Show jumpers on a high heading into Masters
By any measure, the Canadian show-jumping team exceeded expectations at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
With Eric Lamaze earning Canada a bronze medal in the individual jumping competition, the Canadian foursome, which also included Tiffany Foster, Amy Millar and Yann Candele, came within a centimetre or two of doubling the Canadian medal count in the team event.
Fourth place might have been tough to swallow in the immediate aftermath of the competition, but with a couple weeks separating Foster and the Olympics she’s happy to admit that her team punched above its weight in Brazil.
“For sure, we always have a fighting chance but if you looked on paper, those were some powerhouse teams that ended up on the podium and we were within a rail,” Foster said Tuesday.
“We were very, very close. We almost got it, so we were very very proud of ourselves and our horses and it was a great, great time.”
For those who weren’t paying attention, here’s a recap of what happened in Rio: The Canadian quartet finished the two-day team event in a tie for bronze with Germany, with each team having picked up eight penalties.
France had secured the gold already with three penalties and the U.S. had earned itself a silver with five, but Canada and Germany were forced into a jump-off to decide who would end up on the third spot in the podium.
The Germans narrowly edged the Canadians but it was still a considerably better result than most observers were expecting from them.
It was also invaluable experience, as the Olympics demand that horses and riders jump some of the biggest courses in the world day after day.
“I think (the horses) definitely get their eyes opened up, but I think everybody has a different path to get there and have what’s best for them and what’s best for their horse,” Foster said.
“We also jumped in Aachen (Germany) this year, which was huge jumping, so I felt that was really good preparation for me to go to Rio, because when you jump in Aachen you feel like there’s nothing you can’t do.
“Rio was obviously big, but it was still within the realm of what we’d been jumping.”
Spruce Meadows was also a big part of the Canadians’ preparations for the Olympics, as the team rode at the Calgary equestrian facility throughout the spring and early summer in the Summer Series, which included a couple of big Grand Prix competitions.
This week at the Masters, the competition only gets more intense, with Saturday’s BMO Nations Cup and Sunday’s CP International presented by Rolex both attracting the world’s best show jumpers.
The Nations Cup will feature all three of the teams that landed on the Olympic podium, plus the fourth-placed Canadians and Brazil, who finished in fifth.
Sunday’s CP International will, as always, be even more intense.
As one of the three events in the Rolex Grand Slam, the competition features a $2-million purse and will see everyone from 2012 individual Olympic gold medallist Scott Brash — who also won last year — to European superstars including world No. 1 Christian Ahlmann, of Germany, as well as second-ranked Kent Farrington and fourth-ranked McLain Ward.
Admittedly, it’s a step up in competition from the 2016 Summer Series, where many of the top riders who usually spend six weeks in Calgary every year opted instead to compete in Europe.
The competition still featured some top riders, though, and Foster insisted that the time she and her Canadian teammates spent at Spruce Meadows this year was critical to their success in Rio.
“In the end, it was just as hard to win a class as it is any time you come to a Summer Series,” Foster said.
“There were people missing but there was for sure a really fast and competitive group. It was still very difficult to win.
“You had Kent Farrington, you had Conor Swail, you had Eric (Lamaze), so it was no less difficult than it always is here.
“So coming back into it we thought it would be easier, but it really wasn’t.”
I think everybody has a different path to get there and have what’s best for them and what’s best for their horse.