August 15, 2010 -- I feel as if I had peeked at the end of the book before I bothered reading the beginning when the dressage team selection trials for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games finally ended today at the U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) Foundation headquarters.
There were few surprises in the outcome of two weekends of intense testing for riders who aspired to represent their country at the biggest equestrian sport competition on earth next month.
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- Tina Konyot turns Calecto V loose for a real victory gallop.
- © 2010 by Nancy Jaffer
Tina Konyot was four-for-four with the energetic Calecto V, topping off her victories with a lively performance in the freestyle finale to the signature lyric, "Big black horse and a cherry tree" from a KT Tunstall tune. Calecto actually is dark brown, but he's close enough.
As everyone had expected (they peeked at the end of the book too) Tina was crowned national champion at the Collecting Gaits Farm/U.S. Equestrian Federation Festival of Champions. Her total of 73.320 percent (the two Grands Prix counted 30 percent each, the Special 25 percent and the freestyle 15 percent of the scores) gave her a comfortable margin over Todd Flettrich, whose total was 71.177 with Otto. His musical mantra was "This Is How We Do It" from the Montell Jordan song of the same name, and Todd definitely showed off Otto's spectacular passage and other attributes to tunes that also included "King of the Road." (The pirouettes still need work, however.).
He had a whoops when Otto broke in the trot half-pass, and Tina had a whoops when her stallion fumbled the end of a pirouette, but they still shone, with Tina graded at 75.750 for her freestyle and Todd at 75.600, very respectable scores.
Todd overtook Katherine Bateson-Chandler, who had been standing second in the rankings with Nartan, but give the girl a break. She's only been with the horse since mid-May and she was riding the "Hernando's Hideaway" freestyle used by his former owner, Jeannette Haazen.
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- Tina Konyot and Todd Flettrich share a special moment during the freestyle awards ceremony.
- © 2010 by Nancy Jaffer
"I'm still a little feeling that freestyle out," she said, citing her brief association with Nartan, but after everything she's been through at the trials, she said, "I feel like he's mine."
Well, not exactly. He's owned by U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation President and CEO Jane Clark, who today could proudly say that she had short-listed team contenders in three sports--dressage, four-in-hand driving (Jimmy Fairclough) and show jumping (Mario Deslauriers.) That must be some kind of record.
"All you need now is eventing," I said to her, as she laughed and said, "And vaulting, and reining, and..." Yes, there are eight disciplines at the WEG; probably a bit much even for someone of Jane's caliber to handle.
Katherine was third overall with 71.127 percent, though she came fourth in the freestyle (72.600) behind Jan Ebeling and Rafalca (72.950). I haven't always been impressed by Rafalca, but the mare has improved vastly since the last time I saw her, and I loved her freestyle, particularly the piaffe "fan" pirouette at the end.
One of Rafalca's owners is Anne Romney. Her husband, Mitt, the former Massachusetts governor and presidential contender, was on hand to watch. I asked him if he really enjoyed seeing the dressage and he told me he did, but that his chosen style of riding is western. He still owns horses he used to ride when he ran the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, but he told me that (not surprisingly) he hasn't had much chance to spend time in the saddle recently.
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- The top four on the U.S. WEG roster: Todd Flettrich, Katherine Bateson-Chandler, Tina Konyot, Steffen Peters
- © by Nancy Jaffer
But I digress. Tina, Todd and Katherine, along with Steffen Peters (Ravel), who got a bye from the trials, are at the top of the "short list/nominated entry" lineup that the USEF is submitting. Basically, it means that the aforementioned four are the team, unless something goes wrong between now and the WEG. Standing fifth, in line to be the first alternate, is Germany-based Catherine Haddad with the adorable Winyamaro, who turned out to be a lot more experienced than many thought before he shipped over. Her freestyle was fun, done to music from Pink that started out with the kind of loudspeaker announcement you hear at airports. That was because she first performed the freestyle at Berlin's Tempelhof Airport, after it was shut down and became an exhibition center.
