August 27, 2006 -- Greetings from Aachen. I have been writing this blog sitting in the back of the TV production truck. I put on my headphones, turn the volume up, and crank up my tunes to get in the right mood for contact journalism. For my kick-off tune today, I went with REO Speedwagon's "Riding the Storm Out." We just made it, too. Zara Phillips jumped the last fence clear to win the individual gold, and the next thing you know, we were having a good old-fashioned frog strangler. Clayton Fredericks jumped a classy round to move up into the silver slot, and how 'bout that Amy Tryon?
It was deja vu Athens all over again, where she comes into the ring in seventh place, jumps the money round, and this time gets the individual bronze.
Kim Severson gets all the press, but Kim would be the first to tell you that Amy is the rock we build the team on, and she did not let us down this time, we let her down. Despite Amy's medal, there are some long faces in the USET stables tonight. We need good horses and riders to back up the people we brought here, and right now we don't have them. Look at the Brits... There are not many other teams that could lose the individual gold medal winner, plus the winner of the Rolex Grand Slam, and STILL win the silver... and they started two World Championship/Olympic rookies to do it. That is depth.
If I were a U.S. rider, age about 20, with a nice three-star horse, I would say to myself "Hmmmmm... the Olympics are in two years, the World Equestrian Games will be here in Lexington in four years... I think I am going to go back out to the barn and ride without stirrups for a while... because I want to ride for my country, and it looks like I have a chance." But it won't just happen. You have to make it happen. Good luck, kid, you don't really realize how badly we need you and how much we are pulling for you. Now you run along to the stables and cross your stirrups while I tell the rest of these nice people about the rest of what I saw today.
I was thinking of trying to slip in some more of the stuff that got me in such trouble the other day, say, something like I have noticed that (watch it! your Net Nanny is on this site 24/7). OK, OK. It was worth a try. (Cue insane laughter sound track here.)
The course today was typically European. It was not quite as big, or as related, as the course at Rolex this spring, but it took a lot of jumping, and there were not many double-clears. This is a big arena, and the jumping lines stretched from one end of the arena to the other. When you are on a slightly tired horse that was whizzing around at 600 meters per minute yesterday, it is a tricky job to hold them together. If you fight with your horse, you knock rails down, but if you just let them run you knock rails down, so you have to find the right balance of control and aggression.
It also does not help that most riders are so nervous when they ride into a big time arena that they want to throw up. While I watched the jumping today, I got to thinking how rare Sunday afternoon nerves are. By that I mean it is rare to see people who can come into an arena with their team and individual chances on the line, with a chance to go into the history books, and with a TV zoom lens showing every detail live to a worldwide audience, and then they ride better than you have ever seen them ride. That is Sunday afternoon nerves. Look up "Sunday afternoon nerves" in the dictionary, and you will see Amy Tryon's photo. She has got them. So does Clayton Fredericks and Zara.
Of course, Zara is a special case. She has grown up with the tabloid press breathing down her neck, so that sort of thing doesn't bother her. But still, she didn't get into the ring because she is the Queen's grand daughter. She got in there because she rides her horse the living best. And when she gets in there, she makes the best of it... sounds simple, but a lot of people weren't able to do it today.
