advice to most of the American riders, Karen and Darren with Frank and Stephen and Gina with George. Dutton spoke a little with Captain Mark Phillips, but they could have been talking about the weather for all I know. Truluck had a few rails at Rolex, which was a much bigger, longer show jumping course than this one and I felt that Dutton would be even more careful this time.

There would be three clean rounds ridden today, two Brazilian non-team riders and Gina Miles with McKinlaigh. Gina had a brilliant round and again made the course look incredibly easy. Apparently she has been doing her homework, back in California she enters jumper events frequently and practice did make her perfect. Earlier Stephen Bradley had it a bit rough, as he was the first American rider to go before the rowdy, vocal Brazilian crowds. Showing their displeasure by booing when Stephen and From kept rails up and happily yelling when rails came down. The crowd would have kept up these emotional outbursts until eventually after Waylon Roberts round Roger Haller stopped the show and made the announcer explain to the audience this was not proper horse show behavior ( he unplugged the mike until the announcer agreed to speak to the audience).

The Brazilian fans came to the show jumping ring with the same attitude they would a soccer match but this vocalness is not unique to Brazil, look at American football, or baseball people yell, do cheers etc. They did not know that the horses and probably the riders are sensitive to loud noises and there is a different etiquette for the equestrian sports. I do wonder if the horses and riders would eventually make sport of this if they had to deal with vocal outbursts all the time. Perhaps the horses would learn to tolerate this much like police horses must tolerate all kinds of noise and crowds.

I did feel the tension increase when the noise decreased for now the horses and riders got down to business without all the shenanigans. The pressure for riding for one's country, or oneself might be at its greatest in the show jumping ring. Here the riders have already done the steps to actually be accepted on the team, their horse is sound, they had to deal with all the trials of coming into another country (many for Brazil), ridden their dressage, succeeded cross-country, and now for the final test: show jumping. More eyes are on you than at any other moment, for the crowds want to see the final outcome and unlike dressage where there might be a few people who want to see this horse's extended trot or that horse's flying change most event horses would not be considered at this point for the metropolitan ballet. And cross-country fans usually gang up around the water fences, and I agree it is exciting watching a horse jumping into water, most of the crowd is scattered around the course.

So here it is, show jumping. Many event horses are not 'allergic to wood' (Quoted from Derek Peterson) in the same way show jumpers must be. If an event horse touches a fence cross-country the fence in most instances does not move. The top four Americans, on cross country, had two clear rounds, Dutton and Miles or minimal time faults O'Connor and Chiacchia. Yet, the event could have been won by Chiacchia, Dutton or O'Connor and here is where the pony showed his unusual, usual prowess as he jumped with only one rail down. Dutton, perhaps being extra cautious after Rolex and because he was now a team member, had 4 unusual time faults but all rails still up in their pins. Dutton later said about Truluck that 'he cut enough turns . . . but stiff today' and about himself that 'Mark Phillips had taken under his wing . . . needed a bit of direction with show jumping'. It still was a very good round and he won his first individual silver medal and team gold the first time riding for the Americans (Of course)! And Chiacchia on his still fairly new mount had 4 rails, enough to push him into fourth and raise Gina into a medal position of third. Miles aspirations of three-day eventing go back to her first time witnessing eventing at the '84 Olympics when she was 10. Now she is living her dreams aboard McKinlaigh, riding for America first as an individual successfully at the World Equestrian Games in 2002, and here eventually to win her first individual medal and team medals.

Later in the pressroom, informed by Joanie Morris of USEF, we all discovered that this was Karen O'Connor's first individual gold medal and on a beloved pony too! Earlier I asked Christin Stoop, Darren Chiacchia's groom, how Theo got the name O'Connor, I mean wouldn't you assume that you might know the answer. Apparently his sire was named Theodore and the owner's hero was Jimmy Connor, the tennis star. Theodore Connor did not have enough of a ring so hence the 'O' was added to complete the name: Theodore O'Connor. Theo came to Karen as a sales horse, already competing advanced under Christin Trainor, the owner, P. Wynn Norman, had decided to sell him. But as their apparent success grew, the pony was syndicated and Karen went on to Rolex then the Pan Ams. I am going to visualize them at the Olympics. Why not? They can only get better and Karen joked that the dressage folks said that they could teach him a better extended trot. And his flying changes were wonderful. I believe too that we all need heroes, and heroes come in all sorts of shapes. Theo has a wonderful lesson for all of us, little guys do finish first. Thanks Karen! Thanks Theo! Karen also had another secret, a good luck charm in the form of a small, brown teddy bear she later showed me. The teddy bear was given on loan from Sue Clark, who had it all her life and had brought her good luck, so she gave it to Karen for the Pan Ams. I would say it worked, perhaps she might loan it again for Hong Kong.