Equestrian-Politics, royalty and shifting power

13 Aug 2012, 12:29 am   -   Source: Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - With royalty, politics, seismic shifts in the map of horse power and historic success for the home team, equestrian sports in the London Games were as full of twists and turns as the Olympic courses designed by Sue Benson and Bob Ellis.

LONDON (Reuters) - With royalty, politics, seismic shifts in the map of horse power and historic success for the home team, equestrian sports in the London Games were as full of twists and turns as the Olympic courses designed by Sue Benson and Bob Ellis.

There were not one but two royal medallists - Zara Phillips, granddaughter of the Queen, won team eventing silver and Prince Abdullah Al Saud, grandson of the Saudi king, captured team show jumping bronze.

Mainstream media turned out in force, drawn by the royals and by Rafalca, America's most political horse by virtue of part-owner Ann Romney, wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Once-dominant nations faltered while new forces emerged.

Germany won team and individual eventing gold and individual eventing bronze but handed the Olympic dressage crown it has held since 1976 to a British team that only reached the top ranks in the past few years.

North America went away empty-handed.

Mishaps knocked Canada's eventing and dressage teams out before the finals and the disqualification of rider Tiffany Foster for a cut over her horse's hoof left its jumpers - who won team silver and individual gold in 2008 - a rider short.

Canada finished fifth while defending Olympic champion Eric Lamaze, riding an inexperienced horse after the sudden death of gold medal mount Hickstead last year, was joint 29th.

Things didn't go much better for the United States, team Olympic jumping champions in 2004 and 2008.

Beezie Madden, 2008 individual jumping bronze medallist, came to London with a shot at gold but was eliminated in the first qualifier when her horse stopped twice at a fence.

The team as a whole finished out of the medals in all disciplines for the first time since 1956.

"They'll be back. They have fantastic riders. They have great young riders coming up," said British equestrian team head Will Connell. "And the Canadians ...I think anyone writing the North Americans off would be doing it far too quickly."

A devastated Foster was disqualified under rules partly designed to prevent riders purposely making horses' legs tender so they jump more carefully. The International Federation of Equestrian Sports (FEI) said there was no sign of wrongdoing in Foster's case but stood by its decision.

Team captain Lamaze was furious at the disqualification and said it is time to take a hard look at the rules.

Final doping test results were not yet in but if they prove clean, it would validate tougher anti-doping measures taken by the FEI in the wake of a raft of doping cases at the 2008 Games.

HORSE POWER

Saudi Arabia, with royal team member Prince Abdullah, rode to a surprise lead in the first round of team jumping and stayed strong in the second for a bronze. Kamal Bahamdan finished just out of the medals in the individual.

The Saudis were riding proven horses bought up in a two-year spree by a group called Saudi Equestrian, whose patron is King Abduallah and whose sole goal was a strong London showing.

Chef d'equipe Rogier van Iersel, a former international judge from the Netherlands, said the team's performance trumped expectations and was as much down to riding as to acquired horse power.

"Anyone knows that the horses we have are not cheap horses. Nevertheless, this is not a guarantee for success," he told Reuters.

"You have to have the skill, the energy, the talent, the will to work, the will to train and then if you have a good horse, you might be successful."

Connell said that what Britain lacks in equine buying power, it makes up for with talent at training young horses.

Britain went into the Games with all the ingredients for success - horses and riders at their peak and a Games on home turf with a wildly partisan crowd. It emerged with the nation's highest equestrian Olympic medal tally ever.

Beyond the eventing silver, Britain won its first team jumping gold in 60 years and team gold in dressage - the nation's first Olympic medal of any hue in a sport traditionally dominated by Germany and the Netherlands.

Charlotte Dujardin also took individual dressage gold on record-breaking horse Valegro while Laura Bechtolsheimer won bronze on Mistral Hojris, known as Alf.

Connell said Carl Hester, a British team member as well as Dujardin's coach and mentor, deserves enormous credit.

"You should never get away from Carl Hester's achievements at these Games in that he not only won a gold medal himself, he produced a rider and horse as coach to win a gold medal," he said. Hester finished fifth individually.

Britain won't waste time basking in glory, though. Owners, riders and officials will meet shortly to plot a course to Rio.

"The likes of Valegro, Mistral Hojris, (Hester's) Uthopia, (jumper Nick Skelton's mount) Big Star - these horses are once-in-a-lifetime horses," Connell told Reuters.

With Valegro and Uthopia to be sold and Mistral Hojris too old to make Rio, Britain will need to comb the next generation for talent - human and equine - for the 2016 medal hunt.

(Reporting by Sarah Edmonds; editing by Jason Neely)

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