Great Olympic Moments

The USET came home victorious from the Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, August 5-21, with medals from all three disciplines

The US Dressage Team (photo above) claimed the Bronze Medal Team members were Laura Graves on Verdades, Allison Brock on Rosevelt, Kasey Perry-Glasson on Duble and Steffen Peters on Legolas 92. The top 18 individual riders after the Grand Prix Special advanced to the Grand Prix Freestyle which proved to be a very competitive field with 10 riders earning scores over 80 percent.

The United States qualified three riders for the Grand Prix Freestyle and they did not fail to impress Laura Graves led the United States to a fourth place finish on her 14-year-old KWPN gelding Verdades with an 85 196 percent

The Three Day Eventing Team members were Phillip Dutton on Mighty Nice (photo on right), Lauren Kieffer on Veronica, Boyd Martin on Blackfoot Mystery and Clark Montgomery on Loughan Glen Dutton

Phillip Dutton, 52 years old, had a near perfect cross country ride on Mighty Nice, putting him in spot #3 The pair then finished both jumping rounds with minimal time penalties to win the Individual Bronze Medal They were the first American duo to earn an individual Eventing title since Beijing

T he Medals

Show Jump ng Team

Gold: France • S lver: United States • Bronze: Germany

Show Jump ng ndividual

Gold: N ck Skelton, Great Britain

Si ver: Peder Fredr cson, Sweden

Bronze: Eric Lamaze, Canada

Go d: Germany

Dressage Team

• S lver: Great Britain • Bronze: Uni ed States

Dressage Individual Go d: Charlotte Dujardin on Va egro, Great Britain

S lver: Isabel Wer h on Weihego d O d, Germany

Bronze: Kr st na Bror ng-Sprehe on Desperados FRH, Germany

Three-Day Evnting Team

Go d: France

• S lver: Germany

• Bronze: Aus ral a

Three-Day Eventing Indiv dual

Gold: M chae Jung on Sam FBW, Germany

Si ver: As ier N colas onPia de B'Nevi le, France

Bronze: Phi l p Dutton on Mighty Nice Un ted Sta es

Although the US Show Jumping Team (photo above) had to withdraw Beezie Madden, two-time gold medalist, due to her mount Cortes ‘C suffering a tendon injury the team still brought home the Silver Medal As a 3-member team, the US was not able to have a drop score. The riders began the final day in a four-way tie for first with the Netherlands, Brazil and Germany They knew they each needed a near-perfect ride if they were to earn a medal. Top-notch performances from Kent Farrington on Voyeur, McLain Ward on Azur, and Lucy Davis on Barron carried the team into Wednesday s final round with a clean slate of 0 penalty points giving them the Silver Medal in show jumping

Other Highlights:

Great Britain’s Nick Skelton won the Individual Show Jumping Gold Medal. At 58, Skelton was the oldest competitor in the individual equestrian competition but experience won out when he and Big Star cleared three rounds to win the coveted Individual Gold Medal This was Great Britain’s first individual show jumping gold in the nation s history

Dressage rider Isabell Worth, Germany, was the most successful rider at the Olympics with a Gold Medal in the Grand Prix Special and a Silver Medal in the Grand Prix Individual Freestyle Germany won the Gold in dressage Ω