Through it all there were falls to remember, unwanted refusals and dangling riders who managed to scramble back on their horses before their feet touched the ground.

On the first day Hector Florentino riding for the Dominican Republic fell off of Ittersum. Santiago Egas riding Garufa for Ecuador also fell, had a refusal and was eliminated.

Moving into the Nation’s Cup day in the first round only Karina Harbich Johannpeter from Brazil fell and accumulated 20 jumping penalties and 15 time faults. But fortunately for Brazil her score was the throwaway score. However, in the second round Karina redeemed herself when, despite the pouring rain she came back and did a clear round on Faust de Raon. In fact she had the worst (35) and best (0) scores of the day for her team.

The Ecuador team continued to have its problems when Carlos Vasconez on Otwet had two refusals in the first round. One almost landed him on the ground but amazingly he was able to scramble back on his horse despite being vertical to the ground, but in the end he was eliminated.

The saddest moment of the day was watching Michelle Navarro riding Osho for Peru. They had gone clean on the first day taking over the lead individually but on day two their troubles began at the fourth fence in the first Nation’s Cup course where she crashed through the fence demolishing it. As she continued around the course the fences continued to fall until she totaled five in all for 20 jumping faults and four time faults. She ended up having a refusal at the last fence. Michelle went from first in the order to 31st in the order after the first round. Her problems didn’t stop there because when she went into Round II again the rails started falling early in the course and then she had a refusal midway through the course at a combination. When she went back and attempted to rejump the fence another refusal landed her on the ground. She finished in the 37th position.