September 3, 2006

Dramatic Final Competiton for Showjumping Individual Gold at The FEI World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006
Karen Robinson for HorsesDaily®.com Photos by Cealy Tetley

Proof of Greatness

As each of the four riders took turns on one another’s horses, preconceptions about which rider would have problems with which horse quickly evaporated. The riders had just three minutes to get to know each horse, and were permitted only two warm up jumps. While the women looked tiny on Cumano, the big stallion jumped way up over all the fences, and only once acted like less than a gentleman when he tossed his head with Michaels-Beerbaum. The three very different bay horses, one mare and two geldings, looked happy and willing with most of their pilots. Authentic became a bit hot with Jos Lansink, and downright strong with Edwina Alexander. She could barely stop him at the end of her round. But the fences stayed up as four horses refused to let their ever-changing partners down. It was a truly magnificent display of equine and equestrian greatness that 50,000 people were fortunate to watch in person.

By the time Shutterfly went out with Edwina Alexander, his fourth rider of the day, he was quite agitated in the holding area, and she had some difficulty just getting on. The Australian, who rides with Jan Tops in Holland, has a driving seat that bothered not only Authentic, but also the sensitive Shutterfly. A knock down at the first vertical in the triple combination took her out of the jump off for gold that ensued for those who had gone clear on all four horses: Beezie Madden, followed by Jos Lansink and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum.