{"id":27777,"date":"2016-06-27T15:07:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T05:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=27777"},"modified":"2016-06-27T19:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T09:46:44","slug":"another-dressage-selection-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/06\/another-dressage-selection-farce\/","title":{"rendered":"Another dressage selection farce!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.<\/em><\/p>\n

The quote is from Lewis Carroll, but it might well be from the Australian Dressage selectors\u2019 manual \u2013 or perhaps the line about believing half a dozen impossible things before breakfast will do just fine to describe the selection process. Here\u2019s one that L. Carroll might have written:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best way to get into the Australian dressage team? Why, don\u2019t compete in the selection event of course!<\/em><\/p>\n

In the run up to the first selection event in Odense, Brett Parbery\u2019s Weltmieser was still having foot problems, but Brett decided to start him anyway. Had Brett stayed home, the option Lyndal Oatley took when she decided her horse wasn\u2019t right to compete, and like her, picked up the average score from the three lowest scores \u2013 66.087 (actually the score would have been better, 66.853 to be precise, \u00a0because it was Brett\u2019s score that dragged it down), and added that to his score at Rotterdam, he would have ended up on 134.047.<\/p>\n

\"Brett<\/a><\/p>\n

Brett and Weltmieser at Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Lyndal<\/a><\/p>\n

Lyndal and Sandro Boy at Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

Similarly, if Sue Hearn had taken the Kelly Layne option, of sitting out Rotterdam, and picking up the average there \u2013 65.426 \u2013 she would have been on a total of 134.246.<\/p>\n

\"Sue<\/a><\/p>\n

Sue and Remmington at Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

That would have put both Sue and Brett in front of Kelly, who has the 5th<\/sup> best score because of her 67.88 in Odense and the Rotterdam rotten average of 65.426, for a total of 133.306. Fifth best. But since Mary Hanna is sitting in 2nd<\/sup> place with Boogie Woogie on 135.54, and 4th<\/sup> on Umbro with 134.22, Kelly moves into 4th<\/sup> spot, and a place in the team, assuming her horse passes a vet check.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary with Umbro at Rotterdam – they got to ride in the real arena, not out the back in the old showjumping warmup ring…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a><\/p>\n

Mary with Boogie Woogie at Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>What a farce this selection process has been from go-to-whoa.<\/p>\n

First of all team management seemed to think that somehow Odense and Rotterdam were going to let seven Australian horses into their Nations Cups, while Purfect THM Office Cat could have told them that no more than four would go in the main class, and that the other three would have to compete in the separate national Grand Prix, AND that there were good shows, with real atmosphere, centrally located in Germany that would let 7 into the same GP class, without hours of travel to the wilds of Denmark\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Maree<\/a><\/p>\n

Maree and Diamantina at Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

As it turned out only three Australians \u2013 Kristy Oatley, Mary Hanna and Maree Tomkinson fronted the four-star at Odense when Lyndal stayed home, with the other four in the three-star. At Rotterdam, after paying lots of money (say \u20ac25,000) to get into the show, the Aussies all competed in the three-star, held in an out-of-the-way arena, in front of empty stands. Pressure test? Not.<\/p>\n

\"KristyOatley<\/a><\/p>\n

Kristy and Du Soleil at Rotterdam \u2013 the pair had the best scores at both Odense and Rotterdam<\/em><\/p>\n

It was at Odense in the three-star, that Kelly Layne made her bid, the 6th<\/sup> place, her ticket to Rio. Let\u2019s put this in perspective. The class was won by Severo Jurado Lopez riding Lorenzo, at the time of the competition, ranked 221 on the world. After Odense, he shot up to 56th<\/sup>. The 2nd<\/sup> placegetter, Cassio was ranked 422 in the world, but has moved to 269th<\/sup>. The 3rd<\/sup> placegetter, NOHS Daijoubo is ranked 579th<\/sup>, and the 4th<\/sup> placegetter, Bufranco, 590th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/a>
Kelly LAYNE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly and Udon P at Odense<\/em><\/p>\n

I guess Kelly will be up against somewhat stiffer competition at Rio.<\/p>\n

The other question is the ability of team members to handle the pressure of a major event. Kristy Oatley made the team for the last WEG in the calm of Deauville where she won the Freestyle on Ronan \u2013 it was rather different in the football stadium at Caen and the horse scored very badly. Perhaps more to the point, the last time Kelly Layne represented Australia was at the WEG in Aachen, where Amoucher attempted just the first two movements of the Grand Prix before being eliminated while trying to demolish the long side fence. Kelly and Udon P qualified for the Australian selection events in Florida. Now the time I was there, the dressage was conducted in front of empty stands with no atmosphere and pressure to test either horse or rider\u2026<\/p>\n

The next quandary for the selectors is what happens if Udon P fails the vet check, leaving Sue and Brett tied on a total of 133.16? Do they toss a coin? Try to find another last minute competition \u2013 or is the answer to be found in the tea leaves?<\/p>\n

The photos from Rotterdam were supplied by my friend Kenneth Braddick who runs a splendid website where you will find all the details and scores from the selection events:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dressage-news.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. The quote is from Lewis Carroll, but it might well be from the Australian Dressage selectors\u2019 manual \u2013 or perhaps the line about believing half a dozen impossible things before breakfast will do just fine to describe the selection process. Here\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1546],"class_list":["post-27777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-australian-dressage-selection"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27777"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27791,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27777\/revisions\/27791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}