72 SIDELINES APRIL 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
David and Chrevi’s Capital compete during a downpour at the
2012 London Olympic Games.
Photos by SusanJStickle.com
By David Marcus
For those who aren’t aware, I was eliminated
in my Olympic debut in London this past year.
Chrevi’s Capital and I were performing our grand
prix test in the Olympic stadium during a horrifc
downpour. Unfortunately, Capital spooked and I
was eliminated when we were not able to continue
our test within in the 20-second time allowed. As
there are only three riders per team and all three
scores counted for a team result, my individual
elimination meant that the Canadian Team was
automatically eliminated as well.
To give you an understanding of what happened,
I’ll start by saying that it was a “perfect storm” of
many things, starting with the weather. When
I watched the video play back, I realized how
extreme the weather was that we had to ride in.
Rain, wind, hail. It was weather that I would not
hand walk my horse in, or even allow him to go out
in a paddock, let alone ask him to perform at his
best at the Olympic Games!
I also can’t stress enough how noisy it was in that
23,000-spectator stadium. The stadium seating
was so vertical; it had to be built almost straight up
with temporary seating and all of the scaffolding
that was necessary to build the structure and stairs
created noise in the arena unlike anything I have
ever heard. Add that to the fact that it had started pouring rain
and people were trying to get in and out of the seating areas,
putting up umbrellas, pulling out jackets and hats, trying to get
some shelter from the heavy rain . . . it was just stimulus overload!
Capital couldn’t concentrate and when he lost concentration, he
went into ‘panic mode’ and was petrifed beyond reason. By the
time he came back to me, I had exceeded the 20-second time limit
you are allowed for disobedience in the ring. He is such a trusting
horse that I could have gotten him to concentrate on his job again,
but not in the allotted time of 20 seconds.
Facing the media in the mixed zone immediately afterwards
wasn’t as diffcult as you might think, mainly because I hadn’t
processed all of the emotions
yet. I wasn’t angry or upset with
my horse. I was just shocked
and disappointed. “Did this
really just happen?” was what I
was thinking to myself. I really felt like it was out of my control. I’m
not sure if or what I could have done differently.
I felt extreme disappointment for my owners, my sponsors, my
team and my country more than I was feeling disappointment for
myself. I felt that I had let everyone down, including all the people
who had fown in to watch and cheer us on. My teammates were
very supportive and helped me to accept that there was nothing I
could have done to change things in that moment.
It had happened and now it was time to fgure out how to move
forward. We spent that evening in London surrounded by family
and friends and supporters and we all commiserated together
about what an unfortunate turn of events it had been.
While grieving is an important part of the process, it’s also
important not to dwell. While it was diffcult, I tried to be positive
and concentrate on moving
forward. The next day, I started
to ask myself, “What’s next?” I
spent time thinking about what
would be the next step in this
horse’s career. How would we go forward and what would our
goals be? Being a very goal-oriented person, that was an important
step for me. To do that, I needed to have a goal. So, I got on my
horse and started training again for the future with my eyes set on
the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France.
“While it was diffcult, I tried to be positive
and concentrate on moving forward.”
Weathering
The Perfect
Storm