Karen O'Connor was ecstatic with her pint-size mount.
Listen: Karen O'Connor on her cross-country run with Teddy
Stephen Bradley, one of the victims of the long hold for Laine's accident, felt From had lost some of his sparkle during the wait, because he's a nervous horse who won't stand still. He said the Russian-bred bay gelding was tired, resulting in 5.2 time penalties. Even so, he moved up from fourth to third, courtesy of Northern Spy's abdication.
Stephen is also 10th with Brandenburg's Joshua, which gives him two choices as the selectors eye him for Hong Kong. But From is his favorite.
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- Stephen Bradley and From
- © 2008 by Nancy Jaffer
Listen: Stephen Bradley discusses which horse he would like to ride in the Olympics.
From's score is 47.8 penalties, which gives Becky and Phillip some breathing room in tomorrow's finale. Karen is going for it, telling me it boils down to "a stadium jumping competition." And that happens to be one of her specialties. When she was younger, she spent months training pentathlon horses over jumps, experience that has stood her in good stead.
Becky has a positive viewpoint toward the jumping, even though that's where she lost the event in 2006, when she came into ring in first place and left the grounds in 13th place after dropping four rails.
"I feel like I'm bringing more and more tools to the game and I'm really excited to go out and work and see how I hold up," she said.
There's a lot more to come tomorrow, including the final vet check (where dreams are often dashed), the retirement ceremony for Winsome Adante and the determination of 4-star supremacy. Check back tomorrow when I write my last postcard from here. I'll also update you on Frodo and Quiet Man, of course.
Until then,
