Olympics Review of Equestrian Competitions

The Equestrian Olympics produced some fantastic results for the British team. I am a dressage rider, so I may be biassed, but I think that the dressage results were the best results.

Dressage

Great Britain had never won a medal, of any colour, in dressage but in 2012 the British team won the gold team medal and two individual medals – a gold & a bronze. Anybody who follows dressage will know that this was not a total surprise – in fact the bookies had Great Britain as favourites to win the gold team medal. However, the result has to be seen in the context that Great Britain has never won a dressage medal and so went from dressage “also rans” to favourites and, most importantly, held their nerves and won three medals.

I have just watched Charlotte Dujardin / Valegro’s (Individual Gold) and Adelinde Cornelissen / Parzival’s (Individual Silver) Freestyle tests again. It is easier to focus on the quality of the tests when there is no tension about the result ! I wanted to see if I agreed with the judges. Were Charlotte and Valegro better than Adelinde and Parzival?

At this level both tests were very very good and both tests deserved very high marks and the medals they were awarded. However, the difference between the two tests is essentially the way the horse was going. Parzival is tighter in the neck and at times the poll was not the highest point and he was behind the vertical. For anybody not familiar with dressage what does this mean:

• poll was not the highest point – the poll is the top of the head which is just behind the ears. FEI definitions of dressage movements state that the poll should be the highest point of the horse in many dressage movements. If this is not the case then the highest marks cannot be awarded.
• behind the vertical – if a line is drawn straight up from the ground then the front of the horses head from muzzle to ears should follow this straight line. If a horse is behind the vertical then the muzzle is too close to the horses chest and a line following the front of the horses head from ear to muzzle would not be vertical … the imaginary line would actually hit the ground between the horses legs

Valegro on the other hand was consistently in a perfect outline with the poll as the highest point and was never behind the vertical. I believe that this was the key difference between the two tests and what gave Charlotte and Valegro the extra marks that gave them the gold medal.

Laura Bechtolsheimer won the bronze medal with a fantastic freestyle. I believe that Laura was disappointed with her scores in both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special and she was absolutely determined to get a better result in the Freestyle. She rode Mistral Hojris brilliantly and he responded with a superb test to win the bronze medal.

The team gold medal was won with some fantastic tests by Charlotte, Laura and Carl in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special. Valegro was superb in both the tests but for me the test that stands out is Carl Hester’s Grand Prix Special test. Uthopia was in top form for this test and produced a stunning Grand Prix Special. As with Laura I believe he may have been disappointed with his Grand Prix test score and was determined to get a better result in the Grand Prix Special.

Show Jumping

Great Britain won a fantastic team gold following a very exciting jump off. I must admit I have never competed in affiliated Show Jumping and I dont really follow Show Jumping. I may be being totally unfair but I dont believe that this medal was expected … certainly not be me! However, I watched the competition and Great Britain deserved the gold medal by holding their nerve in a jump off with the Netherlands. The jump off rules where the team with most clear round wins but if there is a tie then the team with the fastest time wins results in a very exciting jump off. Great Britain’s Peter Charles riding Vindicat was in the position of needing a clear round so he went for a slow clear with the pressure that if he did not go clear then the time would be too slow to win. Peter held his nerve and jumped clear to win Team Gold for Great Britain.

Eventing

On TV the Cross Country course looked twisty and tight over some undulating land. It was a serious test and with the city of London in the background it produced some good shots for TV. Great Britain went well in the dressage and the team were in third place going into the cross country. Great Britain’s team all went clear round cross country and three of the team were within the time. Great Britain rose from third to second after the cross country. The team had two clear rounds in the Team Show Jumping but unfortunately the two clear rounds were for the two riders with time penalties over the cross country. The three riders with clear rounds over the cross country course all got time penalties or had fences down. If the riders who went clear over the cross country had also gone clear over the show jumps then Great Britain may have threatened Germany for the gold medal. Great Britain won a silver medal behind a strong German team who were favourites to win.

Related posts:

1. Olympics Equestrian Medal Table
2. Equestrian Results from previous Olympics
3. Paralympic Equestrian Dates and Times for your Diary
4. Olympic Betting – whats the odds of winning dressage gold? Whats the odds of Charlotte beating Carl?
5. More Success for Dressage and Show Jumping in the build up to the Olympics
6. Olympic Dressage Freestyle to Music – Charlotte Dujardin wins Gold

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