Olympic records were broken during the team and individual eventing dressage competition today at the Palace of Versailles, located about half an hour southwest of Paris, during the 2024 Paris Olympics. Home to several generations of French kings, and now the venue for equestrian sports in the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the iconic chateau and manicured gardens served as a beautiful backdrop behind letter A of the dressage arena. Though rain fell the entire day, crowds still mostly filled the stands by midday and few left early.
For the first time in recent memory, and perhaps ever, the eventing dressage competition was completed all on one day. Sixty-four horse and rider combinations from 27 different countries cantered down centerline from 9:30 a.m. until just after 6 p.m.
There were six groups of 10 riders each and one final group of four riders, with each separated by breaks to groom the ring footing. Judges for the day were: Christina Klingspor from Sweden at C; Robert Stevenson from the USA at E (in his Olympic judging debut), and Xavier le Sauce from France at M.
The dressage test ridden was the Olympic 5* Short Test, specially designed for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo to produce a shorter trip around the boards for a viewer-friendly experience and a more compact competition schedule favored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and television networks. The test takes only about three minutes and 50 seconds to complete versus the old test, which took over six minutes. It is intense because all of the required movements have to be packed into such a short time.
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First to compete was the reigning Olympic gold medalist (from Tokyo 2021), Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21. They earned a good score of 26.9 (which put them in 15th at the end of the day), setting up the day for a game of “how low can you go.”
Five riders later, the first U.S. rider, Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake — one of only three 9-year-old horses in the competition (the youngest age allowed by the FEI in Olympic eventing) — took their turn scoring 30.4, very respectable for such a young combination. Although Pamukcu and Blake were individual gold medalists in the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games, this was an Olympic debut for both. They ended the dressage phase in 25th place.
Pamukcu talked about her focus, “The big goal is I want to be a team score. I am here to give the best, consistent dressage test, the best, consistent cross-country, and the best, consistent show jump round. So, the whole goal for this weekend is not individual performance, it is team performance. Team medals are more important than anything else, especially looking toward Los Angeles [in 2028]. Blake is my best friend. I take him for hacks. I am with him nearly every single day. I adore him and he adores me.”
Two riders after Pamukcu, Great Britain’s Tom McEwan and JL Dublin lowered the top score again, earning 25.8 to take the early lead and later in the day putting them in 11th after dressage.
The next U.S. rider to compete was Elisabeth Halliday and the 10-year-old Nutcracker, who were last to go in the third group right before the lunch break. Also competing in her first Olympics, Halliday is known for laying down great dressage scores and they did just that, garnering a 28.0 to move them into fourth at the time. By the end of the day, they were in 19th individually.
Halliday and Nutcracker had moved from the teams traveling reserve spot onto the team less than 48 hours ago due to Will Coleman’s horse developing a foot abscess. She was elated after her ride, yet said she felt devastated for Coleman, having experienced that type of disappointment before.
She said she went through a range of emotions leading up to competing for the team, “I went from shock to ‘oh my gosh’ to ‘OK, now I’m just a competitor’ again. I am absolutely thrilled with how my young horse performed in there. He has actually taken a big leap forward in his work in the last two weeks.”
Then, a few scores in the high teens and more in the 20s started dropping with some regularity. The third rider out after the lunch break was Laura Collett from Great Britain riding her long-time partner London 52. Great things were expected from this pair who had won the 2022 Badminton 5* Horse Trials and were members of the British Team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. And, boy, did they deliver! As instrumental strains of The Beatles’ hit “Yesterday” appropriately played in the background, their test was nearly foot perfect and beautiful to watch. When their mark of 17.5 was posted, the crowds cheered and they were in the history books as the best-ever Olympic eventing dressage score. They eventually topped the leaderboard at the end of the day.
Several more horse and rider pairs posted impressive scores in the 20s, then Germany’s Michael Jung, a four-time Olympian, and his Tokyo 2021 mount Chipmunk FRH stepped into the ring. Great expectations for them were fulfilled as well and they notched another fabulous score, just below Collett’s, a 17.8 and another Olympic record-breaking score. After Jung and Chipmunk, more 20-something scores dropped, too.
The final U.S. rider was Boyd Martin on Fedarman B, riding in honor of Fedarman’s previous owner Annie Goodwin, who died in a riding accident. Martin is representing the USA in his fourth Olympic Games. They put in a nice test, slightly marred by a couple of bobbles in canter flying changes to earn 30.5. Still, it was a good start for them looking toward cross-country tomorrow.
Martin summarized their test, “Awesome test except for two moments which were disastrous. I really feel like Bruno went in there and was such a champion; he was with me every step of the way. But, our left-to-right lead changes in there were a bit of a muddle. In the lead up to this event, we had been getting those really good at home in training. Today the atmosphere was electric out there and he got a bit of anxiety and I think I mistimed my aids a little bit. I feel like I gave my all today and it would have been awesome to have four great changes, but I feel like we still came out of it with a respectable score. Other than the flying changes, I feel like it was our best work ever. I feel like it [the cross-country] is a hell of a course out there, but I feel like my horse is custom made for it.”
One rider, Emiliano Portali of Italy riding Future, was unfortunately eliminated today in the equipment check after their test. They had earned a score of 30.5 but unfortunately they must have had a piece of equipment that didn’t comply with the rules. However, they will be allowed to run cross-country tomorrow for their team, but the team is assessed a penalty of 100 points because of their elimination.
Find a complete list of the individual eventing results after the dressage phase here.
In the team competition, eyes were on the scoreboard and calculators were out, as national federations figured and refigured their standings during the day. Each team has three horse and rider combinations, with no drop score, so a lot is riding on each member’s performance.
The British Team has so, so much depth and they showed it today, posting the best score of 66.7. Standing in second after dressage is Germany on 74.1 and third is the French Team, which rose to the occasion in front of their home crowd scoring 81.2. Not far behind, New Zealand is fourth with 83.0 and fifth is Japan (87.4). The USA stands in striking distance in sixth place on 88.9.
Find complete eventing post-dressage team results here.
Tomorrow’s cross-country begins at 10:30 a.m. and runs to 3 p.m. Central European Time (4:30 a.m. U.S. East Coast Time, 3:30 a.m. U.S. Central Time, 2:30 a.m. Rocky Mountain Time, 1:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time). NBC’s Peacock and NBCOlympics.com will livestream the competition from 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
Individual and team cross-country orders of go and results, as well as obstacle descriptions and a cross-country course map, can be found at these links:
◆ Team
◆ Individual
Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.
