The Slower Road

guest post by Leslie Hernandez:

Sorry I couldn’t send anything yesterday, but the Internet wasn’t working.

Marathon day, as promised, was quite exciting! The obstacles were technical and tight. Each driver circled the same course five times, making the already mucky and deep course even more disgusting by the end of the day. Kathrin Dancer was the first American to go, and she was quick and nimble with her pair of chestnuts. Misdee Wrigley Miller was the next driver for the U.S.; she had a good round, with no errors of course. It poured down rain while she was driving, making visibility an issue. Joe Yoder was the last American of the day. He had some overzealous horses in the fifth obstacle, who jumped the creek. One landed with his leg over the pole, and down went the navigator. Somehow, they managed to fix it, while remaining hitched! Off he went again, but time was already a factor, not to mention the penalty points for a groom down.

There was a large crowd, which multiplied as the sun grew stronger.

The French were especially supportive, yelling “Allez!” to each of the eight French drivers. Their spirit was catching and soon we Americans were yelling at ALL the drivers. Jose got into the act, yelling in Spanish to the Argentinian driver, “Andale! Andale!” There were quite a few Dutch and British folk around, as well, cheering on their respective teams.

There were only two incidents that we saw during the day: a Polish driver completely demolished the white “B” in obstacle 6, a wooden fence post, and a Hungarian driver tried to take a flag pole with him around the same obstacle. Overall, though, the marathon was uneventful.

At the end of the day, places had been rearranged all over the leader-board, except for number one, Carola Diener, Christoph Sandmann’s groom, driving a pair from his team. The top ten were quite rearranged. It would be a very exciting cones competition on Sunday.

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When we arrived at the stadium on Sunday, the cones course looked like an ant colony, only the ants had on fancy hats and team jackets. Each competitor and team coach was quickly memorizing their path to greatness. We found seats early and camped out the rest of the day. Jose jumped up many times to watch the warm up and talk to friends.

The course was well laid out, with tight spots and a couple of long runs. Only a few drivers made the time, and only one driver really made it look easy: Vilmos Lazar of Hungary. He took us all to school, with a lesson on driving cones. One of his horses was a Lippizan, the other a Russain Trotter.

Joe Yoder and Kathrin Dancer fared well in cones. Misdee Miller got caught up in the moment and left out obstacle 15, getting eliminated in the process. Up until then, she had been smoking the difficult course. There were a couple of other mistakes during the day: drivers running over numbers out of order.

By the end of the day, the order was rearranged yet again, though German driver Carola stayed in first. For full results, visit the hoefnet website. It was a great experience, very different from American shows. I highly recommend going to a World Championship and visiting Conty, France!

guest post by James Mather Miller:

When I last reported, Misdee Miller had finished the first day of dressage in eleventh place with a score of 52.86. Day two ultimately dropped Miller to twentieth, and Kathrin Dancer posted a score of 58.88. But there was a grand surprise for Team USA as Joe Yoder delivered a magnificent test with Jack Wetzel’s handsome pair of Gelderlanders, scoring an impressive 44.03 and securing sixth place. Miller and Yoder combined for a team score that placed the USA in a very respectable Top 5 position of team competition. Congratulations!

Joe’s success meant participation in the evening’s prize-giving ceremony and a jog around the presentation courtyard to several hundred cheering supporters! A sextet of musicians dressed in traditional coachmen’s attire provided a joyous backdrop of melody with their lustrous French horns. It was a very proud moment for Team USA and for Joe as he was recognized for the first time in a World Championship. Welcome to the BIG Leagues, Joe!

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photo courtesy of Marie de Ronde

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After the ceremony ended, everyone dispersed to his or her own activities, as the draining marathon phase loomed heavy on every competitor’s mind. Carola Diener of Germany was in the driver’s seat after day one, but Joe had put himself in a position to contend for a potential top spot in the overall competition. Dancer will get the “freshest powder” or the best conditions on Saturday morning with the first start for Team USA. There has been consistent rain and the ground is wet, which means the turf will most likely deteriorate as the day progresses. Miller gets the second start, followed by Yoder. If you were handicapping a horse race, bet it all on the “mudders,” because it’s as sloppy as a pig in a mud puddle here in Conty! GO BABY GO!

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Everyone in the U.S. camp entered marathon day knowing they needed a strong drive from at least two Americans. What they didn’t anticipate was the order of finish. Throughout the 2011 season, Joe Yoder has proved to be a strong marathon driver and was certainly expected to be the strongest of his 2011 teammates. Kathrin Dancer has also been a good marathon driver in her career, but the driver with the least experience and the most to prove was clearly Misdee Miller.

Dancer led the charge for the Americans with the fifth starting time of the seventy competitors. The sky was clear, the turf was fresh, and Kathrin was ready for action! She swept through the hazards and had a good drive with no penalty points but no one would know how good until more drivers finished. Either way, it was a completed course for America and one score was secured!

Next up was Misdee Miller in the twenty-sixth starting position. Miller has used a different combination of horses in nearly every competition this year. She had shown great improvement throughout the European campaign but had never experienced a breakthrough marathon. Fortunately for Team USA, she saved her best for last! With her favorite horse, Snoopy, healthy after a two-month lay off from a bone fracture, Miller stormed through the first six hazards. Suddenly, the clouds opened and Miller found herself in the “driving” rain. She held her composure and sloshed through the final two hazards to secure the second safe finish for USA!

Every driving competitor suffers or benefits from the “luck of the draw” through his season. The 2011 World Championships was a bad time for Joe Yoder to get his bad luck. Positioned at number fifty to drive, Yoder set out on a course that looked as if it had been plowed for the 2012 Conty wheat crop. Rain and sun had played tag with the competitors and spectators all day and Yoder would get his mix, too. Joe slogged through the conditions but it just wasn’t his day. A groom down in obstacle 5, and with two knockdowns elsewhere, marathon day “came in like a lion and out like a lamb” for Team USA.

Once the final scores were tallied, Yoder finished fifty-seventh, Dancer forty-fifth, and Miller twenty-eighth. Their two-day totals: Dancer thirty-eighth overall, Yoder twenty-seventh, and Miller twenty-second, with a team position of seventh overall behind Great Britain in sixth, Austria in fifth, Hungary in fourth, France in third, Germany in second, and the Netherlands in first.

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NOTE from Jennifer: Unfortunately, Sunday was not a good day for the U.S. drivers, either. In the final overal standings, Joe finished in twenty-seventh and Kathrin in thirty-third. Misdee was eliminated on the cones course. The U.S. team finished the competition in tenth place, with gold, silver, and bronze medals going to the Netherlands, Germany, and France. James sent some photos, courtesy of Marie de Ronde, which I’ll post on the blog tomorrow, so you can see some of the action from the world championships!

a couple of photos from Leslie Hernandez, in Conty:

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obs 6

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obs 7 and 8