A Perfect Storm

WEG dressage freestyle cancelled

 

A too-brief shining moment: Team USA's Kasey Perry-Glass, Laura Graves, Steffen Peters, and Adrienne Lyle take a lap of honor after winning the silver medal in the 2018 WEG dressage competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It’s a desperately sad break for FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 dressage spectators, Tryon WEG organizers, all of the participating nations, and the horses, riders, and supporters who worked so hard to get here: The WEG Grand Prix Freestyle, which was scheduled for tomorrow, has been canceled. It will not be rescheduled.

In an extreme stroke of bad luck, the worst of Tropical Storm Florence is scheduled to arrive tonight in the area of the Tryon International Equestrian Center, and Florence is expected to hang around tomorrow, bringing rain and high winds to western North Carolina. Speculation about the fate of the dressage freestyle has been running rampant for days. As of yesterday we were hopeful that the competition could be rescheduled for Monday, which is supposed to be the “dark day” of no competition between the two weeks of the WEG. But the dressage horses are supposed to fly out Monday, and this afternoon the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) confirmed that the freestyle is not to be. 

Here is the text of the FEI’s statement announcing the cancellation:

Following yesterday’s announcement of the intention to hold the Helgstrand Dressage Freestyle competition on Monday morning due to extreme rainfall forecast for Sunday’s original time slot of 8.30am, further discussions have been taking place to review the options available to reschedule.

Despite the best efforts of the whole Tryon 2018 team and the Officials, who have been working on plans for rescheduling since yesterday evening, including meetings with the Chefs de Mission and Chefs d’Equipe, the logistics of putting all necessary elements into place in time have proved insurmountable. As a result, and very regrettably, the Dressage Freestyle will now be cancelled.

“This was not an easy decision, but we have explored every option, including trying to reschedule the horse departures, and even looking at moving the competition into the indoor with a change of footing, but the logistics of making all this happen are just not possible,” Tryon 2018 Organising Committee President Michael Stone said.

“We know this is desperately disappointing for the 15 athletes who had qualified their horses for the Freestyle, and of course for all the spectators who had bought tickets, but the weather has simply left us with no choice. Horse welfare has to be the top priority and flying the horses out on the same day as competition doesn’t work, so sadly the decision to cancel the Freestyle had to be taken.”

“Although we are devastated that this decision has had to be taken, we’ve had two absolutely world-class competitions here at Tryon, including yesterday’s Grand Prix Special, and to see Germany’s Isabell Werth and Bella Rose taking double gold and Team USA claiming silver was a real treat for Dressage fans.”

The decision does not affect the Olympic qualification process, as this was completed on Thursday. The teams that have earned their ticket to Tokyo 2020 are Germany, USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands and Spain.

Sweet Sixteen

Team USA wins FEI World Equestrian Games dressage silver for the first time since 2002

 

2018 WEG team dressage silver medalists Kasey Perry-Glass, Adrienne Lyle, Steffen Peters, and Laura Graves of the USA with technical advisor and chef d'equipe Robert Dover. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

“They’ve worked very hard for this.”

Not that we had any doubts that the four members of the 2018 US World Equestrian Games dressage team had put in the time and the blood, sweat, and tears to get there; but there was the affirmation, standing next to me ringside for the dressage team medal ceremony at the FEI WEG Tryon 2018.

It was Diane Perry, Team USA member Kasey Perry-Glass’s mom and the owner of Perry-Glass’s WEG mount, Goerklintgaards Dublet. Between wielding her smartphone video camera to record the ceremony for posterity and exhorting “Dublet” to please keep all four feet on the ground, Perry was every horse-show mom writ large: proud, perhaps a little overwhelmed, adrenaline-fueled but tired from the long hours in the North Carolina heat and humidity, and already gearing up for her daughter’s next effort (asked whether they’d be celebrating tonight, Perry quickly replied: “Oh, no. We have a horse show tomorrow,” referring to the Grand Prix Special).

 

Group hug! Team USA's Debbie McDonald, Kasey Perry-Glass, Adrienne Lyle, and Steffen Peters embrace after watching Laura Graves clinch the team silver medal on Verdades, while sponsor Betsy Juliano and chef Robert Dover look on. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

It’s easy to forget, when we see our dressage idols on the covers of magazines, and when they and their entourages and their sponsorships and their celebrity make them seem larger than life, that top riders are daughters and wives and moms and dads—people who were endowed with a generous helping of talent and ambition and grit and of course luck, but also people who probably have a lot in common with those of you who are reading this. They love horses. They love riding. They love dressage. Watching Diane Perry cheer for her daughter as she stepped onto the WEG dressage medal podium for the first time, the glamorous medal ceremony suddenly felt very personal.

But competition at this international level isn’t really personal; it’s about national pride first and foremost, with glory for one’s team and one’s country superseding individual accomplishment. Although dressage is ultimately about one rider’s partnership with one horse, “top sport,” as the Europeans call it, is a machine the way NFL football is a machine: an industry and a very serious business while at the same time serving as entertainment and hobby for the spectator and fan.

 

German team gold medalist Isabell Werth and Bella Rose were the highest-scoring pair of the WEG Grand Prix team competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The German dressage machine has dominated the discipline for decades, and today was no exception. The team of Isabell Werth on Bella Rose, Sonke Rothenberger on Cosmo, Jessica Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB, and Dorothee Schneider on Sammy Davis Jr. swept the 2018 WEG dressage team competition with a total score of 242.950. Werth and her “dream horse,” Bella Rose, topped both her teammates and the entire field with their score of 84.829 percent in a largely flawless test marked by elegance and elasticity.

 

Top USA scorer Laura Graves and Verdades. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Last to go in the entire team competition was the most hotly anticipated pair of the largely American crowd: top-ranked US rider Laura Graves and her famous Verdades. They did not disappoint, laying down a powerful Grand Prix test marred only by “Diddy’s” slight spook at an FEI TV camera near C to earn a score of 81.537 percent, which put Graves second individually behind Werth. 

Graves’ usual sparkling smile seemed a bit dimmed during the medal ceremony, and at the press conference we found out why: She confessed to being “a little under the weather.” Here’s hoping she gets some needed rest and feels better for tomorrow’s GP Special—although she said that “adrenaline is an amazing thing” because as soon as she put her foot in the stirrup today, all else was forgotten.

Perry-Glass’s score of 76.739 percent was the second-highest of the US team, which clinched the silver medal on a team total score of 233.136.

“It felt great,” Perry-Glass said of her Grand Prix test afterward. “He was 100 percent in warm-up, and I really felt like he brought the power that we were looking for in the test.”

“He’s so sensitive,” Perry-Glass said of the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Diamond Hit x Ferro). “I had to figure out that balance between asking for more and not asking for too much. I think we’re really right on the cusp of being really great with that. 

“He has every opportunity to be up with Isabell and Laura,” Perry-Glass continued. Referring to their excellent finishes in Aachen this year, she said: “We’ve done it once before. I know we can do it again.” With tears welling, she said, “I’m going to cry because I love him so much.”

For a report on Team USA silver medalists Steffen Peters’ and Adrienne Lyle’s tests yesterday, click here.

Since the retirement of Charlotte Dujardin’s superstar mount Valegro, the dressage world has wondered whether Great Britain would remain among the top powers in the sport. The answer, as evidenced by today’s WEG team dressage bronze medal, is yes. 

 

Great Britain's Charlotte Dujardin and her new star partner, Mount St. John Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Dujardin, back on the international scene for the first time since winning individual gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics with Valegro, was Team GBR’s top scorer, earning 77.764 percent on the astonishingly young-yet-accomplished nine-year-old Hanoverian mare, Mount St. John Freestyle (Fidermark x Donnerhall). “Freestyle” handled the atmosphere in the US Trust Arena with ease, making just a few green mistakes—this was only Freestyle’s sixth Grand Prix—and Dujardin said afterward that the mare’s nickname of “Mrs. Valegro” is not an exaggeration.

“She has three very normal paces,” Dujardin said, “but when I started riding her, she has unbelievable trainability. And then her scope for what she can do: She can just put her legs wherever she wants! She’s so brave and she gives so much… She has the same attitude [as Valegro]: She goes in that arena, she’s not afraid of anything; she tries so hard. I know when she’s stronger and the mistakes aren’t there, it’s going to be very, very exciting. I think she may be as good as him one day. 

 

2018 WEG team bronze medalists Carl Hester of Great Britain on Hawtins Delicato. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Finishing just behind his most famous pupil was Carl Hester, also on a relatively inexperienced horse, the 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding Hawtins Delicato (Diamond Hit x Regazzoni). The stunning “Del” put in a lovely and elastic test with just a few bobbles to earn a score of 77.283. The British team was rounded out by Spencer Wilton on Super Nova II (74.581) and Emile Faurie on Dono di Maggio (72.795), for a team total of 229.628.

Said Hester afterward: “I said to Charlotte, with these young horses, we can’t compete them all around Europe and then fly them to a WEG and expect them to be on form. They would be exhausted. Our plan was to do the British shows and then come here. Having said that, I’ve had a week…it’s been a bit tense because the horse hasn’t really walked, he hasn’t really halted. Then this morning, one week later, we walked around the ring at 7:30 this morning on a loose rein; he walked around twice and I thought, I’m going to have a good ride today. And I did. He has such good paces, this horse. He might not be the superstar flash of some of the others, but he is so good with his hind legs, he has such a great walk.”

With that, the stage is set for an exciting start to the WEG individual dressage competition. Two medals are at stake—GP Special and GP Freestyle—and the Special kicks off tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Watch on FEI TV or catch WEG dressage on NBC Sports' Olympic Channel.

J Is for Jog

FEI officials including Anne Gribbons, head of the 2018 WEG dressage ground jury (center), look on as Belgian competitor Isabel Cool jogs Aranco V during the horse inspection. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

As disappointing as it must be not to make a World Equestrian Games team, or to make a team but have to withdraw in advance—just ask American eventer Marilyn Little, who was forced to withdraw RF Scandalous when “Kitty” sustained a minor injury in training just prior to shipping to Tryon—the ultimate heartbreak must be arriving at the venue unscathed only to see one’s mount fail to pass the horse inspection.

 

Team USA's Kasey Perry-Glass walks Goerklintgaards Dublet before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Groom Holly Gorman gives Goerklintgaards Dublet a final polish with a fleece mitt before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

In “the jog,” FEI veterinary officials and members of the ground jury watch like the proverbial hawks as the horses are stood up, then trotted in hand—usually, but not always, by their riders—down and back so that their “fitness to compete” can be evaluated. This can be a challenge because some horses prefer to canter, rear, or otherwise emulate kites on strings rather than trot. 

 

Officials and VIPs including American dressage sponsor Betsy Juliano (right) watch the dressage jog at the WEG. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

A supporter films a competitor's jog for posterity, aided by what might be a good-luck charm. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

USDF secretary and US Equestrian "S" judge Margaret Freeman, who will be scribing for dressage at the WEG, watches the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Hijinks aside, the jog is a tense time, and tradition dictates that horses are impeccably braided and turned out as they will be for the actual tests, but in snaffle bridles. Most national federations kit out the handlers with matching outfits that range from suits to polo shirts and jeans. (Some getups seem more ridiculous than others.) Grooms fuss and polish, then cluster at the sidelines to look on anxiously with federation officials, owners, and sponsors until they hear the magic words from the announcer: “[Horse name] is accepted.”

 

Laura Graves gives Verdades a kiss before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Suppenkasper ("Mopsie") is in good form for US competitor Steffen Peters. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Olympic and WEG veteran Adrienne Lyle jogs her 2018 WEG partner, Salvino. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

At this morning’s dressage horse inspection, all four Team USA horses—Suppenkasper with Steffen Peters, Verdades with Laura Graves, Salvino with Adrienne Lyle, and Goerklintgaards Dublet with Kasey Perry-Glass—passed the jog. Of the total 77 horses from 31 countries, none was not accepted, although an Australian horse and a Portuguese horse was “held” for reinspection later this afternoon. On reinspection, officials will decide whether the two horses will start tomorrow, which is the first day of competition at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 and day 1 of the two-day dressage Grand Prix competition for the team medals. 

 

Because he's based in the USA, Spanish rider and WEG first-timer Juan Matute Guimon  (with Quantico Ymas) has many American well-wishers. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

The dressage competition is set to begin at 9:00 a.m. EDT. It, like all WEG competition, will be broadcast on FEI TV; you’ll have to pay to access the live stream.