The U.S. team stayed in sixth place, behind leaders Britain, Germany and France, as the dressage phase of world championships eventing wrapped up Friday.
The best individual finish for the country, in eighth, belonged to Tamie Smith on Lillet 3 with 27 penalties. That is five penalties behind the leader, Germany’s Julia Krajewski — the first woman ever to win Olympic eventing individual gold. She rides Uelzener’s Nickel.
Julie is just 0.8 penalties ahead of British powerhouse Laura Collett and London 52, who in turn is only 0.2 penalties in front of the master, Michael Jung and fischer Chipmunk FRH.
So Tamie is in good company. But whoops, she isn’t on the U.S. team. After all, she does have a young untested horse.
The next best score for the Stars and Stripes is Will Coleman (the only American to have won the annual Aachen eventing competition.) He is in twenty-first place with Diabolo on 30 penalties.
Boyd Martin, the other American who rode on the second day of eventing dressage, is twenty-fifth with 30.9 penalties on Cooley Nutcracker.
Tamie’s 10-year-old Holsteiner mare is doing her first international championships, and as her rider noted about Aachen’s electric vibes, “you don’t know what they’re going to do in an atmosphere like that.”
Tamie and Lillet 3
So Tamie was delighted to find, “She’s just like a seasoned pro in there. She’s so young and wouldn’t have ever seen something like that. I was really proud of her. Her trot work was so fluid, she felt like a spider in there, it was really cool.”
Tamie did a bit of experimentation and rode her in a double bridle, after getting some hints from dressage master Jo Hinnemann.
Asked about the highlights of her test, Tamie replied, “She stayed with me every stride. She just tried so hard, but tried in a really relaxed manner. she was just so `with’ me.”
Although Lillet is a warmblood, Tamie believes “She’s very thoroughbredy,” which will be a plus on the winding cross-country course Saturday.
“Luckily, she likes to go fast…and turn. That is her specialty. So I just have to be good.”
Will, who missed the Paris Olympics two years ago when Diabolo and his back-up horse were injured, understandably is especially eager to make the ost of this championship opportunity.
Speaking about his test, he said, “There were some good things, but maybe we just had a hard time putting the test together today.”
Of his horse, Will observed, “He was almost a little lazy, the only place he was a little sensitive was during the walk tour,” which he termed, “a little bit hairy,” saying the horse was on eggshells.
“It’s his first championship,” Will explained.
“It’s a lot of work in 3 1/2 minutes, no time to give them a minute to relax. My energy level wasn’t where I wanted it to be. It was really hot. I’m not super- displeased. It just wasn’t a great test for us,” said Will, before walking off to get a much-needed drink of water.
But as he pointed out before leaving, “We’ve got a lot of weekend left.”
He called the cross-country “a very testing track, a very different track from Kentucky,” which is where he won the 5-Star this year.
Will Coleman and Diabolo..
Cooley Nutcracker was the mount of Boyd’s 2024 Paris Olympic teammate, Liz Halliday, who has been sidelined since a month after the Games with a traumatic brain injury. She will be riding in para dressage now, so her horses have been given to other riders and Boyd has been busy with this one.
Boyd said he was “pretty pleased” with his test, while noting, “you always dream of this perfect test…”
Of Cooley Nutcracker, Boyd said, “He’s a quirky horse. A very quiet, laid-back horse in the stable. When you’re riding, he’s so sharp and quick.When it’s time to perform he puts his head down and does a good job.”
Of course, it hasn’t been easy and took a lot of work to get their relationship to where it is today.
Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker.
“I nearly got him back to where she (Liz) had him.”
He practiced by riding some of the horses in the string of his wife, Silva, a dressage trainer, to “get how its supposed to feel.”
Assessing the course, he mentioned, “It’s not a real big track, like Kentucky, Badminton or Burghley (all 5-Stars).”
At the same time, “This is equally as hard, if not harder.”
With the angles laid out, even though it’s a flat course, he thinks the horses will get very tired, winding back and forth.
He called it “energy zapping.”
The cross-country starts at 3:15 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday. Click here for start times. Click here for individual standings. Click here for team standings.
