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Bulletin:
US Event Riders and Horses for Aachen are named:
United States Equestrian Federation,
Inc.
4047 Iron Works Parkway, Lexington, KY 40511-8483 Tel: (859) 258-2472
Fax (859) 231-6662 Web site: www.usef.org
NEWS RELEASE
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 20, 2006 USEF
Announces Final Eventing Team and Individuals to Compete at 2006 FEI World Equestrian
Games Aachen, Germany –
The USEF announced today which eventing athletes would ride as the four team members
and which two athletes would ride as individuals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian
Games in Aachen, Germany. The U.S. eventing team will compete August 24-27. The
eventing team will be defending the team gold and World Championship. The
final eventing team of four includes (in alphabetical order by last name): ·
Will Faudree, of Southern Pines, NC, riding Antigua,
a 17-year-old Australian Thoroughbred gelding, owned by Faudree ·
Kim Severson, of Keene, VA, riding Winsome Adante,
a 13-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding, owned by Plain Dealing Farm, Inc.
· Amy
Tryon, of Duval, WA, riding Poggio II, a 14-year-old Thoroughbred gelding,
owned by Tryon and Mark Hart
· Heidi White,
of Aiken, SC, riding Northern Spy, a 13-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding,
owned by White The two individuals
competing for the U.S. are (in alphabetical order by last name): ·
Jan Byyny, of Purcellville, VA, riding Task Force,
a 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, owned by J.C. Chester
· Karen
O’Connor, of The Plains, VA, riding Upstage, a 15-year-old New Zealand
Thoroughbred gelding, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Thompson In
2002, the eventers were more than proud to take home Team Gold and intend to defend
that title aggressively. In addition to the title of Gold medalists, they are
also the defending World Champions for the first time since 1978. Two of the four
2002 team members will again be riding as part of the team--2004 Olympic Individual
Silver medalist Kim Severson and her Athens’ teammate Amy Tryon. They also
earned Team Bronze in Athens. Editor's
Note: Interestingly, the WEG Site lists Stephen Bradley and does NOT list Karen
O'Connor! I guess we'll find out which is correct when we get to Aachen! Cora
C. Cushny, Editor *
* * * * EVENTING breaks new ground in Aachen where, for the first
time, the World Championships will be run without steeple chase. This version
of the sport, introduced at top international level shortly before the 2004 Olympic
Games, dispenses with the two sections of roads and tracks and the steeplechase
that for decades traditionally preceded the cross-country. It will also
mark an important innovation for the famous Soers showground, long renowned as
a centre of excellence for show jumping, dressage and driving. The organisers
were faced with the massive undertaking of building from scratch a brand-new cross-country
course. Fortunately they had at their disposal a conveniently situated square
kilometre of land adjacent to the main stadium on the Soerser Weg, so the event
will be very much at the heart of the Games. The man with the onerous task
of designing the 30-fence course, which will involve some 45 actual jumping efforts,
is Germany's own Rudiger Schwarz. The 56-year-old former international
rider, winner of a world team silver medal back in 1982, is now a highly successful
trainer of junior and young riders and, since 1998, has gained a reputation as
an international course designer. He has promised a true World Championship
track that will test the best riders and horses, as well as offering slightly
less technical but more time-consuming alternatives for the more cautious. The
lay-out of the track is guaranteed to provide a thrilling experience for the crowd.
It will include three water obstacles and several other technically difficult
complexes as well as the usual smattering of straightforward "let-up"
fences. The course will be 6,270 metres in length - slightly shorter than  Badminton
- and must be ridden at the same speed as Badminton (570 metres per minute). Riders
incur time penalties at the rate of 0.4 of a penalty added for every second they
take over the optimum time. The Games bring together the finest riders
and horses from the world's most successful eventing nations - headed by the reigning
champions Jean Teulere and Espoir de la Mare from France – as well
as individuals from countries unable to muster a full team. A team comprises four
members (though it is permitted to run only three). The three best riders' final
total scores count for the team classification for medals, the worst being discarded.
In addition each nation may run two more individuals, giving a maximum of six
riders/horses per nation. Team and individual riders compete in one and the same
competition. Four continents will be represented, with seventeen nations
expected to field teams and another 10 running one or more individuals. A total
of around 95 runners is expected. Among nations fielding full teams will
be the three "big guns" of the world stage, Australia, New
Zealand and the United States, and the main European contenders, France,
Germany and Great Britain. The USA are the current
team title holders, but in the previous four runnings of the Games it was New
Zealand who dominated, with two victories to Britain's one. Overall,
though, since Ireland won the very first World Championships back in 1966,
it is the British who have the best record at this level, with four team gold
medals compared with the USA and New Zealand's two apiece. France,
Ireland and Canada have each been champions on just one occasion.
 This
time Frenchman Jean Teulere is not alone in considering the Germans to
be the ones who will take all the beating. They will certainly be hungry to make
amends for their Athens debacle, when Bettina Hoy's last-day error (she
crossed the start-line twice in the show jumping) cost her and her compatriots
both individual and team gold medals.
The German riders have embraced the
format of the sport without steeple chase as well as anyone. They were in tip-top
form at the only four-star event run on their home soil, at Luhmuhlen in June.
Bettina on Ringwood Cockatoo finished a close runner-up to Frank Ostholt
(Air Jordan 2), while fellow WEG nominated riders Dirk Schrade, Andreas
Dibowski, Hinrich Romeike and Stefani Thompson all finished in the
top nine. Ingrid Klimke and Sleep Late, individual bronze medallists at
last year's FEI European Championship and runners-up at Badminton this spring,
will also be among the favourites.(Ingrid and Sleep Late are pictured at the
right above in The Lake at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton CCI****, in May.) The
USA's most deadly weapon is, once again, the combination of Kimberly Severson
and the British-bred Winsome Adante, three times winner of the Rolex Kentucky
event, and team bronze and individual silver medallists at the Athens Olympic
Games. (Kim and Winsome Adante are pictured at the left above jumping into
the last water at The Fork last spring.) However, the one that Kim,
Bettina, Ingrid and the rest have to fear most is likely to be Bettina's
husband, Australian Andrew Hoy, winner at Kentucky and Badminton this year
and, after a quarter of a century in the sport, riding better than ever. Andrew
and his compatriots have won Olympic gold on three consecutive occasions (1992,
1996 and 2000) but the Aussies have yet to score at the FEI World Equestrian Games.
This could well be the year they set the record straight. The New Zealanders
look like having it all to do this time, while the French, runners-up in
the last three World Games and in the 2005 Europeans, are always difficult to
assess because they tend to compete mainly on home soil, the result of having
insufficient top-class horses to run at events such as Kentucky and Badminton.
After being side-lined all last season following a fall during training, when
he broke his pelvis, 52-year-old Jean Teulere is back to full fitness.
Were he to succeed in retaining the title he won in Jerez, he would be only the
third rider to win two World Championships - American Bruce Davidson took
back-to-back titles in 1974 and 1978 (on two different horses), and New Zealander
Blyth Tait and Ready Teddy were victorious in 1990 and again in 1998. The
British, who have reigned supreme in Europe for so many years - team victory
at Blenheim last  September
was their sixth consecutive European Championship title and their 19th overall
- will also be among the favourites for a medal despite having lost one
of their chief hopes, Pippa Funnell. Her proposed ride Primmore's Pride,
previous winner of the world's three toughest non-championship events at Lexington,
Badminton and Burghley, has been withdrawn with a suspected leg problem. Funnell
has been replaced by championship debutante Sharon Hunt and Tankers Town,
who ran well to finish sixth at Badminton this spring. (Sharon and Tankers
Town are pictured at the right in the Show Jumping at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton
CCI**** last May.) The British squad is a mix of the very experienced
and total newcomers to championship riding. Mary King, 43, team gold medallist
in The Hague in 1994, is the senior member. She rides Call Again Cavalier, the
former mount of Caroline Pratt, who was so tragically killed at Burghley two years
ago. William Fox-Pitt, the next most experienced, will be among the individual
favourites with the part-Arab Tamarillo, winner of team gold and individual silver
medals at last year's Europeans. New to the team are 24-year-old Oliver Townend
(third at Badminton 2006) and Daisy Dick (11th in the Europeans 2005).
Daisy must be the only international event rider to have a Master's degree
in zoology from Oxford University. Although lady riders have not yet managed
to grasp the individual gold since the introduction of the FEI World Equestrian
Games in 1990, three British women took the pre-Games world title, Mary Gordon-Watson
(1970), Lucinda Green (1982) and Virginia Leng (1986), and the victorious
British team in 1994 at The Hague, was an all-female one. Among the countries
unable to field whole teams, Finland probably has the best chance of success.
Of the 100,000 Finns who ride, 93% are female, so it no surprise that their top
eventer is a woman, the highly successful Piia Pantsu, with Ypaja Karuso.
This pair were bronze medallists in Jerez in 2002. Samantha Albert will
be Jamaica's sole representative in the entire Games, while Pepo Puch,
who has been competing at international level for several seasons, fills a similar
role for Croatia. For the first time ever Belarus is represented
at the World Eventing Championships, their two entries being Iryna Lis
and Svetlana Yevshchik. The scoring system at the World Championships
is the same as those for other international events. In the dressage test, designed
to demonstrate the horse's balance, suppleness and free forward movement, each
movement is marked out of 10 by each of the three judges. Perfect 10s are rare.
Four lots of 10 further marks are also available for the quality of the horse's
paces, his impulsion (desire to move forward), his attention and obedience and
for the rider's skill. The judges' marks are averaged and then converted to penalties. On
the cross-country a first refusal, run-out or circle at a fence incurs 20 penalties,
a second at the same fence incurs 40 penalties, a third at the same fence results
in elimination. An overall fourth refusal at any of the fences incurs elimination,
as does the fall of a horse at an obstacle. If a rider falls, they are given 65
penalties and are allowed to remount, but a second rider fall results in elimination.
The height of a cross-country fence may not exceed 1.20m (1.40m for a brush fence). In
the final day's show jumping 4 penalties are given for each fence knocked down
and for a first refusal. A second refusal, jumping a fence in the wrong order
or a horse-fall all incur elimination. A first rider fall incurs 8 penalties,
a second fall brings elimination. Exceeding the time allowed results in 1 penalty
per second. In eventing, as in the world of football, it has become common
practice to appoint non-national coaches. The British have enjoyed great success
during the past few years under the tutelage of Sweden's Yogi Breisner;
Ireland appointed another Swede, Lars Christenssen, earlier this year to
try to improve their championship results, and the Germans have a British coach,
international eventer and former Olympic dressage rider Christopher Bartle.
However, the trainer who most looks like being pulled in several directions
at once during the first week of the Games is Mark Phillips, a world team
gold medallist himself back in 1970 and now the successful coach of the United
States squad. His wife, Sandy, has been selected for the British dressage
team, while Zara, the daughter from his first marriage to HRH The Princess
Royal, will be riding her 2005 European Champion Toytown with the British eventing
team.
***
Past World Champions in Eventing (Individual):
1966
Burghley: Carlos Moratorio on Chalan (ARG)
1970 Punchestown: Mary
Gordon Watson on Cornishman V (GBR)
1974 Burghley: Bruce Davidson
on Irish Cap (USA)
1978 Lexington: Bruce
Davidson on Might Tango (USA)
1982
Luhmühlen: Lucinda Green on Regal Realm (GBR)
1986 Gawler: Virginia
Leng on Priceless (GBR)
1990 WEG Stockholm: Blyth Tait on Messiah
(NZL)
1994 WEG The Hague: Vaughan Jefferis on Bounce (NZL)
1998
WEG Rome: Blyth Tait on Ready Teddy (NZL)
2002 WEG Jerez: Jean Teulère
Espoir de la Mare (FRA) Past World Champions in Eventing (Team):
IRL - 1966
GBR - 1970
USA - 1974
CAN
- 1978
GBR - 1982
GBR - 1986
NZL- 1990
GBR - 1994
NZL - 1998
USA
- 2002 Editor's
Note: Ted and I will be travelling to Europe tomorrow - Sunday, August 20th. We
expect to be in Aachen for the Team (Grand) Dressage on Tuesday,
August 22nd, and for the First Veterinary Examination for the Three Day Event
on Wednesday, August 23rd. Stay tuned! Cora
C. Cushny, Editor
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