The U.S. didn’t bring its Paris Olympic eventing team to Aachen, but the squad that finished second Saturday at the International Equestrian Festival demonstrated the country has some impressive depth for the future.
Chef d’Equipe Bobby Costello said the riders’ performances and their placing “proved a couple of things. One, that the U.S. is here to stay and we intend on being a player at the highest level of the sport. But I also was excited we came here with a mixed team, either riders who did not have a lot of international experience, and also a couple of young horses with more experienced riders.
“To me that was the cool thing,” he continued, noting it demonstrates that Eventing Emerging and Developing Coach Leslie Law’s program “is really working and the pathway all the way to the top is producing results.”
The British – the favorites for Olympic gold with different horses and three other riders — won the SAP Cup title handily with a score of 112.8 penalties. (Olympic team member Laura Collett rode DaCapo here, but will be aboard London 52 in Paris). The USA accumulated 123.7 penalties, while Ireland was third on 138.
James Alliston was the top finisher of the U.S. contingent, ninth on Karma. Alyssa Phillips finished fourteenth on Oskar, Liz Halliday sixteenth with Shanroe Cooley and Hallie Coon’s stop with Cute Girl at the next-to-last cross-country fence put her thirtieth.
James Alliston and Karma, the top-finishing U.S. pair in eventing, on cross-country at Aachen. (Photo U.S. Equestrian)
James moved up from thirty-third in dressage to twenty-third after the best show jumping round of the competition, and wound up ninth overall. He was fourth in the cross-country phase, with just 2.40 time penalties over a course designed for the last time by Rudiger Schwarz.
Bobby noted that when he and the riders walked the “masterfully designed” course, it seemed, “significantly less intense than the previous two years I’ve been here. But we knew with it being Aachen and the speed factor and everything coming up so quickly, it wasn’t going to be a cakewalk but it was really interesting that it caused as much trouble as it did. We knew not to take it for granted but we had a simple plan we tend to like to stick with, as clean and as fast as we can go, get all the jumps done first.”
James called his first time at Aachen, “An awesome experience. Being in a team dynamic, you don’t get to experience that all the time. There’s been more pressure and you have to deal with that sort of thing.”
The U.S. eventing team victory gallop: Liz Halliday, James Alliston, Alyssa Phillips and Hallie Coon. (Photo US Equestrian)
In that intance, the team’s pathfinder on cross-country noted, “going first is a little bit more challenging.” But he added, “I was really happy with the horse. We had a great environment with all the teammates. We weren’t far away from gold either, a few little things could have been different.”
Of Karma, the Californian noted, “She’s an exciting horse, a really good athlete, good jumper, a lot of energy. The dressage has taken a little bit of time.”
But James quickly mentioned that the mare is “definitely moving in the right direction.”
He thinks the Oldenburg, a mere 10 years old, will relax and improve “as she learns the sport and learns the first phase.”
Karma was bred on the west coast by Casey Crowley’s family in Oregon. Her trainer found she was freezing in the arena, so he sent her to James. When he phoned a few weeks later to find out how she was doing, James advised that while Karma was not freezing anymore, she was “sort of flying around.”
James said Karma was “pretty hot, and as a result, he said, I don’t think I can sell her.”
“So then they said, `Do you want her?’ and James’ answer was, of course, “yes.”
In October, the Maryland 5-star is “a possibility” for James and Karma, but he noted they had done a lot in a short amount of time. So he is “a little bit cautious of going too gung-ho.”
Individual gold went to Germany’s Julia Krajewski for the second time. She also won in 2018.
Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21, individual winners in eventing. (Hubert Fischer photo)
“Winning Aachen is something very special, almost as big as a championship,” said the only woman to take individual gold in Olympic eventing.
Of her victory, she said, “I don’t think it’s something many people predicted,” adding that “makes it very special.”
It was also very emotional.
“We cried a lot. The owner is still crying,” she chuckled.
Despite losing a shoe, her mount didn’t miss a beat.
“Nickel is such a genuine horse who wants to do everything right. He basically waits for me to tell him what to do and then he does it.”
Click here for team results
Click here for individual results
