The 2008 International Roster For Olympic Show Jumping

To download the full roster in PDF format, complete with photos, click here.

Authentic And Sapphire Lead A Strong U.S. Team

The backbone of the U.S. team is Beezie Madden on Authentic and McLain Ward on Sapphire. With team
gold from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and team silver from the 2006 World Equestrian Games (Germany) to their credit, this pair knows what needs to be done to earn medals.

Ward and Madden plan their horses’ schedules around these major international championships, and Sapphire and Authentic look to be on top form. They both received byes from the selection trials but looked prepared as Authentic won the $200,000 CN Worldwide Grand Prix (Fla.) in March and Sapphire won the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational (Fla.) in April.

At the Aachen CHIO (Germany), they went head-to-head against the top European horses and riders—Authentic  finished fourth in the Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen and Sapphire placed sixth—and they each turned in a clear round during the Mercedes Benz Samsung Super League Nations Cup.

Joining them at the Olympic Games will be two horses with less experience, but all the talent. Laura Kraut—an Olympic veteran in 2000 with Liberty—will take the talented young Cedric to Hong Kong. Cedric won the selection trials in Florida in convincing fashion with just one rail down over five rounds of jumping. The gray has a huge jump, but Kraut has developed the 10-year-old gelding slowly.

After the trials, Kraut took Cedric to Europe and showed him at smaller shows in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. At Cedric’s Super League Nations Cup debut at Rotterdam (the Netherlands), he turned in 5- and 12-fault rounds and Kraut said she learned a lot about how to manage him over two rounds of jumping. In the Longines Grand Prix of Rotterdam, Cedric jumped to a double-clear and third place. At Aachen, he and Kraut put up 5- and 8-fault Nations Cup scores.

Will Simpson weathered a nervous moment during the selection trials when Carlsson vom Dach injured himself in his stall during a thunderstorm and they had to sit out the last round. But team selectors—impressed with the catty gelding’s performances that had put them into second on the trials standings—named him to the short list.

Carlsson traveled to Europe and turned in consistent performances in the Super League Nations Cups. At La Baule (France), they had a clear round and 8 faults and then a double-clear at Rome (Italy). At St. Gallen (Switzerland), they posted scores of clear and 4 faults.

This will be the first international team championship for Simpson, but he’s a veteran of three FEI World Cup Finals and a seasoned campaigner. He has all the confidence in the world in Carlsson. “He’s extremely scopey, extremely careful and extremely fast,” he said after the trials. “He’s got wings; he’s like a bird.”

Anne Kursinksi, the reserve with Champ 163, has three Olympic Games on her resume, with team silver from 1988 in Seoul and 1996 in Atlanta. 


The United States

CEDRIC: gr. g., 10, Dutch Warmblood, breeding unknown, owned by Happy Hill Farm and Peter Wetherill.
LAURA KRAUT: age 42, Wellington, Fla.