WEG Wrap: Tragedy in Endurance

An equine fatality clouded an otherwise upbeat day at the World Equestrian Games.

Top image © FEI/- Dirk Caremans

ENDURANCE

Individual

1. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohd al Maktoum and YAMADAN, United Arab Emirates (8:08:28)
2. Marijke Visser and LAIZA DE JALIMA, Netherlands (8:19:07)
3. Abdulrahman Saad A.S AL SULAITEEN and KOHEILAN KINCSO, Qatar (8:56:23)

Team

1. Spain
2. France
3. Switzerland

A fatal accident: The race began on a tragic note today when Costa Rican endurance rider Claudia Romero Chacon and her horse Dorado fell 13.6 km into the race. Dorado struck a tree, sustaining a a head injury that killed him instantly, and Chacon was rushed to the hospital.

I guess that’s why they call it endurance: Of course, an entire week of rain was not going to make things any easier for the endurance riders. Claudia was only the first rider to be taken to the hospital–defending champion Maria Alvarez Ponton from Spain followed soon after. The difficult going left only three teams with three riders near the end of the race.

PARA-DRESSAGE

 Grade Ia Individual

1. Sophie Christiansen and JANEIRO 6 (Great Britain)
2. Sara Morganti and ROYAL DELIGHT (Italy)
3. Laurentia Tan and RUBEN JAMES 2 (Singapore)

Grade II Individual

1. Rixt van der Horst and UNIEK (Netherlands)
2. Natasha Baker and CABRAL (Great Britain)
3. Lauren Barwick and OFF TO PARIS (Canada)

Grade IV Individual

1. Michele George and RAINMAN (Belgium)
2. Sophie Wells and VALERIUS (Great Britain)
3. Frank Hosmar and ALPHAVILLE (Netherlands)

A dark horse winner: And no, we’re not just talking about the horse here. Rixt van der Horst and Uniek pulled ahead of fan favorite Natasha Baker in the Grade II competition to win the individual gold. Natasha Baker plans to dance her heart out tomorrow to make up for it: “We had some unfortunate spooks, but they’re horses and it’s just one of those things. For the freestyle I’m going to whack the music up so loud and just go for it. I’m even more driven to get it now.”

We’ll see…looks like Uniek and Rixt already have a pretty mean freestyle goin’ on:

Spots confirmed for Olympics in Rio: However, Great Britain did win the team gold easily–even if Natasha was second today in the individual, you’ll see her and her teammates at Rio 2016, as well as WEG riders from the Netherlands and Germany.

REINING

1. Troy Heikes and LIL GUN DUNIT (USA)
2. Cody Sapergia and NU CHEXOMATIC (Canada)
3. Josh Collins and SPOOK A LITTLE (Great Britain)

More qualifiers. Whatever. We’re all really just waiting to see what reiners will pull out of the bag for the finals on Saturday.

EVENTING-DRESSAGE

More dressage to come tomorrow, but here’s where we currently stand:

1. William Fox-Pitt and CHILLI MORNING (Great Britain)
2. Michael Jung and FISCHERROCANA (Germany)
3. Ingrid Klimke and FRH ESCADA (Germany)

Photo by Jenni Autry

WFP continues to be the best. Though I really wish he would wear an actual helmet.

The EN Chinchilla continues to be adorable. All the Normans in Normandy wish they had 1/10th the adorableness and sass of a Chinch.

I’ll leave the heavy lifting to the experts–Leslie Wylie and Jenni Autry are covering WEG live on Eventing Nation!

On deck for tomorrow: Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle, Para-Dressage Freestyle, and Eventing Dressage.