Diana and Cealy from Rio

A Golden Day for the U.S. Dressage Riders And Lauren’s Heartwarming Story!

What a thrill to have our Dressage Team of Lauren Sammis on Sagacious, Katherine Poulin-Neff on Brilliant Too and Christopher Hickey aboard Regent win the Gold Medal. Canada’s second place finish means they’ve qualified for the Olympic Games in Dressage. The coup d’etat of the day was the awards ceremony and how magnificently all our horses stayed together as they galloped around the arena. It certainly was a wonderful day for our U.S. Dressage Team made up of riders who have never competed in a Pan American, World Equestrian or Olympic Games.

All of our riders now move on to the Individual Test and our hopes are high. There are two more phases to go before the Individual Awards get presented.

After the dressage riders were finished competing there was a quick demonstration of the “Airs Above the Ground” demonstrating the lavade (rear) and capriole (kick) just before the medals were presented. Following that was a Press Conference in a room that ended up being packed with the winning riders, reporters and photographers. The Press Conference was almost comical because every comment had to be translated into English and Portuguese and when Chef d’Equipe Klaus Balkenhol spoke it meant translating from German as well. Since I am a language lover I enjoyed hearing the different translations, some I understood and others I didn’t.

Afterwards I headed out with Maria Partlow from the USEF to take some pictures and along the way I got my chance to speak with Lauren. We had talked the day before and a comment she made really inspired me to hear more.