If the pressure felt enormous in today’s team show jumping qualifier, just wait until tomorrow.
Ten teams will be going for three medals as the equestrian portion of the quirky Tokyo Olympics concludes. The candidates were culled from 19 countries (four of which were eliminated) who had to deal with tension and a tight time-allowed over Santiago Varela’s marvelous course. Beautifully put together, it showcased fences reflecting Japanese culture, with outstanding exceptions being the Flamenco fence, complete with ruffled dress and guitar that speaks to the designer’s Spanish heritage, and the Tokyo 2020 obstacle. (Yes, they are still calling it Tokyo 2020 after the cancelled edition of the Games, even though this is 2021.
McLain Ward, who has been the anchor rider on so many occasions to clinch victories for the U.S., found himself in unusual circumstances this time around. He had a fresh horse in Contagious, because they hadn’t contested the individual competitions in Japan, but he also had a horse who hadn’t jumped more than nine or 10 fences with him in the last month or so.
“It was really a new challenge, what Contagious and I had to do,” McLain said after his ride, emphasizing with a sense of humor that the two of them had “been on ice.”
The two team riders preceding him in the competition, Laura Kraut on Baloutinue and Jessie Springsteen on Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, had each dropped a rail. It was up to McLain to make sure the U.S. qualified for a shot at the medals, when everyone will start at zero penalties over what you can bet will be an even more demanding course.
The 82-second time allowed today was tight, as just 15 of the starters finished without time penalties, but time wasn’t as big an issue as going carefully enough to avoid knockdowns instead of focusing on the clock.
Having quite a task before him with Contagious after his long layoff, McLain confessed, “I had a lot of anxiety about it, to be frank, but he was right there for me.”
His round was fault-free until the last line, when his 12-year-old gelding had a rail at the Japanese hair decorations oxer.
“As I turned for home, I wanted to make sure we brought that nice score home. I didn’t fight as hard as I needed to for that oxer,” said McLain, whose careful approach also brought a single time penalty.
McLain Ward and Contagious. (Photo courtesy FEI)
“I knew what the situation was; I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a major blunder.”
With his two other horses, HH Azuur and Noche de la Ronde, out because of injury and other considerations, McLain’s only choice of a ride was Contagious, who had been a super-careful horse, a little shy but brave.
But in Tokyo, “Contagious stepped up. When I originally got to ride Contagious I didn’t think he was an Olympic horse,” McLain said.
“He proved us wrong in that today. I don’t know if he believed he could jump the really big fences. He’s a trier and a fighter and I’m a fighter and a trier. I’m really proud of the horse and feel like he belongs here.”
McLain and Contagious were among 15 entries from around the world that switched into their teams after the individual rounds, under the rule allowing substitutions as part of the revised format used for these Games. They took the place of Kent Farrington with Gazelle, who became the alternate.
Teams only have three members, instead of the usual four that allows a drop score for the worst performance. That really changes the game.
“This new format is a little complicated and a little challenging. I’m very thankful to have a course designer like Santiago, who really in my opinion has been brilliant. There’s no drop score, no room for error, no room for mild mishap. I’m not a fan of three-people teams,” McLain commented.
There are, he concluded, “too many variables to make it great sport in this format, in my opinion. I’m not a huge fan of this format but I think that’s something to discuss another day.”
He praised Jessie and Laura, saying, “Everybody’s going to fight hard tomorrow. We’ve got to focus on what’s the task at hand tomorrow and try to be in the mix.”
Laura, the pathfinder, only got her horse in April, so she is still figuring him out. Going early–she was 13th in the order–“was a little bit of a handicap” under her circumstances, she said.
Laura Kraut and Baloutinue (Photo courtesy U.S. Equestrian)
Her rail came at a Liverpool vertical that she observed could have been the bogey jump when she walked the course, because it was going into a corner with a dark hole behind it.
“I could have gotten six inches closer to it,” she mused, saying she probably should not have left out a stride there and would change her plan accordingly if she had it to do over.
“The objective today is to get into tomorrow. We’ll do enough to get into tomorrow and pull out all the stops then.”
Jessie, who started out 18 rounds after Laura, toppled a plank at the A element of the double of verticals decorated with flowered playing cards that was set before the final fence.
“I thought my horse jumped beautifully,” observed Jessie, for whom Tokyo is her first Olympics.
“My horse has a really big stride, so I try to do the leave-outs to make up for time,” she mentioned, adding she “needed to slow it down a little more.
Jessie Springsteen and Don Juan. (Photo courtesy U.S. Equestrian)
“I was thinking for the time allowed a little bit, but I just needed to regroup before that last line, but I’m thrilled with the way he’s jumping.”
She noted she felt the responsibility of making sure her team qualified for the finals.
“I definitely had a lot more nerves today as opposed to the first day. I want to make everyone at home proud and have a good performance for my teammates,” said Jessie.
Looking toward tomorrow, she said, “I think we’re sitting in a good spot. I know my horse so well and I know he’s really brave and I can really trust him, so that always gives me a great feeling going in.”
Britain was in a more delicate position than the U.S. in terms of making the finals. Scott Brash, a strong player, could not ride in the qualifier because his horse had suffered a slight leg strain during the individual finals. So he was replaced with Harry Charles, who had retired in the individual final after a series of knockdowns with Romeo 88.
They had three rails today, but finished no worse for wear and Britain will go on to the finals.
“The score maybe wasn’t great, but I’m actually very happy,” said Harry, whose father, Peter Charles, rode with Scott and Ben Maher in the 2012 London Games, where Britain won team gold.
Harry knew it wouldn’t be easy to compete as well as he had to today.
“After the round the other night and only finding out yesterday that I was going to be in the team, I had little preparation and the horse has already done two massive rounds. Today was always going to be about giving the horse confidence, I knew I wasn’t going to go clear – the team knew that, too – so the result was pretty good.
“It wasn’t easy, but we just had to get on with it – there was no other way, I couldn’t not jump, so I’m happy that it went as well as it could have done. He ended very good, very confident, and his jump is super, so no harm done today.”
Holly Smith, riding Denver in her first appearance at these Games, delivered a 4-fault round for Britain. She echoed McLain’s thoughts about what it was like to compete in the qualifier without having jumped previously in the arena.
“I was absolutely delighted with the horse,” said Holly. “Believe it or not, he’s not got a lot of experience jumping at this level and, with us not having competed in the individual competition, it was quite something to go in there.
Her performance gave a bit of a cushion for Ben, the anchor rider, who took individual gold earlier in the week with Explosion W.
Ben Maher and Explosion W. (Photo courtesy FEI)
“I had a talk with Scott Brash just before I went in and he said we had a good margin to make the team final tomorrow, so I could take it a little easier,” noted the anchor rider.
“It may sound crazy in this level of competition that I could take it easy, but it just meant I could give him an easier time and if I made a mistake, we’d still make the finals. It was enough, tomorrow’s another day.”
Explosion W put in an extra stride coming into the middle element of the triple combination and ticked off a rail. But they had no time penalties and only a four for the knockdown.
“I was happy with Explosion,” said Ben. “It’s always tough after a very fast round of jumping like the other day and he’s a horse that gets more careful the faster he goes. It’s about giving him the confidence – it’s important that he’s jumping across the oxers. Maybe on the fault I just left him a bit on his own and I could have helped him a little bit more.”
Ben and Explosion are the number-one ranked horse/rider combination in the world and from Ben’s viewpoint, “There weren’t too many decisions to make on the course today,”.
For the double of those playing card planks, just before the final fence, many horses were doing six strides, but Explosion was one of eight or so who went on five.
“I can trust him to jump those planks – it’s like he has laser vision,” Ben observed.
“He can see them and measure them, so the five was always the right option for me.”
For more about today’s qualifier, see the live blog on this website or click here to get results. Follow my live blog of the team finals tomorrow starting at 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. If you want to watch the highlights, it will be on NBC from 3:15-4:15 p.m. EDT tomorrow. See a longer version from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on NBCSN.
