It is a long way to come for seven minutes of competition but Emile Faurie, the first member of the British team to ride his test in the Olympic team dressage competition today, had no complaints.
Riding Rascher Hopes, a relatively inexperienced nine-year-old, Faurie produced his best test yet on the obliging Danish-bred gelding. "He’s an amazing little horse; he just wants to please," a delighted Faurie said after scoring 66.96 per cent.
Isabel Werth rides her horse Gigolo during the team dressage competition at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre, Horsley Park © AP
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Faurie, 36, who came to England from his native South Africa in 1980, has made a habit of "peaking" at the right moment in recent years. The leading Briton at the past four international championships, it was his commanding performance on his former top horse, Legrini, at the 1998 world championships that secured Britain’s eighth place - and qualification for Sydney.
But Rascher Hopes’s youth and inexperience had lowered expectations for Sydney. Faurie only started riding the little 16-hand gelding at the end of 1998 after Legrini’s untimely death from stomach ulcers. Rascher Hopes’s owner Hilary Sawyer, who bought the horse for £1,700 from Denmark as a yearling, had been having lessons with Faurie and suggested that he should take on the ride. Although disappointing at their first international grand prix at Villasanta Di Monza in May, the partnership improved with each outing. Eleventh in the Grand Prix Special in Arnhem in June, they were fourth at Hickstead in July.
Faurie was concerned that the young horse might not be able to cope with the atmosphere in the imposing arena at Horsley Park but he was a study in concentration from the moment he entered the rain-soaked arena. Jane Bartle-Wilson, the team manager, thought Faurie might have gained even higher marks had he not been drawn so early. "When you’re one of the first to go the judges are not always so brave with the marks," she said.
Faurie’s inspiring opening performance made Carl Hester’s disappointing test (64.88 per cent) on Argentile Gulli all the more frustrating for the British in their quest to reach the top five for the first time at an Olympic Games. Hester, 33, from Moreton-in-Marsh, who won his third successive national title on Legal Democrat last year, has been earning scores in the high 60s regularly with Argentile Gullit but this time Jenny Green’s Dutch-bred stallion failed to rise to the occasion. "He shrivelled - rather than grew - in the arena," a disconsolate Hester said. Bartle-Wilson was equally non-plussed. "Carl did everything right, but the horse let him down," she said. "Perhaps we’d better blame it on the weather."
The damp, dispiriting day - in sharp contrast to the blazing heat in which the three-day-event was held - was also blamed for Anky van Grunsven’s flawed performance on her Atlanta silver medal-winner Bonfire who made untypical mistakes in the canterwork. The Dutch rider is the main threat to Isabell Werth’s hopes of a second successive gold medal on Gigolo but her opening 75 per cent - compared with Werth’s 76.32 per cent - means she has some catching up to do in Friday’s grand prix special - the second part of the individual contest - if she is to steal the German girl’s crown.
"She just made too many mistakes," her trainer Sjef Jansen said. "It was bitterly disappointing for her. I think Bonfire was not enjoying the cold and the wet."
Werth, in contrast, was delighted with Gigolo’s performance in this, his last team event before retirement. The 31-year-old lawyer from Westphalia said: "He was wonderful," she said of the 17-year-old Hannoverian gelding on which she won all the Olympic, European and world titles between 1993 and 1998. "I had been tense before I went into the arena because of the weather, and I thought he might spook at all the umbrellas, but he was perfect."
Jenny MacArthur
The Times
German riders up to usual best
There were no surprises on the opening day of the Olympic team dressage event today at a rain-soaked Horsley Park, where Germany, unbeaten in any championship since 1980, moved confidently into the lead ahead of their main rivals, the Netherlands.
With two riders from each team having performed their tests, Germany have a 104-point lead after superb tests from Isabell Werth, the defending individual champion, on Gigolo, and Alexandra Simons de Ridder (Chacomo), who are lying in first and third places respectively.
Anky van Grunsven, of the Netherlands, on her World Cup winner Bonfire, failed to overhaul Werth after some untypical mistakes which leaves them in second place.
Britain, aiming to finish in the top five for the first time at an Olympic Games, started promisingly with a personal-best score (66.96 per cent) from Emile Faurie on Rascher Hopes but dropped to sixth place after Carl Hester (Argentile Gulli) scored a disappointing 64.88 per cent. Richard Davison (Askari) and Kirsty Mepham (Dikkiloo), who compete tomorrow, will have to produce their best scores if Britain are to climb any higher.
Germany, with the reliable Ulla Salzgeber (Rusty) and Nadine Capellmann (Farbenfroh) still to come, look certain to retain the gold. The Netherlands will also be difficult to dislodge for the silver. The United States are lying in the bronze medal position overnight - 86 points ahead of Australia in fourth place. Spain are fifth - but only five points ahead of Britain.
Jenny MacArthur
The Times
