2002 World Equestrian Games

Show Jumping: A French Day in Spain

It was now up to Leslie Howard and her 10-year-old brown Belgium gelding Priobert de Kalvarie. Howard trotted quickly in and kept up a quick trotting pace as she circled around. Then off she went with a strong performance. In the middle of the course they had a problem with the triple combination and knocked down a rail, but it did not affect them for the rest of the round and that was the only rail that fell.

The two clear rounds and one four faulter would be the only rounds that counted as Simpson's would be the throw away score. But with only four faults they catapulted into the Bronze Medal position. Peter doing another clear round was a real bonus for him as that put him in the first place position. Amazing what spending a few years in Europe will do for you when competing in these European countries.

So as we began the second round we stood third behind Sweden and France with Germany on our heels. So far the results were all over the board by the time we entered the arena. Our hopes would raise when Wylde put in another clear round and rise again when Nicki had four faults at the last fence. But then our luck started to disappear when Beezie had problems on the second half of the course and her 12 faults became the discounted score. All was still not lost but then it was when Howard also had problems and two more rails came down that we knew our hopes for a medal were lost.