Little Pony Teddy & Karen O’Connor Earn Double Gold at 2007 Pan Am Games
We may have thought that the Dressage was as good as it gets but the Eventers showed just how good it can get for their three phase event of dressage, cross country and show jumping. Our riders started out at the top and except for a little bit of “musical medals” when it was all over the U.S. won the Team Gold and three of our six riders claimed the Individual Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Team members Karen O’Connor riding Theodore O’Connor, Gina Miles aboard McKinlaigh, Stephen Bradley on From and Phillip Dutton on Truluck claimed the Gold Medal. Individually two Golds were the charm for the O’Connors. Dutton won the Silver and Miles the Bronze.
The Eventing dressage was a real coup for the U.S. when five of our six riders finished in the top five spots. Those five were all Olympic veterans. Our sixth rider, Gina, finished 11th overall because of some obvious mistakes throughout their test. Yet that would be the last mistake they would make and after accumulating no more penalty points Gina moved up to the Bronze Medal position.
Figuring Out The Invisible Cross Country Course
While the dressage is important, it’s the cross country that really tells the story. For the journalists it was a different ball game. We were not able to see the cross country course until that day, which meant we had to make our decisions about where to take our pictures without a visual to choose from.
Every day we are covering the show our game plan is the same. We get up at 5:30 a.m., catch a 6:30 taxi to the Main Press Center, catch a 7:00 shuttle to the Deodoro Military Base and then arrive at 8:00 for a 9:00 start. For cross country our day began at 10:00 but we took advantage of the extra time to decide on our photo positions.
The day before, not knowing the course, we spoke to the riders and their Chef d’Equipe Capt. Mark Phillips. They all forewarned us that despite the fact that this was a three-star course and not a four-star, that it would be more than just the fences that would impact the horses and riders. There was also going to be the problem of the hilly terrain. The hills were mostly at the beginning of the course but later on there was a long uphill climb.
We got into position early and realized that we were pretty much going to be the only spectators for the crowd because by 9:30 it was still pretty empty. Yet surprisingly, in that half hour the people started swarming in. It may not have been as large a crowd as we’ve seen at other Pan American Games but it was still pretty good and the crowd seem to understand the sport well enough to cheer at the right times and show their disappointment at others.
Fitness Prevails In The Cross Country Course
When you are dealing with such a varied field it is truly anyone’s game and so while many of the 26 riders went over the fences without a hitch there were those that stumbled and fell getting drenched in the process. Through it all Technical Delegate Roger Haller was ever present. He was there to yell at the volunteers when no one hurried to help a downed rider get back on his horse. And he was there when one of the Argentinean horses had some real problems on the course forcing everything to stop for 20 minutes.
Fortunately, having Roger there as well as veterinarian Jack Snyder, Foreign Veterinary Delegate, meant the horses were in good hands.
I caught up with Jack to discuss how everything went for the horses on cross country day because I wanted his insight. Also a remark by Michael Stone, Secretary General of the FEI, stuck in my head. “It really wasn’t that hard of a course,” commented Stone but then added “if the horses were fit. And for that course horses needed to be fit.”
While the jumps were demanding it was the combination of a windy, hilly course with the jumps that made the test “harder than it walked,” later commented two-time Australian Team Olympic Gold Medalist Phillip Dutton (who now as a U.S. Citizen was riding on his first U.S. Team at these Pan Am Games.)
Snyder first pointed out that of the ten days he had spent in Rio, as luck would have it cross country day was the hottest day so far. Yet he thought “the horses overall did really well. We had some horses that got tired as would be expected but none had major injuries.”
Snyder then talked about the horse that held up the course. It was the Argentinian Jose Luis Ortelli aboard Jos Aladar who had the most visible problems on course. While rumors spread about broken limbs and other falsities the fact was that Jos Aladar was simply too tired to go on.
“We only had that one horse that basically needed some time on the course before we could get it off. He was just tired. Horses do that, they don’t lay down but once they are down they stay there; just like a human if they are exhausted or really tired … they don’t move . So, the way to handle them is to wait for the horse to want to get up. Just like us.” And eventually that is exactly what happened.
While Jos Aladar was clearly tired so were some of the other horses clearly just not fit enough to negotiate this course combined with the winding terrain. “I was concerned as the day went on, because of the heat. Yet when we monitored them and took their temperature they were all fine with the temperatures going down, except for one horse. Its temperature stayed the same for about 20-30 minutes and then it went down,” he commented.
However, Snyder explained that the vets were prepared for any circumstance. “We had about 25 vets that were either on course, in the hospital or in the stable. There were three ambulances dividing the course up into three sectors so that each ambulance could get to a horse in their sector. We had vets not on every jump but spread out in different areas in the course with emergency kits. And everyone with radio contact. All of the vets that were there were experienced with Eventing.
Snyder is not new to these major international competitions. He started with the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea where he ran the clinic and since then has been at most every Pan American, Olympic and even some World Equestrian Games in various capacities. In Hong Kong for the Olympic Games he will be running the hospital.
As the Foreign Veterinary Delegate, Snyder’s job was to make sure everything was adequate for the horses. He also was involved in approving the hospital facilities and explained that Rio managed to create a very unique hospital using shipping containers. There were four containers, two stacked side by side. “It’s very unique and a very good way to make a surgical facility without it costing a lots of money. They were able to build the clinic in 60 Days!“
Snyder was even more impressed with the stabling and felt from every aspect it was great (food, bedding, stables and more). “It’s almost on par to an Olympic Games rather than a Pan American Games,” he noted.
The Jog and Show Jumping
The real decision maker on how the horses fared on the course would be the jog before the Show Jumping and so I headed out early to see how many of the 26 horses who competed on the cross country course would be allowed to compete in the Show Jumping. In the end there were 20 horses in the show jumping competition.
Snyder was among the veterinarians deciding who could go on. He explained a little bit about how they make their decisions noting that when they see a problem they have to decide if it’s something minor or major. “There is a big difference with a horse who just has a bruise as opposed to one whose tendon is really in pain.”
After cross country, “we know that there is going to be some soreness. We look at that. We know the work load of what it is going to do for the show jumping and if we feel that the horse does not have an injury that will cause a problem for him then we will let it go.” The key for Snyder and the other veterinarians is to ensure that each horse is fit to compete. “This is not a pre-purchase exam. This is to assess the various conditions to decide if the horse can finish the competition.”
When Teddy entered the arena for his final round you would never have known that he may have been a wee bit sore from the cross country course. In fact he and the other American horses all made a bold grand entrance. Going into the final round after the previous rider, Phillip Dutton, added four time penalties to his score Karen knew if she wanted the Gold she only had one rail in hand.
She pushed the bar just that much and one and only one rail fell and when they jumped the last fence up went her arm. Karen knew that her little Teddy had actually done it. Some people may have believed that there was no way a pony could have done what Teddy did, but after you watch him you realize that this truly is a one-of-a-kind pony who has no clue just how small he is. And as far as Teddy is concerned, it really can be done!
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