On the Line

Business is business and all, but for those who would never sell their most valuable horse, there are other options. . .

If you’re a regular follower of this blog, you know that Sapphire was cloned last year.

No, not that Sapphire  -

Sapphire, 15 year old Belgian Warmblood mare.

This Sapphire -

Sapphire, 19 year old Holsteiner gelding.

That’s right. There are other Sapphires, famous ones even. This one was a famous show jumper in his own right (Pan Am Games gold, 2003.) He was also was one of the first famous jumpers to be cloned. I find cloning and all its controversy terribly interesting, so when the opportunity presented itself to see Sapphire the grey gelding and his clone during WEG, I went. Read about my visit, and my first face-to-face experience with a real live clone here.

But wait. This just in:

(drumroll please)

It seems that THE Sapphire has indeed been cloned as well. This little tidbit will appear in the next Sidelines Ingate column:

“McLain Ward says his golden mare Sapphire was cloned twice. The foals look quite different, but they’re sound. ‘One foal is big and strong like Sapphire, the other one lost its surrogate mother and suffered from that. It’s much lighter, but it’s all right now,’ McLain said. Plans for the real Sapphire include CSI5* Brussels and CSI5* Paris before settling down in Loxahatchee for the remainder of the winter season.“

Oh really. I asked McLain back in January if there were plans afoot to clone Sapphire, and he laughed me off. Not that I expected him to spill his secrets to a nosy journalist, but still. No word yet on how old the clones are, where they’re living or who cloned them. And now I have just one question.

These Sapphire clones. Are they for sale?

Photo © christinagraydesigns.com

I know this much; there are many sad Facebook followers out there right now. 7,386 to be exact. It was reported by Horse & Hound this week that Totilas has reached his new home in Germany. I may have been skeptical about the whole “saving Totilas” crusade, but the H&H article was sad enough to melt even this skeptic’s heart. Poor Edward, fighting back tears and unable to watch his WEG Freestyle video in public. No one can knock the inevitable heartbreak when a favorite horse leaves your stable forever.

Last week those “Steun Edward en Totilas” Facebook fans still had their pipe dream – the sporting rights to the world’s most valuable horse were kinda, maybe up for sale. But it’s a new week, and the latest is that Paul Shockemohle is going to give Totilas a break from competition and choose a rider for him sometime in the future.

Ah well. Hope was nice while it lasted, but money talks and Cees Visser can always buy more friends if he so desires.

Further proving the point that it pays to strike while the iron is hot, La Biosthetique-Sam, the horse that carried Michael Jung to the eventing individual gold at WEG is offered for sale, and his price is rumored to be around 2 million pounds. Michael is trying to keep him, but so far no one has started a “Save Michael and Sam” page. . . .

Michael Jung on the way to individual gold at WEG. Photo © Lauren Giannini

And Neville Bardos, the top-placing American eventing horse at WEG, is up for syndication. At $15,000 plus a $3,000/year maintenance fee, that’s downright affordable! Boyd Martin (aka USEA’s resident hottie) is Neville’s rider, and spelled out all the details on his blog. In the interest of full disclosure, he even posted the syndicate contract. But I think part c should be amended to read, “Shareholders are granted the right to visit Neville Bardos wherever he is stabled, provided that Boyd Martin is present and available to flash his pearly whites and chat with said shareholder.”

There's nothing wrong with the backside of Boyd and Neville! Photo © Lauren Giannini

Kidding, kidding. In all seriousness, Boyd is making a smart move with the syndicate, and as Neville will be in prime form for the 2012 Olympics, finding those shareholders will be a piece of cake.

At the end of the day, we’re all in the horse business, aren’t we? It’s a rare horse person who’s never made a deal of some kind, even if they aren’t in it for the money. All of the world-class horses mentioned above will want for nothing, no matter who their owners are.

But, just in case anyone out there is forgetting that money can’t buy chemistry, take a moment to absorb the sage words of Isabel Werth:

“This selling of Totilas is part of our sport . . .but riding Totilas is no warrant for a Gold Medal at the next Olympics. The comprehension between the rider and his horse has to be right – it’s very possible that the chemistry between them does not work, and our sport is a couple’s business.”

(For Isabel’s full statement go here)

Photo © christinagraydesigns.com

Ah, Facebook. Where people the world over go to spy on each others’ lives, post irrelevant photos, and save Moorlands Totilas.

No, the 15 million-Euro stallion isn’t in harm’s way. Even before the sale that rocked the entire horse world, he was guaranteed to live like an equine king for the rest of his life. But the entire nation of Holland is spitting mad at the loss of their top dressage horse, and they’re mobilizing in the most natural way known to modern man: by making a Facebook page, of course.

One quick aside: All this furor over the sale of Moorlands Totilas to German breeder Paul Schockemöhle is equal to the uproar that would explode in the United States if, say, Sapphire were sold off to the show jumpers of Germany. Luckily, McLain Ward owns part of Sapphire and that will never happen, but wouldn’t the many fans of Team USA just lose it if that happened?  Let’s empathize with those poor, poor Dutch dressage fans for just a minute.

(Don't worry Sapphire, you're priceless.)

But back to Facebook. “Steun Edward Gal en Totilas” has nearly 6,000 followers and is growing by about 1,000 members per day. It only takes a minute to wade through all the Dutch before the mission becomes clear –  the page represents a grassroots movement to keep Edward Gal and Totilas together.

The idea of it invites skepticism. Who really expects Paul Shockemohle to bend to anyone’s will after all the Euros he shelled out for dressage’s most famous horse ever? The sale of Totilas was between his former owner and Shockemohle, and very much out of anyone else’s hands. Other roadblocks stand in the way of Edward ever competing with Totilas again – no one’s going to be sidestepping the rule that a horse’s owner and rider must be of the same country for the pair to compete in the Olympics. German owner + Dutch rider . . .sorry, it’s just not going to happen.

But, the page has good intentions. It states that:

“A groundswell of opinion CAN CHANGE MINDS and can bring other sponsorship opportunities, in order to enable Totilas and Edward to continue their brilliancy, together.”

Followers are instructed to write every publication and television station in Europe expressing their desire to see dressage’s golden pair stay together. But wait – sponsorship opportunities? Is that even an option?

It seems so.

Yesterday Robert Dover premiered his new radio show live over airwaves in south Florida and online. Robert has been promoting the show nonstop on Facebook (naturally) and after all the teasers and especially his tagline of “it’s in to be out” I was tempted to have a listen. It was a very good show, but it got great when Robert brought on his “International Reporter” Lita Dove.

And did she ever have the goods on Totilas. Lita reported that “Schockemöhle has announced that he is selling the competition rights, the rights to sit on this horse and be ridden by another rider.”

However, in addition to stating that famous German riders such as Isabell Werth have publicly stated that they will never ride the stallion, Lita also mentioned a few German riders who were said to have already bought the competition rights, even though nothing is confirmed. Lita’s story didn’t end there, and the entire radio show is a good listen. It’s available online here.

It all makes for some good food for thought. Could Facebook spawn the movement that keeps Edward Gal and Totilas together? Stranger things have  happened. Case in point: a Facebook campaign 500,000 members strong was the catalyst that saw Betty White host Saturday Night Live in May. In April, a Facebook page protesting education cuts in New Jersey sparked mass budget protests across the state. And this month, an openly gay politician in Ireland announced that he is running for president thanks to a Facebook group that implored him to do so.

I for one am still skeptical. But if that Irish politician is elected president, well. . . . then maybe anything’s possible.

Well, the horse world sure did spin yesterday. Most successful dressage horse ever sold for highest price ever. It was just one more example that the worst part of being a professional never really changes, and even if you’re the most successful rider in the world, a horse can still be lost to dollar signs and business deals.

Of course, Edward Gal will ride again, although finding a horse that equals the “living legend” will be impossible. Details of Moorlands Totilas’ sale were hashed to death yesterday all over the Internet (even the mighty Eurodressage.com crashed due to overwhelming traffic), so I’ll keep the speculation on the whos and whats of Totilas’ future to myself. At least until the identity of Totilas’ new rider, or some other interesting tidbit, breaks.

After all, I’m still trying to get over the post-WEG depression. Whether you were there in person or just following all the action online in true news junkie-style, there have got to be others out there who share the feeling. Is there a little voice in your head that screams, if the biggest horse show in the world is over, what do we possibly have to look forward to now?!? Truly, there is nothing quite like the World Equestrian Games coming up until the summer of 2012, at least. That seems a long way off right now. However, due to our performance at WEG, the U.S.A. does have the pleasure of sending a very strong show jumping team to the Pan American Games next year, with the added pressure that we must do well in order to qualify for the London Olympics.

Sigh. Moving on. I’ll miss the WEG press conferences and late nights typing away in the press center (really, I will) just as much as I’ll miss gaping at the odd disciplines and odder Kentuckians I came across during the Games. Despite the bad and the ugly, and because of the good, WEG is one car rental fortune-tinged trip that I wouldn’t have missed for the world.

And while right now life seems like it can’t possibly be as exciting as it was from September 30^th to October 10^th, yesterday showed us that the horse world never sleeps.

Oh Edward, how sweet it was. . . Photo © Lauren Giannini

Silly me, thinking that with WEG over and all, there would be nothing of interest in the news this week. And then – SHOCKER – Moorlands Totilas is sold!

Suddenly, the night of October 1^st takes on more importance. It seems that myself and the 25,000 others who packed the main stadium at WEG for dressage freestyle night saw more than we bargained for. We not only saw the incredible Moorlands Totilas break another world record, scoring a 91.80% in the freestyle and officially sweeping the dressage medals, we also very likely were witness to the last time that Edward Gal would compete with him.

We might have also seen the last time that Totilas will compete in dressage, although I certainly hope not. Even though the news of a potential sale had been rumored for weeks, it was still a shock to read this morning that Totilas’ owners have sold him to German breeder (and legendary show jumper) Paul Schockemöhle for somewhere between 12 and 15 million Euro.

The press release from Cees Visser, Totilas’ now former owner said that “after Kentucky, we could no longer ignore the interest in the stallion. Therefore, the time came to discuss matters with one another, and we decided to let Moorland’s Totilas go.”

Translation: cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching!

During WEG Edward denied that a sale was in progress, but of course he would. How sad for him, to see this horse of a lifetime leave his barn. As much as I can’t imagine what a privilege it would be to ride a horse like this, I also can’t imagine the sadness of losing him like this, after the high of winning it all at WEG has barely worn off. Totilas is just 10 years old, young for a grand prix dressage horse, and the thought of what he can still go on to do in competition is so exciting.

But now it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll exclusively be a breeding stallion in Germany, or be given to another rider to compete with, or both breed and compete. Speculation is running wild. What we do know was that Totilas was one of the most valuable dressage horses ever. Now we know just how valuable.

Que sera sera Edward, it was a privilege to bear witness to you, and the incredible Totilas while we could. Now more than ever, I’m grateful that the WEGs were in Kentucky and that I was there.

Photo © Christina Gray christinagraydesigns.com

We began the week with the WEG good, moved on to the bad, and now it’s time to recount the ugly. First, a disclaimer: I loved the Games. The time I spent in Lexington definitely rate as one of the top ten weeks of my life. I had an amazing time, but even I, with my “glass is half full” outlook, couldn’t help the fact that here and there, things did get ugly. Real ugly. Read on. . .

For photos of the vandalized carriage, follow the hyperlink below.

What’s more ugly than bad sportsmanship? The carriage sabotage that was discovered on Marathon day during the driving competition was just downright dirty. Dutch driver IJsbrand Chardon discovered at 11am on the morning of the marathon phase that someone had maliciously vandalized his carriage by slashing the seat cushions and pouring oil and brake fluid all over it. With less than an hour before he was set to compete, Ijsbrand frantically begged WEG officials to change his start time, and with a very small window, hurriedly repaired the carriage and regrouped before setting out on course. It was a scary incident for the Dutch team, who reported that the driving community is largely very friendly, and that some kind of “lunatic” must have been the culprit. Kentucky State Police were called to investigate, but at last report they had failed to track down the person responsible for the vandalism. The incident called into question the level of onsite security at the KHP, and WEG officials were accused of brushing the vandalism off because no horses were injured. Ijsbrand’s navigator and wife Pauline was terrified that their horses could have been victims as well, as the carriage was stored very close to the horses’ stalls in the barn area. With barn security relatively loose once you were inside the fenced perimeter, it’s entirely possible that the sabotauger could have been a fellow competitor (albeit, a crazy one) with barn access who was trying to give himself a leg up on his rival.

However, Ijsbrand not only repaired his carriage on time, he went on to win the marathon phase, and earn a team gold medal for the Netherlands. Take that, bad guys!!

The Village at Midway Station. Photo by Karen Galbraith

The WEG Refugee Camp. Tell it like it is blogger Karen Robinson gets the credit for christening the barren trailer and RV village at the junction of two interstates outside of Lexington. Now I can’t think of it as anything else. I had the good fortune not to stay here during WEG, but a group of very good friends did, and their horror stories are enough to last a WEG-vacation lifetime.The Village of Midway Station was originally advertised to be a beautiful campsite on a farm adjacent to WEG. “Camp under a grove of trees, next to a peaceful pond,” it advertised. “Complimentary golf carts,” and “a ten minute stroll to the Horse Park,” it promised. At prices that went as high as $300/night, the RVs were quickly booked by everyone from out of town WEG volunteers and vacationers, to international visitors and FEI stewards.

But due to some kind of land-management screwup, the reality that the 200 or so WEG-goers were greeted with when they arrived at their lodging were rows of worn-out RVs, mobile trailers (including some honest to goodness FEMA trailers), hastily constructed food tents with dirt floors, and no refund in sight.

It would have all been ok, said my glass-is-half-full friends, if it hadn’t been for the lack of power, gas and propane in the RV. It was quite difficult to sleep during the nights when temperatures dipped down to the 40s, and the only bedding provided were thin, old hospital blankets. The cold showers they were forced to take, due to the lack of propane to heat their water, sure did wake them up in the mornings though. The RVs and trailers ranged from old and shabby to verifiably unsafe, with stacked cinder blocks and car jacks used as supports on the uneven field where they lay. And as for the ten minute stroll to the WEG grounds, that was actually a 25 minute shuttle ride, which came after a wait that sometimes stretched to over an hour in both directions for a shuttle to actually show up.

The horror stories continued, but I’ll let you use your imagination for the rest. All in all, the concepts of Southern hospitality and making a good impression upon international guests were lost on the folks managing this enterprise. Not to mention screwing people over. I’ve got a feeling that Mr. Thomas Hosea, site manager for The Village at Midway Station, is out of a job this week.

Greed. Unfortunately, greed was found in several forms during these WEGs (see above situation.) My own personal brush with price gouging came in the form of four wheels and the generic shape of an economy vehicle. In most circumstances, one can rent a car for $25 per day, and even for a long trip, that’s a cost that even an equestrian journalist can shoulder. But normal prices were not to be found in or anywhere near Lexington. Instead, rental cars went for three times their normal rate, and the small fortune I spent on a rental car will have me eating crackers and peanut butter for a while longer while I recover. There were rumors that the city of Lexington had taken steps to cut down on price gouging, but from hotels to taxis to rental cars, the rumors remained just that.

That is a shame, especially if you remember the dedicated volunteers, equine celebrities and many exhibitions written about in Monday’s post. The good part of WEG deserved better than this.

For all the good that happened during the 16 days of WEG, there was inevitably going to be some bad. And even some ugly, but I’ll get to that in tomorrow’s post. All the negative press about high prices and low ticket sales that WEG endured in the weeks and months leading up to the Games turned out to be mostly true, although several events ended up selling out. But no matter how great or poor a job the organizers did to make the Games happen, they couldn’t predict or prevent the drama of:

The cut on Parzival's tongue was clearly a minor one, but FEI rules dictate that any blood on the horse is grounds for instant elimination.

A bloody tongue. Number two world ranked Dutch dressage rider Adelinde Cornelissen was eliminated early in her dressage test when the ground jury noticed blood in her horse’s mouth. It was widely reported that her horse, Jerich Parzival, had bitten his tongue in the warm up, and no one noticed the blood until Adelinde was in the ring. The elimination ended Adelinde’s WEG experience and put pressure on the remaining members of the Dutch team. Of course, one of those teammates was Edward Gal with Totilas, so the team ended up winning team gold anyway. But it seemed to be a simple stroke of bad luck for Adelinde, and what horse person hasn’t been affected by something that they can’t control? Everyone was feeling quite sympathetic towards her and the Dutch team. That is, until photos from the previous day of Adelinde warming up surfaced:

Adelinde and Parzival schooling on warm up day.

At least she was wearing her helmet?

Sheesh. Those photos might belong in tomorrow’s post when I get to “the ugly,” and there are more where they came from. No one came out and said that biting one’s tongue and rollkur are directly connected, but after the warm up photos of Adelinde and a whole lot of other dressage riders schooling “Low, deep and round” were released, it was hard for me to feel sympathetic anymore.

It was just rotten luck that U.S. favorite Courageous Comet pulled a shoe on cross country and came up lame the following day, dropping him out of contention.

Having an off day. That was how both the U.S. show jumping and eventing teams explained away their respective falls out of the medal standings. You can set up the most grueling and thorough selection process, work with the best trainers, take the best care possible of your horses, but at the end of the day, horses are horses and nearly impossible to predict. Even though Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan had to withdraw before eventing even started, U.S. eventers had a silver medal within their grasp after cross country. Becky Holder was in third individually and things were potentially looking golden. 24 hours later, Becky’s horse hadn’t passed the jog, Karen O’Connor had suffered a stop and a rail in the stadium jumping, and USA eventers were shut out of the medals completely.

Mario Deslauriers and Urico are a brilliant pair, but it just wasn't their week. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

It was much the same story with the show jumpers. After Day 1, the U.S. team was in 1st place, and Mario Deslauriers and McLain Ward were holding the top two individual spots. But the next day, uncharacteristic rails all around knocked the U.S. to third, and from there the descent continued. The US finished 10th and McLain was the highest place U.S. rider in 7th.

No one can say that our U.S. teams of solid, world-class event and show jumping riders didn’t try their hearts out. But for them and for all of us watching, the biggest lesson learned at WEG was that horses will be horses, and we can’t predict how the cards will fall, ever, no matter how much or how well we prepare.

To the left, that would be a webpage not opening - again.

Moving on. One thing that we should have been able to count on was the live results webpage. Really. I was expecting things like long lines, expensive food and traffic jams. Those are almost a given during big events like this. But it was ridiculous that the live results webpage crashed frequently, and during some of the more intense jumping and dressage events. Tech support! Where were you?!?

Spending $20 for broccolli pasta and a drink was painful, but I'll say this much: in Kentucky, portions are HUGE.

The WEG diet. Speaking of the food, yes, it was expensive, no, it wasn’t that fantastic, and yes, pretty much everyone bought it anyway. But my $6.00 latte, $5.00 hot dog, and $20.00 pasta lunch (not purchased or consumed all at once, mind you) motivated a few trips to the local Wal Mart, where one could stock up on affordable food and carry it onto the grounds. Subsisting on granola bars, peanut butter and crackers was only ok because I was too exhausted to care about a better alternative. One morning I ran into a rattled cashier in the media dining hall; it was his first day working and he’d already been the unlucky recipient of complaints from a group of irritable European journalists, who were upset that the coffee had run out, the burgers were cold and the water wasn’t free. Poor guy. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as I snacked on my granola bar and instant coffee.

And unfortunately, worse things did happen. I’ll see you here tomorrow for a breakdown of the ugly.

The WEG closing ceremonies are over, the Kentucky Horse Park is empty, and I am already back home in California this morning. And without a competition to dash off to or a shuttle bus to catch, I’ve got a whole lot of time to ruminate on the events of the past two weeks. Let’s break it down with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Australian horsemen Guy McLean's Brumbie horses at liberty were one of many, many exhibitions that you could find in the Clinician's Corral at the KHP.

Starting with the good: the horses! This was the largest gathering of disciplines, competitors, breeds and exhibitors ever held in the USA. An equine Disneyworld on steroids, if you will. Even busily trekking from one corner of the KHP to the next each and every day, only allowed me to see a small slice of the horse utopia that was offered up during the Games. I saw all of this in the space of a few hours on a weekday afternoon at WEG. Total attendance numbers top 500,000 throughout the duration of the Games. Imagine how many kids are coming home from the Games and asking their parents for riding lessons, or cracking open a copy of Black Beauty. If these Games created just a few new horse lovers, than they’ve succeeded in a big way.

Canada's Eventing Team Silver will be forever immortalized on a sculpture outside the main stadium.

History-making medals. The Canadians won their first eventing medal since 1978. Steffen Peters became the first American to medal in dressage at a World Equestrian Games in over 70 years. Abdullah al Sharbatly won the first equestrian medal ever for the Middle East. The USA may not have won it all at these Games, but we were privileged to see some great medal-winning moments.

I wasn't the only one who came to see Totilas.

Then there was the equine superstars. In the space of ten days I saw Moorlands Totilas, Cool Mountain, Courageous Comet, Sapphire, Hickstead, Presley Boy, Cedric . .  . the list goes on. The gathering of elite horse flesh was incredible, and it was a privilege to watch the very best of each discipline display their talents.

I spy a WEG volunteer.

Those blue Ariat polo shirts. They signified that the wearer was one of 5,000 WEG volunteers. I have never in my life met a more cheerful and friendly group of people. They must have had a hell of a training session before the Games, wherein they were surely brainwashed with a mantra of smile/be nice/smile/be nice /smile/be nice !!!!!!!  And those folks were everywhere. Greeting you with a Southern “good morning!” as you walked into the main entrance. Standing at every corner to answer questions. Posted out on the cross-country course from morning to afternoon doing crowd control. Happily driving me somewhere in a golf cart. Their mission was to improve everyone’s WEG’s experience, and they succeeded.

Sportsmanship. Rodrigo Pessoa advising Abdullah al Sharbatly during the Tolex Top Four, with Nelson Pessoa looking on, was a great moment. During one of the most intense competitions in show jumping, Rodrigo cared more about the good of the horse than if he won or lost.

Hamish and Dave. Need I say more?

Coming up next: the bad.

2010 WEG Show Jumping Gold Medalist Phillipe Le Jeune! Photo Lauren Giannini

Ah, the Rolex Top Four. There were so many great moments tonight. Gold medal winner, Belgian Phillipe Le Jeune displaying not only impeccable riding, but a true love and appreciation of every horse he rode tonight. The unabashed joy of Abdullah Al Sharbatly, who made history by winning the Middle East’s first ever WEG show jumping medal. Rodrigo Pessoa’s consummate sportsmanship. The fans! The course! It was a perfect end to an exciting week of international show jumping.

I can’t think of many other situations that are more high pressure than warming up for a world championship and then jumping a full course on a horse you’ve never ridden before under the eyes of the horse’s current rider and thousands of others. But Phillipe Le Jeune handled that pressure with style this evening as the Top Four played out.

The great horse swap got underway just after sunset in the main stadium. Another near capacity crowd arrived to take in the arena that had been separated into warm up area, saddling area and course of 8 fences. A few items of note: Once the horse swap began, all four horses had to stay inside the ring. Only grooms and a few other VIPs were allowed into the saddling area. Riders were allowed to switch saddles, but no other tack. They were given three minutes and just two warm up jumps to get used to each horse before jumping the 1.50m – 1.60m track. See the 3D course map here.

The Top Four, Eric Lamaze, Phillipe Le Jeune, Rodrigo Pessoa and Abdullah Al Sharbatly, jumped their own horses over the course first. Then the rotation of riders to horses began: Eric’s Hickstead, Phillipe’s Vigo D’Arsouilles, Rodrigo’s HH Rebozo and Abdullah’s Seldana Di Campalto would all jump four more rounds.

On their own horses, Abdullah racked up 8 faults and Rodrigo 4. Eric and Phillipe were clear. If only we could know what the horses were thinking. It was probably along the lines of “more jumping? Haven’t we done enough this week?”

Things were interesting right from the beginning. Abdullah’s mare Seldana cow-kicked out with her back legs as Rodrigo’s saddle was switched. It took them several minutes to get her ready, but rocky tack up notwithstanding, Rodrigo hopped into the saddle, warmed up, entered the ring, and was all business for 8 clean fences.

“She was a little bit tense in the beginning, a little bit nervous,” said Rodrigo. “But as soon as I got on her she relaxed and settled. I think in the beginning the horses are a little bit surprised, they’re not used to that, standing there with all the people there.”

Next up was Phillipe Le Jeune on Rodrigo’s horse. Phillipe hit every jump in stride for another clear round and made Rebozo look like a pleasure to ride.

Eric Lamaze followed with Phillipe’s horse. Last night Eric said that Vigo, a big, heavier chestnut stallion, was going to be the biggest challenge for him to ride, as Vigo is the most unlike Eric’s hotter, lighter Hickstead. However, they notched another clear round.

Eric and Vigo. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Then came the moment that I’d been waiting for – watching Abdullah ride Hickstead! He looked so nervous, and I couldn’t blame him! Imagine sitting on Hickstead in the aforementioned high-pressure situation. Hickstead, known as a strong train of a horse. Hickstead, with his big old hackamore/bit combo bridle. . . I think everyone’s hearts were in their throats. Abdullah spent most of his three warm up minutes looking very nervous, circling Hickstead and stopping him in front of the warm up fences. Finally, he took two very sketchy warm up jumps and entered the ring.

Abdullah and Hickstead approach fence 2. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

It sure looked like hard work out there – Abdullah pulled and held, pulled and held, pulled and held on the reins over the entire course, and the stallion was going running away-fast in the corners. But credit to horse and rider, they jumped clean, and exiting the ring, Abdullah looked very, very relieved to have lived through that round!

Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

While Abdullah remembered how to breathe again, Phillipe warmed up on Abdullah’s horse. The mare was now on her third round, and jumped clear. Phillipe gave her a big pat as they walked out of the ring. I was really beginning to like this guy; he was the only rider I saw who gave his horse a pat!

Next up, was Eric on Rodrigo’s horse Rebozo. This stallion definitely suited Eric more than Phillipe’s big chestnut, but as they rounded the corner from fence 7 to 8, Eric took a little hold and backed off the pace. That may have caused their very costly rail in the B element of the triple, and they also picked up a time fault. With that, Phillipe took over the lead.

Abdullah was next on Phillipe’s horse. This looked like a fun horse to ride. Abdullah jumped around very fast and clean, and his many fans, who came out in force this evening, with Saudi flags and coordinated chants, were beside themselves with joy – they knew a medal was in sight.

Rodrigo is about as flawless a rider as one can be, so when he warmed up on Hickstead, I expected nothing but smooth riding and that’s what I saw; Rodrigo and Hickstead jumped clear.

After three rider rotations, Phillipe led the standings. Eric had dropped down to second after his rail with Rebozo, and only four rounds (four rider/horse pairings) remained.

This was when I expected to see tired horses. After all, up to this point they’d jumped eight rounds throughout the week, with one more still to go.

Eric jumped Abdullah’s mare knowing that with a clean round, he’d at least get a bronze medal. He was very close, but a late rail coming into the triple combination totaled his faults to 9.

Rodrigo displays wonderful sportsmanship as he gives Abdullah some pointers on Rebozo before the round. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Abdullah was next with Rodrigo’s horse, and although he had a shaky round with Rebozo – going very long at fence 6 and a crooked approach to the triple, he completed a clean round. Abdullah celebrated by taking a bit of a victory gallop around the ring thanking Allah. . . I wonder what Rebozo (and Rodrigo!) thought about that.

Coming to the end of the order, the medal standings began to take shape. With his last clean round, Abdullah was guaranteed a bronze. Rodrigo entered the ring for his last round with a rail in hand . . .  but with Vigo, he had fences 5 and 6 down! No blame lies with the horse, it was his 10^th round at WEG. But those two rails knocked Rodrigo out of the medals.

Phillipe watches Rodrigo jump his horse. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Rodrigo leaves the ring with Vigo after his round. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Phillipe’s round on Hickstead was the last of the night, and the world champion jumped one last clear round to clinch his gold medal.

Phillipe and Hickstead clear the Rolex oxer, one fence away from their fourth clear round of the night. Photo Lauren Giannini

It was a truly great moment; Phillipe leant down to hug and kiss Hickstead’s neck as he walked out of the ring, and then ran to hug and kiss Vigo. Then he hugged and kissed his wife, his coach, his friends, Eric, Rodrigo, and anyone else in sight. Phillipe earned the world championship this week, but he earned everyone’s respect and appreciation with his obvious display of love for horses. No better words could be spoken by a world champion:

“When I was a young boy my father taught me to love animals,” Phillipe said later. “I love animals more than people. I dedicate all my life to the horses. The first thing for me is to get on the horses, feel them and love them.”

Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

And Hickstead. Hickstead may be a difficult ride, he may be a hot, complicated stallion, but he is undoubtedly the best horse in the world. He earned Best Horse title tonight, to which Eric said, “I think we already knew that before today. Now these three other riders know it for themselves.”

That’s all from me tonight! I’ve got to get to the airport and catch a flight home in seven hours!! These Games have been amazing and you’ll hear more from me soon!

The marathon phase in driving is similar to the cross country phase of eventing.

Despite my previous attempt to learn a thing or two about driving, I still don’t pretend to know much about this discipline. Except this: driving is hard. Hard and intense. Last week’s four star cross country course was transformed to host the marathon phase of driving, which 25 teams completed today. Go here for driving results, and here for a 3D map of the marathon course.

It was over 80 degrees today at the Kentucky Horse Park, and at least (no official numbers in yet) 50,000 people turned up to crowd around the eight hazards on the marathon course that each driving team had to navigate.

And with that short paragraph, I’ve reached the end of my expertise in driving. But enjoy the following photos from today, and check back here later for the discipline that I can talk a blue streak about – the show jumping!!

Chester Weber and team stand in 19th place after the marathon phase. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Chester Weber navigates one of the marathon hazards this morning at the Kentucky Horse Park. Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

US driver Cindy O'Reilly is the only female driver competing at the Games, and she drives four mares! Selena Frederick/Cheval Photos

Thanks again to Selena Frederick and Cheval Photos for capturing the previous three photos. Be sure to check out the show jumping post coming up

later tonight to see which moments she captures during the Rolex Top Four competition!

I did venture onto the marathon course to see some world class driving in person – my first-ever, and maybe only chance. My impressions; the US and Swedish teams (there are nine of them) were loud, yelling commands at each other and their horses. I don’t know how I feel about the driver who yelled out “Goddamnit you horses!” after the side of his carriage ran into one of the hazards. However, there were some very tense moments while all the teams of four wound in and out of the obstacles on course. In contrast, the Canadian team that I watched through a hazard were quiet, fluid, perhaps whispering to each other from their spots in the carriage. Hmmm – maybe they were just having a better day? ? ?

Theo Timmerman of The Netherlands approaches the Head of the Lake.

This was "The Spring", hazard number 8 - they had to go through this water, over that bridge, back through the water and off again!

This was hazard number one, a literal maze of hedges. The person standing behind the driver was the navigator, who told the driver which direction to turn. It all looked extremely difficult. This discipline takes coordination to a whole new level!

If you're a soft-hearted horse lover like me, you'll be heartened to know that after (or maybe it was before?) the hazards phase, every team had to stop at a mandatory rest break before continuing on.

I was very impressed by the crowds who turned up for another day of hiking all over the cross country course. In both driving and eventing, the most popular watching spot was -you guessed it- The Head of the Lake!