by Nancy Jaffer | Jul 3, 2016
By Nancy Jaffer
July 3, 2016
McLain Ward and HH Azur are leading the U.S. show jumping team to Brazil. (Photo copyright by Nancy Jaffer)
Impressive! That’s the reaction prompted by the announcement of the U.S. Olympic equestrian squads. It’s the most promising group of American athletes headed to the Games since 2004, when the country brought home five medals across the three disciplines, including a team gold in show jumping.
The low point was the 2012 London Olympics, when there were no American equestrian medals for the first time since the 1956 Olympics. That puts on extra pressure for 2016. But through intensive development, training and fundraising efforts, jumping, dressage and eventing teams have emerged that could earn a place on the podium in Rio.
All three coaches are optimistic, without going overboard. As eventing coach David O’Connor noted, “It’s sport, and you never know really what’s going to happen.”
But the U.S. has more depth in all the disciplines than it has enjoyed in years.
It has been said the country could field two successful show jumping teams in Brazil. That was the same assessment bandied about before the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, where the team took gold while Joe Fargis and Conrad Homfeld accounted for the individual gold and silver.
Show jumping coach Robert Ridland is fortunate to know his contingent extremely well– he led the same riders to a team bronze at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. From my sidelines vantagepoint, I saw this one coming, telling Robert several weeks ago an encore for the 2014 team seemed likely to me. Protocol meant he was not allowed to comment, but I remained confident.
It seemed fairly obvious. Can you imagine an Olympic team without two-time Olympic team gold medalist McLain Ward, who rose to number one in the world rankings last month? Especially since he rides the spectacular HH Azur, winner of the grand prix in Rome last month against the world’s best?
With Rothchild, Ward was fifth at the WEG, missing the “Final Four” by one spot.
“He set the bar pretty high,” said Ridland, noting that this time, “you probably would say he is in a stronger position. We’re pretty excited about that.”
And what about Beezie Madden, Ward’s teammate on the Olympic gold medal squads, with an individual Olympic bronze to her credit? She also came home with an individual bronze from her trip to the WEG with Cortes C. You couldn’t leave her off the team.
Kent Farrington, the second-highest-placed U.S. rider at number six on the international roster, has had vast success with Voyeur. Lucy Davis, the rookie of the 2014 WEG squad, “made a pretty big statement,” as Ridland put it, during two Olympic observation events with six fault-free trips in seven rounds on Barron. Two years on, and with the WEG experience behind her, she has more to offer the team than she did in 2014.
“We’ve got four really strong horse/rider combinations,” Ridland observed.
Show jumping has the greatest number of countries that could be medal possibilities. In addition to the world champion Dutch, the Germans always are a threat and France can be impressive. The British, gold medalists in 2012, are without two of that squad’s powerhouse horses that made gold happen. Team member Scott Brash, who has been number one in the world, isn’t playing because two of his mounts are out of action.
Other squads with possibilities include Ukraine (composed of riders from outside its borders), Switzerland, Sweden and Quatar with its high-priced horses. Brazil has the incentive to do well at home, but it’s a longshot.
It will be interesting to see how the U.S. team does against many of the major players when it takes the field for its last big prep at Aachen, Germany, July 12-17.
None of the Olympic dressage team horse/rider combinations are on the 5-star squad for Aachen, with the exception of alternate Shelley Francis (Doktor). Steffen Peters will ride Rosamunde, who is the direct reserve for Legolas in Rio.
Meanwhile, Olympic combos Peters with Legolas and Kasey Perry-Glass (Goerklintgaard’s Dublet) will appear in the 4-star at Aachen.
Neither Laura Graves (Verdades) nor Ali Brock (Rosevelt) are competing at the German show.
Explaining why, coach Robert Dover said of Laura, “She is so on it now and having won her last class in Rotterdam (the final observation trial) with such a high score (77.314 percent) and feeling so confident, then what we’ll do are several dress rehearsals between now and the Olympics. She didn’t need to do another show.”
Laura Graves was a star with Verdades in the run-up to Rio. (Photo copyright 2016 by Nancy Jaffer)
As for Brock, who had done two of the three competitions for team aspirants in the Netherlands, Dover said, “everything she does is pretty mistake-free, and for her, it’s really just about having all the expression and the feeling of electricity, so we didn’t feel she needed to go out again.”
As for Peters’ particpation, Dover observed, “Steffen loves Aachen. He’s had such great shows there. Both of his two horses are still evolving into better animals, with more quality every time I see them. I never second-guess Steffen.”
Dover enthuses about his group, most of whom have been in Europe for two months, “It’s the most wonderful crew of human beings. They’re like a family together. They’ve been this way from the winter on. They support each other at home, they support each other. They were supporting each other when they were competing against each other for these cherished team spots. As a coach, you can’t want more than that. It was very heartwarming.”
Team spirit is important, as Dover observed.
“What I love is that we’re going in as a team that is renowned now as being a contending team. On any given day, just like with the jumpers, there’s going to be that team that has the luck of the day and has done all their homework.
“We know that the Germans are very strong; we know that the British, if (defending Olympic titleist) Valegro is at his very best, is a hard team to beat as well. And we know that the Dutch are very strong. But I think they are saying the same things about America right now. That’s always the nice way to go into an event.”
The German team will be announced at Aachen, and no doubt it will be a contender for gold in Rio; Germany has three of the top four combinations in the world rankings. The Dutch won’t be at Aachen; their national championship is at the same time.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Edward Gal, who is supposed to ride Glock’s Voice at the championship. He has had a checkered year, with physical problems for both himself and his horses. But even without him, the Netherlands edged the U.S. last month at Rotterdam in the team competition.
Great Britain, which won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, has the record-holding Valegro with Charlotte Dujardin, but the two haven’t competed since last summer’s European Championships. Her trainer and mentor, Carl Hester, is the top-ranked British rider at number 10 with Nip Tuck, and Fiona Bigwood recently moved up to number 14 with Aaterupgaards Orthilia, so they’re in with a good chance. Sweden could be in contention for a medal, while Spain has number two-ranked Beatriz Ferrer-Salat with Delgado, but no one else in the top 50.
Eventing is always the most unpredictable discipline to figure, because one misstep on cross-country can ruin a team’s medal chances. But anyone who bets against Germany this time would be foolish. With defending Olympic champion Michael Jung, the world number one, leading the way (he said his choice to ride in Rio is Fischer Takinou) and world champion Sandra Auffarth right behind him, Germany is the solid gold medal favorite.
Great Britain (which names its team Tuesday) is more of a question mark than usual because its pillar, William Fox-Pitt, has come back from a horrific accident that left him out of the action for many months. France is a nation on the rise and also looks like medal material. New Zealand is a threat, even without its longtime star, Andrew Nicholson, and with Tim Price as a reserve instead of on the team itself following an injury to his top horse. You can never count out Australia, either.
O’Connor can take comfort in having a deeper well from which to draw than usual, and top riders with several options. Phillip Dutton, world number three, is on the squad with Fernhill Cubalawn, but he also has Mighty Nice and Fernhill Fugitive as direct reserves in case of adversity.
Phillip Dutton was named to the team with Fernhill Cubalawn and two other direct reserves. (Photo copyright 2016 by Nancy Jaffer)
Boyd Martin, number seven in the world, was named with Blackfoot Mystery, but Welcome Shadow (second in the CCI 3-star at the Jersey Fresh International) is a direct reserve. World number 11, Lauren Kieffer (Veronica, and Meadowbrook’s Scarlett as direct reserve) is joined by British-based Clark Montgomery with Loughan Glen. Reserve rider Maya Black (Doesn’t Play Fair) is young but steady.
O’Connor, who like Ridland and Dover took over the coaching job following the disappointing 2012 Games, puts it this way: “The ship has turned. Now we’re just working on getting some speed up on the ship. The nice thing is that a couple of the more experienced guys have multiple horses. We’ve got some new people coming in that have been out there and gotten some experience under their belts,” said O’Connor, including Kieffer in that group.
He noted that an important plus in this group is the fact that “Morale is high, for each other; not for just one person. Attitude is really important. Everybody feels like there’s a lot of confidence.”
This team is characterized by hard-working doers and achievers with the right attitude for success.
“The one thing you really can’t teach is that twist that you want to be a champion and you can produce horses that way,” O’Connor said. “That internal drive, you can support it, but you’ve got to come with that desire.”
From the big picture perspective, Rio is looking like a very problematic Games. You’ve heard about the crime, the unfinished venues, the transportation links that still need work. A little more than two weeks ago, the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a “state of public calamity.” The governor said a financial crisis could bring about “a total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management.”
Police and firefighters who hadn’t been paid were greeting arrivals at the Rio airport last week with a sign that that read, “Welcome to hell.”
Meanwhile, 150 prominent doctors, bioethicists and scientists from around the world asked for the Olympics to be moved or postponed because of the Zika epidemic, though it is expected that since it will be winter in Rio (seasons are opposite below the equator) less mosquitoes will be around to carry the disease.
But the coaches are undaunted. Actually, the equestrian venue at Deodoro, where the 2007 Pan American Games were held, is in decent shape compared with the locations for several other sports.
Dover notes people worried that the infrastructure for the 2004 Games in Athens wouldn’t be finished in time, but it was. The six-time Olympian said that in his experience as a rider, there were concerns about every Games, except the 1984 competition in Los Angeles, yet all turned out well.
“In all probability,” he contends, “we’ll look back and say the competition and venue ended up being as fine as the previous games.
“It’s going to be fine,” Ridland agrees.
“We’ve got a job to do, we’re going there and that’s what the deal is.”
This column was revised at 10:20 a.m. on July 4, 2016.
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 19, 2016
By Nancy Jaffer
June 19, 2016
Four-star eventer and author Doug Payne is one of the best known Pony Club alumni from New Jersey.
Where do young people go to learn about horses if they’re interested not only in riding, but also in finding out how to take care of their mounts and make lasting friendships in the process?
Answer: Pony Club. Such star equestrian athletes as U.S. eventing coach and Olympic gold medalist David O’Connor and Olympic show jumping gold medalist Melanie Smith Taylor are among the most prominent alumni. Of more recent vintage are dressage Olympian Adrienne Lyle; her cousin, Maya Black, a contender for the Olympic eventing team; New Jersey Pony Club eventers Doug and Holly Payne and scores of others whose names you’d recognize.
Yet while it’s nice to become a star, that’s not really the point.
“Pony Club is where it all begins,” said Karol Wilson, the U.S. Pony Club’s member services and regional administration director, quoting the organization’s slogan. She noted Pony Club is the largest equestrian educational organization world-wide.
“There’s a long-standing history with the New Jersey region,” said Karol.
“They’re excellent representatives of what Pony Club does, from the grassroots or beginning level all the way up to the A level and those who go on to be Olympians,” she said.
Pony Club emphasizes horsemanship, and in the process, other qualities are developed.
Members of the New Jersey Region Pony Clubs (njregionponyclub.org) are “learning self-esteem, self-discipline, setting goals, learning to fail.” says regional supervisor Cathy Brogan of Frenchtown.
“I think that’s one of the big things that we teach our kids: Everything can go wrong but tomorrow the sun comes up and you go forward. I think that’s a priceless tool. You don’t get an award for showing up, you’ve got to earn it,” she said.
Teamwork also is part of the package for the kids who become involved in Pony Club, which is a low-cost alternative to many other forms of equestrian involvement.
“They make lifelong friends and network together,” Cathy pointed out.
Riding lessons are a key part of the package, of course, as is offering opportunities for “good shows at first-class facilities.”
The New Jersey Region staged unrecognized horse trials last month at the Horse Park of New Jersey. Next month, it has two shows at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation’s Gladstone facility. An open dressage show will be held there July 23, with a “day for eventers” July 24, featuring dressage eventing tests, combined tests and an eventing derby that includes both stadium jumping and a short cross-country course.
WOW Camp, with outside instructors, runs at the Horse Park at the same time as the U.S. Eventing Association’s Area II YRAP (Young Riders Advancement Program). There are other instances of doing things with different groups, such as the animal adopt-a-thon at the horse trials, which drew 110 vendors.
New Jersey Region Pony Club competitors at the national championships. Cathy Brogan is at far right, middle row.
“One thing that really stands out for me about Cathy and what she has done for Pony Club in the New Jersey region is collaborating with other associations and educational opportunities and things beyond, outreach and cross-over type activities that Cathy fosters that give the Pony Clubbers an extra opportunity to apply Pony Club to the outside horse world.” said Karol.
“A lot of the regions we have across the country don’t have those opportunities, or they don’t capitalize on them. She shows that you can be in Pony Club and do other things and how they work together, rather than competing with each other.”
Although she is now the grandmother of seven, Cathy feels so strongly about Pony Club’s values and impact on young people that she has stayed involved, remaining in charge of all the clubs in the state, except for the very southern part.
New Jersey has three Pony Club Centers where members can ride horses owned by the facility if they don’t have their own animals. Cathy estimated 60 to 65 percent of her members are in that category, which is different from the case years ago, when many members owned mounts or could borrow them from friends.
“The traditional Pony Club model was the hand-me-down pony that went from one kid to the next,” recalled former USPC CEO Kevin Price.
The centers are Saddle Ridge in Franklin Lakes; Irish Manor Stable, Sergeantsville, and Piedmont Riding Stables in Hopewell.
Getting out of the ring is an important part of what Pony Club is about. In increasingly urbanized New Jersey, like other areas that continue to develop, “riding in the open is not a reality for most kids,” said Cathy, noting Pony Club counteracts that by enabling members to utilize the property of trail associations or canter through hunt country.
Other activities include the famous Pony Club Games, gymkhanas that you may have seen at Rolex Kentucky or the Central Park show. Public service also can play a role. Cathy noted, for instance, that members of Pinelands Riders in the Columbus area of South Jersey are helping out a woman who is ill and can’t take care of her horses, so they’re going to her farm to ride the animals and handle the chores.
Someone recently was commenting to Cathy about kids who weren’t behaving at horse shows.
“We don’t have that problem in Pony Club,” she replied.
“Even when we run a show open for the public, we’re not running a hunter/jumper show; it’s usually dressage or eventing. It’s a different group of people. Eventing, you don’t go do it just because you want a ribbon, it takes more effort than that. And the same with dressage. You have to think about it.”
In Pony Club competitions, members are “being judged on how they interact as a team…not as an individual…and their care of the horse all day, from the time they arrive until they go home. They get penalty points if they aren’t correct.”
Everyone undergoes a formal inspection, and teams have a fifth member, the stable manager, who helps them.
Heather Perry and Camille Lieberman hacking out Pony Club Games ponies in Central Park.
She said membership in the region’s eight clubs has been relatively static, with approximately 160 kids involved, down about 20 from last year. Cathy noted it’s cyclical, with kids graduating all the time and then new children coming in.
Kevin Price, now executive director of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association, is a graduate of the Fox and Hounds Pony Club in Burlington County.
He observed that there increasingly is a call for more horsemanship in various breeds and disciplines.
“The world of equestrian sport not as flat as it used to be, with a lot more horizons and possibilities for those entering the sport and who are in the sport,” he said.
Yet “Pony Club still in many aspects fills that niche of horsemanship and horse management because that is the central core of its whole culture. I call Pony Club a culture because it is the culture of managing and caring for the horse. Part of the Pony Club process also teaches a whole range of other skill sets to its members,” Kevin said, noting Pony Club has amplified its offerings to meet the changing needs of the horse community with a variety of tracks (from dressage and show jumping to horse management) that go beyond the eventing/fox hunting milieu that was its original foundation.
From the parents’ side, he said, they “are always looking at not only the value of riding horses and the activity their kids are involved in; they are looking at the end value of how this can make them a better citizen and improve their potential to go to college and get a job. The Pony Club structure and the testing process (for certificates and certifications) is also backed up by that standard of education: `Here’s what I learned to be awarded that.’
“It’s a meaningful outcome for parents who say, `Yup, this has a lot of end value.’ They also see the growth of their child, not only the team and leadership skills they’re learning as they’re going through the process. Pony Club as an organization is hard to duplicate.”
He added the success of Pony Club, “all comes down to the quality of the volunteers and the passion they have to provide quality education that’s rounded. Cathy carries on that time-honored tradition and culture. If we could clone Cathy, it would be great.”
Much of her volunteer inspiration came from her late father, Bill Keegan, who was active at Watchung Stables and with the Spring Valley Hounds.
If something needs to be done, Cathy’s reaction is, “Well, just jump in and do it. don’t wait for someone else to do it. That was the way he was.”
Cathy first got involved with Pony Club at Spring Valley in New Vernon in 1978, when she became the leader there. Her 47-year-old son, Tim Brogan, is an adult member of pony club and his daughter, Barbara, 14, is also a member, carrying on the family tradition.
“The kids are the reason I do it; they’re awesome. It keeps you young,” said Cathy.
“You get a different perspective on life. It’s not just taking lessons. It’s a whole way of life, it’s a whole family. Everybody reaches out and helps everybody else,” Cathy said.
“If somebody’s horse comes up lame, somebody else will say, `Why don’t you try my horse for now?’ Everybody’s talking the same language. The goals we have for our kids are all the same: Make them very independent, very nice adults.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Apr 24, 2016
By Nancy Jaffer
April 24, 2016
Gladstone will offer a chance once again for combined drivers to test their skills at a venue with a long history in the sport
The Gladstone Driving Event, once the most important sporting competition of its kind in the country, is making a comeback next month at Hamilton Farm, home of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.
The event, admired all over the world in its heyday, has been held on and off over the last decade or so. It was not staged in 2015 due to a lack of entries.
With a later spot on the calendar this year, there is more enthusiasm from drivers as they have additional time to get their horses fit. Even so, organizers wisely are keeping it on a manageable small scale.
On Saturday, May 21, competition in the Pine Meadow section of the property will include dressage and cones for exhibitors in both the combined test division and the driving trials section. Competition that day should run from approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. or a little later. For the trials division, the Sunday will be devoted to the marathon, running from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through the hazards (complex obstacles) that have proven a compelling challenge over the years. The horse-and driver-friendly route has been laid out by well-known course designer Marc Johnson.
Tricia Haertlein, president of Gladstone Driving, noted that 17 enthusiastic volunteers cleared the hazards of sticks and brush.
“The hazards are pretty well ready to go,” she said, adding trails through the area are still being cleaned up.
Pine Meadow was the scene of the World Pair Driving Championship in 1993, the culmination of years of building up the sport in this country. Under the direction and sponsorship of the late Finn Caspersen, European competitors were brought to Gladstone to give American drivers experience in facing the world’s best drivers and their horses. When the U.S. earned a team gold medal in the World Pairs Driving Championship in 1991, it offered an opportunity for the country to host the event two years later.
That was a fabulous show, with a record 23 countries participating. Everything after that was an anti-climax, however. As New Jersey drivers retired, died or moved south, the base of the sport in this area diminished and Gladstone downsized.
“We used to be a hotbed of local people driving,” said Tricia.
“Now we need to count on more people coming from a distance,” she explained.
“There’s people out there driving; we just have to get them interested in combined driving.”
Heather Walker, who ran driving events–including Gladstone–for years, noted the entire sport isn’t what it was in this country.
She said selectors who are picking squads for the world championships this year in four-in-hands and singles had only four of the former and six of the latter from which to choose.
In 2010, when the four-in-hand world championship was held as part of the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, 14 fours tried out. And she recalled that in 1995, “there were 15 singles–there might have even been 20”–vying for slots on the U.S. world championships team.
13-time national four-in-hand champion Chester Weber, seen here in 2003, was a regular at Gladstone, where he got his start in competition. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)
While show jumping, eventing and dressage are thriving, driving has drawbacks those other disciplines do not.
Heather, chairman of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Driving Technical Committee, said “the culture has changed so much” and for kids, “that kind of activity is not what they do. Driving is not something you can do by yourself. When something goes wrong with a carriage, it goes crazily wrong. You need someone there with you.
“When you’re going to a show, you need transport of the carriage as well as the horse. It’s a more complicated sport.” It can be expensive, too. And she pointed out, “the economy is a huge drain on people’s time as well as their money” especially when few people’s work week is limited to 40 hours.
So how to rebuild?
“We need events that are competitor-friendly and that people can start at, on a lower level, a casual level, where you don’t need two sets of harness and can get people interested,” she commented.
The four-in-hands that once were the stars of Gladstone but have become scarce in the U.S. these days aren’t on the program next month. It is limited to Training, Preliminary and Intermediate levels for singles and pair ponies and horses, as well as Very Small Equines (miniature horses).
“We’re hopeful. We’ve got a decent entry in each class,” Tricia said, saying organizers would like to have between 30 and 40 competitors who are looking to get started in the sport or move up to another division.
“Looking at who’s around here right now, this is the level of show we need to be doing. You have to build your own constituency.”
“Once they get here, we’re going to take really good care of them,” she continued, explaining an anonymous donor is providing breakfast and lunch daily for the competitors.
Tricia emphasized that it’s a competitor-friendly competition but while spectators are welcome at no charge, they should be aware that there won’t be food on the grounds for them.
The event, chaired by longtime volunteer Gayle Stinson, will be judged by internationally known drivers and longtime Gladstone competitors Sem Groenewoud and Lisa Singer, as well as pleasure driving judge Mary Harrison in cones. That segment will be staged against a backdrop of trees on the historic Main Drive lawn.
