September 26 2010
We all saw a pretty amazing horse and rider win the 2010 World Endurance Championship at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky.
Spanish rider Maria Alvarez Ponton and Nobby duplicated their 2008 World Endurance Championship win in Malaysia, and their European Championship win in Italy in 2009.
Nobby looked great throughout the day, always near or at the front dozen of the pack, and hounded most all of the way by other horses. Maria said this ride was much harder than Malaysia because of that.
The US Team went into the ride with high hopes, but one by one they fell, Jan Worthington and Leon (my favorites), and Lindsay Graham and Monk at vet gate 3 (also my favorites), Meg Sleeper after vet gate 4, and Heather Reynolds and Ssamiam, crushingly, at the finish after outracing France's Jean Philiippe Frances for 4th place. Deb Reich was the only US finisher, in 18th place.
Other highs and lows, and everybody with a story - but none better than that of the little bay super horse Nobby.
(Many photos, and way more coming, at http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2010WEC/, and more stories coming here!)
Gracias Merri por el trabajo en los Mundiales.
ReplyDeleteSaludos de Gabriel.
It's all about finishing. Too bad about the US Team, but things happen. Horses are not cars.
ReplyDeleteWonderful finish from what I read with the medals really contested in a final run. Must have been exciting to see.
Wow, Nobby must be quite a horse, to win 3 years in a row!
ReplyDeletetell us more tell us more!!! it was exciting even watching on the gps map!! so sorry for heather...and actually all of team usa including Becky Hart
ReplyDeleteThanks Merri for keeping us updated. What an amazing fast race! So sad for our Team USA but I certainly applaude their efforts!
ReplyDeletethanks for all the twitter updates yesterday....even tho' I felt like i was reading Martian Sanskrit many times!
ReplyDelete