Riding for the Team. United States Equestrian Team Foundation

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СКАЧАТЬ to buy a horse, and she liked the Thoroughbred type, so he was a perfect choice for her—especially since he was winning six-year-old classes right and left. He didn’t jump in classic form, he had a bit of a “drapey” front end, but the feeling on him was better than it looked. You couldn’t get him too close to the fences, he was too careful. He had a cool personality; he was very cocky.

      Being in Greece was exciting. None of us on the team—McLain Ward, Chris Kappler, Peter Wylde, and myself, as well as alternate Alison Robitaille—had ever been to the Olympics. I don’t think any of us were actually friends before this, but we had respect for each other. We were all excited to be there and we ended up doing a lot together; it was a great feeling.

      That is, until Authentic colicked badly the day of the jog. They wouldn’t let us compete if we gave him any medication, and it was looking as if he’d need surgery and we’d be out of the Games. Then we let him roll, and that did the trick. Frank Chapot was Chef d’Equipe and he made me the anchor after I was able to go clear in the individual qualifier, despite everything we had just been through with the horse. We were all pretty equal going in, so I was honored and excited, and I thrive off the confidence of others. That kind of inspired me.

      When you think about it, we were four rookies with two nine-year-old horses, Authentic and McLain’s Sapphire, on the team. We won silver behind the Germans and were on the podium with wreaths of olive branches on our heads. But as it happens, that wasn’t the last time we were on the podium.

      A German horse tested positive for a banned substance at the Games. That eventually dropped them out of first place and moved us up. Eighteen months after the closing ceremonies in Athens, we were presented with the gold medal during a brief ceremony in Florida.

      The 2006 WEG in Aachen was amazing. We got team silver and I won individual silver in the Final Four ride-off, where we all switched horses. After the team medal ceremonies, we did the victory lap at a walk. McLain turned to me and said, “I don’t think we’ll ever experience anything like this in our lives again.”

      But he was wrong. We won team gold two years later in the next Olympics, in Hong Kong, where the venue was fantastic and the skyscrapers formed a dramatic backdrop for the arena. We beat Canada in a jump-off, so it was all North American on the highest levels of the podium.

      The individual medal competition in Hong Kong was a great example of a team effort. McLain was in the jump-off and he found a shortcut by jumping over some bushes in the ring to save time against the clock. I was able to follow suit and win the individual bronze. Bronze was also my color at the 2014 WEG, where I was on the bronze medal team and took the individual bronze in what would be the last Final Four ride-off before the FEI came up with a more conventional way for deciding the individual WEG medals.

      I love riding on teams, but know I can’t do it forever. So John and I planned what we should do after that. When I step back, I’ll continue riding and developing special young horses. We would also like to have students with goals of riding for the U.S. Equestrian Team. That would be exciting for us, too, and a new focus, while continuing our dedication to seeing the United States represented well internationally.

      Robert Ridland

      A Californian Comes to Gladstone

      After a West Coast screening trial for U.S. Equestrian Team candidates, Robert Ridland was selected by show jumping Coach Bertalan de Némethy to train at the team’s Gladstone, New Jersey, headquarters.

      Bert was a graduate of the Hungarian cavalry school and had served in World War II, so everything was done with military precision and according to impeccable standards at the historic stables when Robert rode there in the 1970s. The facility was recognized worldwide as the base for such renowned riders as team captain William Steinkraus, Frank Chapot (who would succeed Bert as coach), Kathy Kusner, and George Morris.

      Robert was the reserve rider at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and rode on the 1976 fourth-place Montreal Olympic team, as well as winning Nations Cup teams at Lucerne in 1976 and in Rotterdam and Toronto in 1978. In 2012, Robert became coach of the U.S. Show Jumping Team, with a stellar record that includes team and individual bronze medals at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games, team bronze and individual gold and bronze at the 2015 Pan American Games, team silver at the 2016 Olympics, and team gold at the 2018 WEG—the first gold for the U.S. team at a World Championships in 32 years.

      The president of show management company Blenheim EquiSports, Robert has served as a member of the U.S. Equestrian Federation board of directors and the FEI Jumping Committee. An international course designer who also has been a World Cup finals technical delegate, the Yale University graduate has run the Las Vegas World Cup finals and was co-manager of the Washington International Horse Show.

      Robert and his wife, Hillary, who live in California, have two children, Peyton and McKenna.

      The few of us left who once were part of the old U.S. Equestrian Team, the original concept, can look at show jumping with a unique perspective to compare it with where the sport is today. So much time has passed that there are not that many current riders who are familiar with where the sport came from and the circumstances that led to what it has become.

      Having Coach Bertalan de Némethy go around the country to select riders with potential was a totally different system than what we have now. Another difference was the fact that we didn’t have private owners to the degree that we do today. The top horses in the country were owned by the USET or loaned to the team, and we got matched with the ones we were going to ride.

      U.S. Equestrian Team Coach Bertalan de Némethy with (left to right) Robert Ridland, Dennis Murphy, Michael Matz, and Buddy Brown after winning the 1978 Nations Cup in Rotterdam.

      When I got to team headquarters in Gladstone, I was young, only 18, and already enrolled at Yale. I was well prepared by my riding and competition experience to that point and had ridden at shows in the East. Even so, there was a bit of culture shock.

      The first time I met Bert was when he was in California for the screening trials. Bert was Hungarian nobility and very old world; I was very West Coast and didn’t leave my California ways at home. It was quite a proving ground.

      Robert Ridland guided the United States to two bronze medals in his first world championships coaching gig at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games.

      The riders in training lived in rooms over the team stables. One of the many requirements involved always dressing appropriately in boots and breeches. It also meant making sure they were clean. A few times, we had to have the washer and dryers working on our breeches at the last minute before we got on the horses in the morning.

      I wasn’t really prepared for winter, having grown up with California’s sunny version of the season. I will never forget a particularly cold morning when there was only time to wash the breeches, not dry them. And that was a problem, because at the time, I had just one pair of breeches (something I rectified soon after).

      Once we got outside, my breeches basically froze. We were riding on the flat in the indoor ring. Bert was there in front of this jet engine of a heater that was blasting at him! He was wearing this heavy overcoat and looked as if he could survive the Arctic, while I was practically shivering.

      George Simmons, the barn manager, had been in the military and ran the place like a СКАЧАТЬ