I will not keep you in suspense about who won the Nations Cup jumping at WEF last night. It was Canada!!
The first round took place in the afteroon and in the evening the top eight teams went again. The leader going into the second round was Belgium with only 4 faults from the afternoon, then Canada , Brazil and Ireland with 8 faults each. In the top eight we had USA, Great Britain,Mexico, Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Canada and Belgium. Each team had four riders.
The first Canadian to go was Tiffany Foster on Hamilton.
Tiffany had a clear round!!
But I was keeping my eye on the riders from Ireland too. I noticed that even their stirrup irons are green!
The next Canadian was Erynn Ballard on Ghakir. And they also had a clear round!!
From behind me I heard a huge whoop of support for Erynn as I had done for Tiffany. I turned around and saw the Canadian supporters club .
I was delighted to see this support for Canada. But the Irish were still in the mix. Canada had two more riders to go. Mario Deslauriers was the next Canadian . And he also had a clear round!!! The Canadian supporters club was estatic.
The final rider to go was Ireland’s Cian O’Connor . But it has already been announced that as Canada was in the lead their fourth rider would not have to go round. After Cian finished his round it was announced that Canada had won the CSIO4* Nations Cup. The prize money was $150,000. presented by IDA Development.
As I left the stadium I encounterd a photographer wearing a Canada T -shirt. “Isn’t it great, “I said. “They won.” He looked at me and said. “Well I guess they have to be lucky sometime.”
I had to assume that this person was not a rider. There is always an element of luck but more than that there is sweat and tears training at home and enormous mental preparation as well. This CSIO 4* is the first time that 10 time Olympian Ian Millar has been the chef d’equipe for the Canadian team. I am sure he knows there is more than just luck involved.
It was a grand evening of jumping and excitement. My final photo is of Mimi Gochman who was riding for Team USA.The last time I saw Mimi she was riding a pony ! Look at her now!
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