U.S. Clinches Bronze and Coleman Individual Fourth at FEI World Eventing Championship
The United States sat just 5.8 penalties away from a podium finish at the FEI World Eventing Championship in Aachen, Germany, after yesterday’s cross-country, and the three riders who moved on to show jumping this morning were able to clinch team bronze with three clear jumping rounds. Individual rider Tamie Smith withdrew Molly Duda's 10-year-old Holsteiner mare Lillet 3 (Livello x Princess L) before show jumping after the mare was sore from an overreach on cross-country yesterday.
“Deep down you don’t really have control over the other teams, but these horses are very good show jumping horses,” said Boyd Martin, who rode Cooley Nutcracker, a 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (BMC Tolan R. x Ballyshan Cleopatra) owned by Liz’s Nutcrackers, to a double-clear and 13th place individually. “I thought we had an outside chance of getting a medal if we all jumped clear. ‘Bali’s’ been in phenomenal form jumping, and I had a great warmup and went in and he was fantastic.”
Will Coleman moved up from sixth after cross-country to fourth with a double-clear on the Diabolo Group's Diabolo, a 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding Diabolo (Diarado x Roulett M), and was the highest-placed U.S. rider.
“He was a star. He was incredible,” he said. “He’s never jumped in an atmosphere quite like that. Kentucky is one thing, but Aachen is kind of another. He was a little on his toes when he went in there, but he knows the job, and I just knew he was going to do everything in his power to leave the rails up, and he did. I just can’t say enough about him.”
Coleman was thrilled with the team’s finish and said their success was a testament to team management, which included Chef d’Equipe and High Performance Manager Leslie Law and Eventing High Performance Advisor Karyn Shuter, as well as each rider on the team.
“Everybody kept a cool head all week. We had a lot of fun,” he said. “I can’t remember laughing at an event as much as we did this week. It just felt loose; it felt the way it was supposed to feel, like we were all rooting for each other. We didn’t really care who came out on top, we just really wanted the team to succeed, and I think that’s what carried us.”
“We didn’t get off to the greatest start, but everybody kept a really cool head, and we just kept chipping away throughout the course of the weekend,” he continued. “Our management, Leslie and Karyn, exude a certain amount of confidence, and I think we fed off that and tried to make each day the best we could. That’s all you can really control. I thought all four of us did a good job of that.”
Phillip Dutton and Denim, Ann Jones, Ann Lapides, Caroline Moran, and Neill Sites' 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Dinken x Celia II), added 1.2 time penalties to a clear round to finish the weekend in 27th.
Dutton, a veteran team rider who can always be counted on to bring home a finishing score, praised Denim for his heart in the Aachen stadium today.
“He jumped really well and tried really hard,” he said. “It’s a tough track, and the hard thing is you want to be precise but also think about the time allowed. I couldn’t be more pleased with the horse over the whole weekend.”
He knew the stadium would be intimidating compared to the arenas the U.S. horses and riders are accustomed to.
“We don’t get to practice big, open courses, so it’s a little bit out of my comfort zone galloping to jumps like that,” he said. “Usually you’re trying to help them off that front rail a little bit, whereas here, if you start doing that you’re going to be 10 seconds over the time. Nothing compares to being in Aachen—it’s a great thing to be here.”
Germany's Michael Jung earned individual gold on fischerChipmunk FRH on a score of 23.0, followed by Great Britain's Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo (23.4). Her teammate Laura Collett earned individual bronze on London 52 (28.0).
Great Britain took team gold on a score of 84.0, while the home team from Germany earned silver on a score of 95.6.
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