Paris Olympic Happy Hour: Brits Lead Team & Individual Eventing Dressage, U.S. Sits 6th

The Olympic equestrian events kicked off today with eventing dressage. Here’s how the day one standings shook out.

Cheers, Horse Nation! Each evening we’ll be pulling together the day’s top equestrian stories from Paris in one easy-to-read summary format. Think of us as your favorite sports bar rather than the long bar crawl from site to site to catch all the day’s equestrian news.

My 5-year-old son’s immediate commentary when he wandered downstairs to eventing dressage this morning: yawn.

“This is boring. Yesterday they had explosions and put the fire in the pot that went up into the sky.”

I mean, I get it. I’d rather watch a robot horse gallop across the Seine, too, but there is something about Olympics dressage day that compels. Maybe it’s the shorter, more action-packed tests (three cheers for less walking!) designed especially for the Games so they could fit everybody’s tests into a single day. Or that little swell of pride in your chest when your countryman/woman canters up the centerline, even knowing full well that they’re up against what one on-air commenter described as “murder row” i.e. Great Britain and Germany, respectively.

Speaking of which, our medal-position teams at the conclusion of eventing dressage:

🥇 Great Britain

🥈 Germany 

🥉 France 

And medal-position individuals:

🥇 Laura Collett & London 52 (17.50)

🥈 Michael Jung & Chipmunk FRH (17.80)

🥉 Alex Hua Tian & Jilsonne van Bareelhof (22.0)

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt via EN.

Team USA sits 6th, with Liz Halliday & Nutcracker as our top-ranked pair in 19th. They’ve had a wild past 48 hours; originally our traveling reserve combination, they were bumped onto the team after the late withdrawal of Will Coleman & Diablo due to a suspected abscess. Caroline Pamukcu & HSH Blake are 25th and Boyd Martin & Fedarman B are 26th in the 64 horse field.

You can view the complete standings here.

Liz Halliday and Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt via EN.

“Overall our horses did some very fine work, but it was very competitive and I think it showed that we just weren’t going to be in the top tier today, but I’m still very proud of our athletes and horses,” U.S. chef d’equipe Bobby Costello told EN their day-end recap. “The amount of work that they’ve put in this year has been immense and all of these horses will just keep getting better and they will have to be because the world is getting better as well.”

I’ll leave the technical commentary to our sister site Eventing Nation, which has two reporters on French soil this year covering the Games — you can find ALL the links below. This is happy hour, after all. A pint-sized recap, just enough intel so that you have something to tell your Internet-challenged mom when she calls to ask which horse is winning.

The eventing action continues tomorrow with cross country. Surely my kid will find it more entertaining. Cross-country will begin at 10.30 a.m. CET (9.30 a.m. BST/4.30 a.m. EST).

Cool stag’s head. Photo by Tilly Berendt via EN.

Cheers, Horse Nation!

EN #Paris2024: [Website] [Equestrian Schedule, Timing, Scoring] [Peacock for U.S. Viewers] [How to Watch Guide] [Ticket Resale Market] [Spectator Guides] [EN’s Coverage] [Form Guide] [Team Form Guide] [Dressage Companion Guide]