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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

The U.S. team finished sixth in the League of Nations Final in Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain--The relatively young U.S. team, with 28 faults, finished sixth in the League of Nations Final, previously known as the Nations Cup Final, on Sunday, Oct.6.

Aaron Vale on Carissimo 25 Leagu Final DidiShotsAaron Vale on Carissimo (Photo by DidiShots)The result was a lot better than it sounds as the top eight teams in the world plus the host country of Spain competed in the thrilling two round competition.

At the end of the competition, Callie Schott was awarded the Rookie of the Season award.

It was a cliff-hanger of a finale to the very first League of Nations season as Germany won at the Real Club de Polo in Barcelona with 12 faults while The Netherlands finished second on 16 faults and Sweden just beat  Ireland for third place on time after both finished with 20 faults.

“Today was a very solid day for the team," said chef d’equipe Robert Ridland. "On paper, we had a relatively inexperienced team compared to the other teams, however, they really held their own. It was one of those days that we fell victim to four fault rounds. Everyone put in solid rounds and dug deep to deliver a good result. Our primary target this year was the Olympic Games, where we won team silver. None of the team medalists from Paris were on the podium here, which shows just how many talented nations there are in jumping and that everything has to go your way on the day.”

 

THE U.S. team of Spencer Smith on Keeneland, Alex Matz on Ikigal, Lucy Davis Kennedy on Ben 431and Aaron Vale on Carissimo 25 started behind the eight ball as they each had four faults to have a team total of 12 in the first round, but they came back strong in the difficult second round to have 16 faults, equal or better than the score of seven of the other teams.

In the first round, it was a rider or horse almost silly or inexperienced fault at just one fence that made the difference, so it could have just as easily been three clean rounds, which would have left the team with 16 faults, tied for second at the end.

Smith had the fence after the water down when Keeneland got a little flat.

In his first 5 star competition, Matz had a foot in the water after misjudging the distance to the take-off.

Kennedy had the delicate earth colored plank at fence nine down, a fence that caught out a number of riders, and Vale had the C fence of the triple combination down.

"It  could easily have been three or even four clean rounds," said Ridland.

After the first round, the Germans and Dutch were leading on zero faults, but France, Sweden and Brazil were close with just four faults,  the Irish carried eight forward while the USA and Spain carried 12 apiece, but the Swiss were already on the ropes with 24 first round faults.

For the second round, course designer Santiago Varela raised three fences by three centimeters, and there were only three riders per team, meaning every fault counted.

Things changed dramatically.

"The three centimeters made a huge difference," said Ridland.

Smith, Davis Kennedy, and Vale competed for the U.S., with Smith having two of the three fences in the combination down, while Kennedy and Vale had only four faults each, while only six of the 27 riders managed to go clean.

"We didn't have one bad round in either round," said Ridland. "The other teams with Olympic riders all had one bad round. Our Olympic team, our A team, was back in the States. So it was a good day."

It seemed the results changed with every rider in the second round, with the result coming down to the last rider, the final rider from the Netherlands.

The teams went in reverse order of their finish in the first round, and Germany and Netherlands were the last two teams in the order.

France had already finished ninth as the team was eliminated when Kevin Staut fell off when his horse stopped, Switzerland amazingly, with three top riders, had 40 faults to be eighth, Spain and the U.S. were seventh and sixth on 28 faults, Brazil dropped to fifth on 20 faults, Sweden and Ireland were fourth and third on 20 faults and Germany and Netherlands were still tied with 12 faults as the last two riders went.

For the Germans, Andre Thieme on Chakaria had had four faults and Christian Kukuk on Checker had eight faults, while for Netherlands, Maikel van der Vleuten on his Olympic double-bronze-medal-winning gelding Beauville Z NOP had gone clean but Kim Emmen on Imagine had 12 faults total, so the two countries were tied with their last riders to go..

Second-last to go, Germany’s Richard Vogel on the big-striding stallion United Touch S went clean to throw it down to the final Dutch rider, Harrie Smolders on Uricas van de Kattevennen.

If he could go clean, it would go to a jump-off because both sides would finish on a 12 fault tally.

But the first pole on that bogey double at seven was down to bring the Dutch score to 16 and hand victory to Otto Becker’s German side.

“I think no one can say now that the format isn’t working," said Varela. "it’s super exciting. With this format you have to wait until the very end because everything can change in just a second!”

"I love the system," said Ridland. "I wouldn't want it every time, but for the Finals it makes it so exciting. With one fence the French went from third to ninth."

"I was interviewed after the competition, and the interviewer said I must be thrilled with my team, such an inexperience team against the Olympic teams from the Europeans," said Ridland. "I told him everything was true except being "thrilled." Thrilled is for winning."

"Alex made a remarkable leap from only competing on a second tier Nations Cup team with chef d'equipe Anne Kursinski to competing at the Nations Cup final," said Ridland. "He was disappointed, he'd wanted to be clean. What happened was Ikigal landed to the right after the fence before the water. Alex thought that was going to mess up the striding so he pushed too late."

"But I said, `Put it in perspective," said Ridland. "This is your first five star. That fault came early in the round. What you did was fight to keep it to that four fault round. And sometimes fighting to keep it to a four fault round can end you up on the podium. It was great experience for you."

"It was a really fun group all week," said Ridland of the team. "But we knew we were going up against the best teams from Europe. "

DD and Michael Matz were also in Barcelona, and Michael and Ridland had ridden together on many Nations Cup teams as well as the Montreal Olympics.

We had a lot of fun team dinners, with lots of reminiscing," said Ridland.

There were a number of Special awards presented at the end of the competition.

Legacy ridden by Ireland’s Daniel Coyle won the Best Horse title for her performances throughout this first Longines League of Nations series.

Coyle also took a four-way share of the €200,000 bonus for the Best Individual Performances in the Final along with Germany’s Vogel, The Netherlands’ van der Vleuten and Spain's Armando Trapote

Coyle was back on the presentation podium once again when joining van der Vleuten and Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann to share the Best Athlete Award as all three produced five clear rounds during the season.

The Rookie of the Season title went to America’s Callie Schott and of course Chef d’Equipe of the Season was Germany’s Otto Becker whose team also won the opening leg of the inaugural series in Abu Dhabi in February.

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