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- The 2002 World Equestrian Games United States eventing team gold-medalists. L to R: David O'Connor, Kim Vinoski (now Severson), Amy Tryon and John Williams with team trainer Mark Phillips.
- Photo by Kit Houghton/FEI
July 31, 2006 -- Eventing breaks new ground in Aachen this summer where, for the first time, the World Championships will be run without steeplechase at the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG). This version of the sport, introduced at top international level shortly before the 2004 Olympic Games, dispenses with the two sections of roads and tracks and the steeplechase that traditionally preceded the cross-country.
It will also mark an important innovation for the famous Soers showground, long renowned as a centre of excellence for show jumping, dressage and driving. The organizers were faced with the massive undertaking of building from scratch a brand-new cross-country course. Fortunately, they had at their disposal a conveniently situated square kilometre of land adjacent to the main stadium on the Soerser Weg.
Germany's Rudiger Schwarz will design the 30-fence course, which will involve some 45 actual jumping efforts. The 56-year-old former international rider, winner of a world team silver medal back in 1982, is now a highly successful trainer of junior and young riders and, since 1998, has gained a reputation as an international course designer.
Schwarz has promised a true World Championship track that will test the best riders and horses, as well as offering slightly less technical but more time-consuming alternatives for the more cautious. It will include three water obstacles and several other technically difficult complexes as well as the usual smattering of straightforward "let-up" fences. The course will be 6,270 meters (3.9 miles) in length--slightly shorter than Badminton--and must be ridden at the same speed as Badminton (570 meters per minute). Riders incur time penalties 0.4 of a penalty added for every second they take over the optimum time.
WEG brings together the finest riders and horses from the world's most successful eventing nations--headed by the reigning champions Jean Teulere and Espoir de la Mare from France--as well as individuals from countries unable to muster a full team. A team comprises four members. The three best riders' final total scores count for the team classification for medals with the worst being discarded. In addition each nation may run two more individuals, giving a maximum of six riders/horses per nation. Team and individual riders compete at the same time.
Four continents will be represented, with 17 nations expected to field teams and another 10 running one or more individuals. A total of around 95 riders is expected.
Among nations fielding full teams will be the three "big guns" of the world stage, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and the main European contenders, France, Germany and Great Britain.
The Americans are the current team title holders. The British have the best record at this level, with four team gold medals compared with America and New Zealand's two apiece. France, Ireland and Canada have each been champions on just one occasion.
The Germans will be hungry to make amends for their Athens Olympic Games debacle, when Bettina Hoy's last-day error (crossing the start-line twice in show jumping) cost her and her compatriots both individual and team gold medals.
The USA's most deadly weapon is, once again, the combination of Kim Severson and the British-bred Winsome Adante, three-time winners of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, and team bronze and individual silver medalists at the Athens Olympic Games.
Australian Andrew Hoy, the 2006 winner of Rolex and Badminton, is riding better than ever. Hoy and his compatriots have won Olympic gold on three consecutive occasions (1992, 1996 and 2000) but the Aussies have yet to score at WEG.
The British, who have reigned supreme in Europe for many years will also be among the favorites despite the loss of Pippa Funnell. Her proposed ride Primmore's Pride, previous winner of Rolex, Badminton and Burghley, has been withdrawn with a suspected leg problem. Funnell has been replaced by championship debutante Sharon Hunt and Tankers Town, who ran well to finish sixth at Badminton this spring.
The British squad is a mix of the very experienced and total newcomers to championship riding. Mary King, 43, team gold medalist in The Hague in 1994, is the senior member. She rides Call Again Cavalier, the former mount of Caroline Pratt. William Fox-Pitt, the next most experienced, will be among the individual favorites with the part-Arab Tamarillo, winner of team gold and individual silver medals at last year's Europeans. New to the team are 24-year-old Oliver Townend (third at Badminton 2006) and Daisy Dick (11th in the Europeans 2005).
