Jessica Phoenix and Pavarotti Photo Courtesy Cealy Tetley
The eventing competition of the 18th Pan American Games is now underway, being held from August 1-4 at the Army Equitation School in La Molina, Lima, Peru
The competition is held at CCI3*-L level and nine countries have sent full teams of four (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and the USA), Colombia has a team of three, and Honduras and Ecuador will be represented by individual riders.
The teams will consist of four riders and a drop score or three riders with all scores counting and the Games got underway this morning with the first horse inspection. Forty-seven horses were presented in front of the ground jury: Jane Hamlin (USA), Jo Young (CAN), and Delano Bastos de Miranda (BRA) at the Army Equitation School in La Molina, Lima, Peru.
Three horses were sent to the hold box including Jhonatan Fabian Rodriguez’ Caipirina from Colombia, Carlos Villarroel’s Quilano from Chile, and Ricardo Jequier’s Barbecho also from Chile. Caipirina and Quilano were accepted upon representation, but Barbecho was withdrawn from the hold.
The USA and Canada are hot favourites to take the two top spots, which is essential for both teams if they are to secure a spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games but Brazil, whose team comprises Marcelo Tosi riding Starbucks, Carlos Parro on Qauakin Qurious, Ruy Fonseca on Ballypatrick SRS and Rafael Mamprin Losano riding Fuiloda G will also be in contention and are also looking for a Tokyo berth
The USA has won the team gold medal at the last five Pan American Games (Toronto, Guadalajara, Rio de Janeiro, Fair Hill, and Winnipeg and two members of the US team have competed in the Pan American Games before - Boyd Martin in 2015 and Lynn Symansky in 2011 and 2003 (as an individual) - while Doug Payne and Tamra Smith are both making their championship team debut but have previously ridden on USA Nations Cup teams. Liz Halliday-Sharp is the traveling reserve and her horse Cooley Quicksilver was presented at the first horse inspection along with the other team horses.
Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg at Land Rover Kentucky 2019
The USA team comprises Tamie Smith and Mai Baum, Lynn Symansky and RF Cool Play, Doug Payne and Starr Witness, and Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg.
The Canadian Eventing Team, comprising of Dana Cooke of Merritt, BC, Colleen Loach of Dunham, QC, Jessica Phoenix of Cannington, ON and Karl Slezak of Tottenham, ON are also through the first horse inspection and ready to take on the competition which starts with the dressage phase on August 2nd. The cross-country phase follows on August 3rd, before team and individual medals are decided in the final jumping phase on August 4th.
The Candian team will be anchored by Canada’s most decorated Pan Am horse-rider combination, 35-year-old Jessica Phoenix and Pavarotti (Pavarotti van de Helle x Foxiland), her 17-year-old Westphalian gelding. Together they brought home individual gold and team silver from Guadalajara, MEX in 2011, and earned individual silver and team bronze in front of the home crowd in Toronto in 2015. Having also competed with a different mount at the 2007 edition in Rio de Janeiro, BRA, Lima brings her Pan Am career total to four. In addition, she is a two-time Olympian, attending London 2012 and Rio 2016, and has competed at the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG), three times, taking team silver in Lexington, KY in 2010.
Colleen Loach, 36, has become a fixture on the Canadian Eventing Team, first competing on the world stage at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. From there, she went on to join Jessica at the Rio 2016 Olympics and WEG 2018. In Lima, she will be paired with FE Golden Eye (Goldfever x Contendro I), a seven-year-old Hanoverian she co-owns with Amanda Bernhard. Since adding FE Golden Eye to her string in 2018, Loach has piloted the up-and-coming gelding to top 10 finishes at prestigious North American events in both the CCI 3*-S and 3*-L divisions.
The Canadian Eventing Team for the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games. Left to right: Colleen Loach, Karl Slezak, Dana Cooke, Jessica Phoenix, Rob Stevenson..
Photo Courtesy: Cealy Tetley - www.tetleyphoto.com
Dana Cooke, 31, will be making her major games debut in Lima aboard Mississippi (Cassini II x Legaat), a nine-year-old Württemberger mare owned by the FE Mississippi Syndicate LLC. After holding a working student position for Canadian Olympian Rebecca Howard and, having the chance to peek behind the major games curtain at the 2011 Pan Am Games and 2012 Olympics, Cooke shifted focus to her own competitive career in 2014. She made her international debut just two years later with Mississippi and has been steadily climbing the levels ever since. This season, the duo scored their first FEI win against 50 entries in the CCI 3*-S division at the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event in Allentown, NJ.
Interestingly, Karl Slezak, 37, a long-time staple on the Canadian Eventing Team short list who is well known for his ability to bring young horses up the levels, is the athlete who introduced Phoenix’s partner, Pavarotti to international-level competition back in 2008. For his inaugural major games in Lima, he will be partnered with another horse he’s been piloting up the levels since 2015, Fernhill Wishes (Chacoa x Gildawn Diamond), a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding he co-owns with Kirk Hoppner. In their last pre-Games outing, the duo earned a top-five finish in the CCI 4*-L division at the prestigious Bromont International Three-Day Event in Quebec.
The cross-country course has been designed by Jose Ortelli (ARG) and the show jumping course by Guilherme Jorge (BRA) and Rob Stevenson, Canadian Eventing Team Chef d’Équipe for Lima 2019 says that “Our athletes and horses have travelled well and have been enjoying the lovely facilities here at the equestrian venue. The rings are excellent, and the cross-country course has been meticulously prepared.”
You can find the full list of riders here.
Live scoring for equestrian can be found here.
