28 SIDELINES AUGUST 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
before. “It’s a beautiful site. The ground is undulating, somewhat
similar to [Kentucky],” he said. “The facilities should be very, very
good. Last year they did a lot of work on the going, and the going
was very, very good, so I think we’ll have a really good competition
there.”
And what does he think 2014 Games course designer Pierre
Michelet will present there? “Pierre designs most of the courses
in France, so if you get to ride there, you get to ride his courses.
He’s a very talented course designer. I’d expect we’ll have lots of
accuracy questions, angles, skinnies. He loves making us go on a
forward distance to skinnies. It should be very interesting.
“Kentucky is a much more galloping sort of track [than Normandy
will likely be],” Mark added. “The Rolex cross-country course was
big. It was a very galloping track — you just had to keep galloping
all the way. I think in Normandy maybe he’ll put in a few turns and
slow horses down a bit. It’s all guesswork until we see it. We don’t
really know.”
Rolex course designer Derek di Grazia also pondered the
cross-country course for the Games. “We don’t quite know what
the length of the Haras du Pin course is yet, but we know it’s
probably longer than Rolex,” he said. “The terrain is even a bit
more than what they have here. Especially the last part of the
Haras course is quite uphill, so the horses will have to be quite fit
for the test they’re going to be doing.”
Derek, who’s also a selector for the U.S. eventing team for
By Darlene Ricker
When you’re eventing legend Mark
Todd, who has won more titles than most
people can count, what could another
gold medal mean? Everything, if it comes
at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian
Games 2014 in Normandy.
“The World Championships is the one
thing I haven’t won, and I’m probably not
going to have too many more chances,
so I’d love dearly to do well at these
Games in Normandy. I think that at the
moment I have the horses that could do
it, or certainly go very well.”
Mark traveled from England to the
Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington for
the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
earlier this summer to give one of his
three Normandy contenders, Oloa, a go
at Rolex. But the day after dressage he
re-evaluated the plan, opting to withdraw
the 13-year-old gelding.
“I made the decision sort of halfway through watching the cross-
country when everyone was going ’round. A lot were going inside
the time. So I thought even if I went inside the time, based on our
dressage score I’d only end up 18th or something. It wasn’t really
worth using him up for that. He’s a good horse. He went sixth at
Burghley last year. I’ll probably take him to Luhmühlen now and
give him a run there.” (His two other prospective Games mounts,
NZB Campino and Leonidas II, ran Badminton as a prep instead
of Rolex.)
Rolex was an official selection trial for the 2014 Games, and
like Mark, most top riders were there to get a dry run at what
the course is expected to be at Haras du Pin. Mark already has
somewhat of a feel for what to expect, having competed there
e
Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy
Eventers on the Home Stretch to Haras du Pin
Mark Todd competing in the
dressage phase during the 2014
Rolex Kentucky Three-Day
Event in Lexington, Kentucky.
Photo by Beth Harpham
Writer Darlene Ricker spends a few minutes with eventer
Mark Todd at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Photo by Diana De Rosa
Mark Todd enjoys meeting fans and autographing his book,
Second Chance
, at Badminton 2014.
Photo courtesy of The Mark Todd Collection
Continued on page 30
