AACHEN, Germany--The U.S. Jumping team finished a great third in round one, the Speed, at the World Championship on Wednesday, Aug. 19.
Laura Kraut on Baloutinue (Photo by Allen MacMillan)But the competition is incredibly close, with the top six teams all within less than a rail of each other and the top 51 riders within a rail of each other
In the Speed class, faults were converted to seconds, with every rail down adding four faults to a rider's time.
Laura Kraut on Baloutinue was first to go for the U.S., going sixth of the 145 riders, and finished clean in 72.72 to eventually place 11th individually.
McLAIN WARD on High Star Hero was next to go for the U.S. and finished in the second fastest time of the day, but he had a rail down to finish on 75.83, 33rd individually.
Lillie Keenan on Fasther (Photo by Allen MacMillan)Lillie Keenan on Fasther was clean in 72.94 to eventually finish 14th individually.
Katie Dinan on Out of the Blue had two rails down to score 92.41, 121st individually.
After the class, under a complicated mathematical conversion, time was converted to faults.
Julien Epaillard of France on Fringan de Vesquerie leads on zero faults, with Harrie Smolders of Netherlands on Mr. Tac second on .68 and Scott Brash of Great Britain on Hello Mango third on .80.
Kraut is on 1.05, Keenan on 1.17, Ward on 2.62 and Dinan on 10.91.
For the teams, Germany leads on 3.48, Belgium is second on 5.59.the U.S. is third on 4.85, Great Britain is fourth on 4.98, France is fifth on 44.99 and Netherlands is sixth on 5.08.
"I'm just absolutely thrilled," said Kraut. "Baloutinue just couldn't have been better. He did everything I told him to do, he reacted beautifully to everything."
McLain Ward on High Star Hero (Photo by Allen MacMillan)"I just wish I was a couple seconds quicker, but I think starting off the day, I rode to my plan and I'm just really happy.
"Definitely it's a very open galloping course, which I wouldn't say is normally, my horse's forte. He's really quick at turning, but I thought he handled it great.
"I'm just so proud of him because we've called him in in the 11th hour. He loves Aachen. So, actually, from the start of the year, I always felt that I had two number one horses, and obviously, we were going with Bisquetta because she was younger. And she also loves this ring, But she had a tiny injury. I would think that I'm probably the only person in the world who has a reserve that's as good as this one.
"I was a little bit tentative about going so early in the round, but even after watching 140 rounds, I wouldn't do one thing different. So I'm pleased," said Kraut.
"If I didn't have that unlucky poll at the end, I would be near the lead, but the horse performed great, that was a solid round," said Ward. "I'm very happy with him.
"The course seems pretty open and galloping for a first class like this. I have a great regard for Frank Rothenberger, not only for how he's built throughout his whole career, but this is a challenge. You know, 150 horses on turf and a wide level of riders, plus a little bit of rain in the air, so I don't think it's an easy class to build. He seems to have done a good job, I think the ground was spectacular.
"I started our partnership right after the Paris Olympics, but over the last year, we've really built a great relationship," said Ward of High Star Hero. "He's a wonderful animal, beyond obviously being a great athlete. He has a sweet nature. He's just a great guy."
"We're in the top five, so we're within shooting distance, which is what the plan was," said chef d'equipe Robert Ridland. "So, the hope is that we have plenty left in the tank. It's a long slog, we've got tomorrow, and then the next day, the jumps get bigger."
"The horse's all look good," said Ridland. "I'm pretty happy about that."
While the order of go for the teams was drawn for the Speed, the chef d'equipes could decide the order of their riders,
For tomorrow's round, the teams will go in reverse order of scores, and the chef d'equipes can again decide the order of the riders, changing it from the Speed if they want.
The individuals compete first, beginning at 3 a.m. Eastern, and the team competition begins a t4:45 Eastern.
It seemed most of the teams opted to have their best or fastest riders go first for their team.
"We felt that it would be better for the ones that we thought would be faster, McLean and Laura in particularly, but Lily as well, to go earlier," said Ridland.
"It's a championship, a major Championship, it happens every four years and it's Aachen on top of that, so for us, it's very important," said Ridland. "Yes, we're already qualified for Los Angeles, but that's not the reason we're here. We always aim to be on the podium and for that we're going to give it our best shot."
