Australian eventing Olympic medallists Stuart Tinney and Shane Rose are experienced riders at world championships but neither has yet won a medal. In this two part article we look back at their past WEG experiences and forward to Normandy 2014
Shane Rose (with daughter Olivia), Stuart Tinney and Niki Rose at Le Grand Complet, Haras du Pin 2013
Australian eventing riders Stuart Tinney and Shane Rose are not only fellow competitors but are also good friends. The two friendly rivals, both Olympic medallists, compete against each other at the top of their sport but their friendship does not impede their individual desire to win or to be one of the few to represent their country at major championships. This year they have both set their sights on competing at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy
Competing for Australia is not new to either rider. Stuart Tinney has represented his country on many occasions and, on his home turf in Sydney in 2000, he won not only a team Olympic gold medal but also achieved the best overall individual score
The experienced 49 year old has yet to win a medal at a World Championship but has competed at three World Equestrian Games so far. In 1998 in Rome he rode Jeepster to finish in ninth place but his experience riding Ava at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez was one that Stuart remembers less fondly
Initially all was going well in the Andalusian city of Jerez; Stuart and Ava were in the top ten after the dressage, they had negotiated a tough cross country course with only a few time penalties and, going into the show jumping, the Australian team was on track for a silver medal. However, Stuart knew that his horse was tired and was not on her best form after her efforts the previous day. As the jumped around the show jumping course the poles started to fall and for Stuart it felt as if they were never going to stop. They collected twenty-four jumping penalties and two time penalties and the team medal was lost.
In 2010 Stuart was once again selected for the Australian team at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, finishing as the highest placed Australian rider in eighth, riding Vettori (above). This was the first time that the championships were to be held outside of Europe and also the first time that the FEI had a naming rights sponsor on board in the shape of the multi-national and multi-billion dollar company Alltech. The decision by the company’s founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons to invest in an equestrian event to the tune of over $10 million raised the bar to a new level of sponsorship not previously seen. The 16 day equestrian competition featuring 752 horses and 632 athletes from 58 countries was held on Alltech’s home turf in Lexington, Kentucky at the famous Kentucky Horse Park and Stuart was the flag bearer for the Australian team in the parade of nations at the memorable opening ceremony.
“It was a very proud moment” he remembers “It was lovely to walk into the big stadium on the evening of the Opening Ceremony and carry the Australian flag around the stadium in front of our team. The only sad thing about it all, and it was the same at the Sydney Olympics, was that as athletes marching in the parade you don’t actually get to see the rest of the Opening Ceremony. I saw some video afterwards and there were cheerleaders which looked great and so many other performances we didn’t get to see”
It wasn’t only the University of Kentucky cheerleaders that Stuart missed out on seeing. There were displays of Andalusian and Friesian stallions, native Americans on horseback, Californian cowgirls, a 40-strong precision ride by the Culver Academy, movie star William Shatner driving a Saddlebred, standardbreds and thoroughbreds racing around the track, bareback and bride-less displays of horsemanship, all accompanied by a range of orchestras, singers and music. To top it all off, Muhammad Ali, Kentucky’s own three-time boxing heavyweight champion of the world, was driven into the arena in a classic car. It was quite a night
However, the Australian eventing team campaign in Kentucky was a tough one with team member Megan Jones’ horse, Kirby Park Irish Jester becoming seriously ill in transit and Peter Atkins, an Australian rider based in the USA being added at the last moment. Unfortunately the Australian team failed to complete and it seemed that Australia, a country that had shone in eventing at so many Olympic Games, could not shake off their run of bad luck at the World Championships.
Shane Rose, team silver medallist at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, also has not had the best of experiences at his World Championship appearances so far. Shane was in eleventh place riding It’s A Knockout at the World Equestrian Games in Rome in 1998 when, with less than 90 seconds to go on the cross country course, his horse ‘hit the wall’. A completely bemused Shane jumped off and retired from the competition, later to discover that a bacterial infection had given the horse an almost asthma-like condition. When working under normal riding conditions It’s A Knockout was fine but, after nine minutes of galloping, his lungs were unable to cope with the extra intake of oxygen needed, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
Shane won Olympic silver in Hong Kong but is still looking for a WEG medal
“It was gut wrenching” says Shane “It was the first time I had made it to a World Championships and everything had been going so well. Had we continued on cross country the way we were, we would have finished the day in third place. I was devastated that it had all fallen apart”
At the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen Australia won a team bronze medal but Shane, this time riding All Luck, had a fall on the cross country course. It seemed to Shane that he was jinxed at major championships but he headed to the Burghley Horse Trials in the UK shortly afterwards and redeemed himself with a third place at one of the most prestigious events in the world.
Both men have experienced the euphoria of winning Olympic medals but there is a strong sense of unfinished business. The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy 2014 offers them a chance to not only add a World Equestrian Games medal to their personal tally but also to staunch the bad luck seemingly experienced by the Australian teams at various World Championships.
In the next article – the challenges of selection for the Australian team and what Stuart and Shane think of the eventing venue in Normandy for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014
Photos at 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games Kentucky and Beijing Olympics 2008 courtesy Toni-anne Collins, Equine Images
