PrintI expect this to be a fascinating championship, first, from the perspective of watching the apparently unbeatable German team in action and, second, from watching the half dozen or so other teams try to unseat them.
And, to be perfectly frank, it will be the rest of the world against the Germans. It's quite a task and, as far as I'm concerned, a fun one. It's what keeps me getting up in the morning!
Historically and traditionally, show jumping has had a World Championship every four years, in the even years between the Olympic Games. This championship was always considered the second-most prestigious and difficult competition after the Olympics.
This year's WEG will certainly be first class. Aachen has always been the premiere venue for show jumping and dressage and has hosted World Championships before in those two disciplines. But this is their first attempt at hosting the WEG, something we'll get to do in 2010 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.
As far as the competitive format is concerned, there are two important differences between the World Championships and the Olympics. The first difference is the first leg, which is run over a Table A course but under Table C rules (faults converted into seconds). This puts a big emphasis on speed (which isn't a factor in the Olympic first round), and it also tends to "flatten" horses out for the remainder of the competition.
But the second and biggest difference is the final day, where the top four competitors ride each other's horses, much like we do in the equitation division. I really like this rather unusual departure in show jumping. It takes a special touch to "catch ride" three unfamiliar horses. Some people don't like it, though, and it's always been up for debate.
Canadian Surprise?
What I'm going to do is analyze 10 of the teams entered in the WEG--the eight Samsung Super League teams, along with two other teams from the western hemisphere. Of course, a team that's not of these 10 could end up on the podium--Belgium or Italy, for example--but I don't think that's likely.
I'm going to start with our neighbor to the north, Canada. The Canadians have always been a long shot, but, due to their list of great horsemen (and great horses), they have sometimes pulled it off, winning Olympic, World Championship and Pan Am Games gold medals and the World Cup Finals.
Yet again, Ian Millar ("Capt. Canada") will head the squad with his lovely bay, In Style. Millar has been a member of every Canadian cham-pionship team since 1972 and is one of the legends of our sport, riding just as well as anyone else in it.
He has quite a good team to lead this year, as we saw in the CSIO Palm Beach (Fla.) last March, where Canada won the Nations Cup. It could be a big surprise to everyone, but as I said, they've done it before. The only weakness in their program is their lack of current European experience as a team.
Backing up Millar will be Eric Lamaze, in his fourth consecutive WEG. He'll be riding Hickstead, a very careful and fast horse who was third in the Grand Prix of Aachen (Germany) in June.
Mario Deslauriers, the youngest World Cup Finals winner at age 19 some 22 years ago, will ride the chestnut Paradigm. This pair was third last year at Spruce Meadows (Alta.) in the $843,844 CN class.
And, to be perfectly frank, it will be the rest of the world against the Germans. It's quite a task and, as far as I'm concerned, a fun one. It's what keeps me getting up in the morning!
Historically and traditionally, show jumping has had a World Championship every four years, in the even years between the Olympic Games. This championship was always considered the second-most prestigious and difficult competition after the Olympics.
This year's WEG will certainly be first class. Aachen has always been the premiere venue for show jumping and dressage and has hosted World Championships before in those two disciplines. But this is their first attempt at hosting the WEG, something we'll get to do in 2010 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky.
As far as the competitive format is concerned, there are two important differences between the World Championships and the Olympics. The first difference is the first leg, which is run over a Table A course but under Table C rules (faults converted into seconds). This puts a big emphasis on speed (which isn't a factor in the Olympic first round), and it also tends to "flatten" horses out for the remainder of the competition.
But the second and biggest difference is the final day, where the top four competitors ride each other's horses, much like we do in the equitation division. I really like this rather unusual departure in show jumping. It takes a special touch to "catch ride" three unfamiliar horses. Some people don't like it, though, and it's always been up for debate.
Canadian Surprise?
What I'm going to do is analyze 10 of the teams entered in the WEG--the eight Samsung Super League teams, along with two other teams from the western hemisphere. Of course, a team that's not of these 10 could end up on the podium--Belgium or Italy, for example--but I don't think that's likely.
I'm going to start with our neighbor to the north, Canada. The Canadians have always been a long shot, but, due to their list of great horsemen (and great horses), they have sometimes pulled it off, winning Olympic, World Championship and Pan Am Games gold medals and the World Cup Finals.
Yet again, Ian Millar ("Capt. Canada") will head the squad with his lovely bay, In Style. Millar has been a member of every Canadian cham-pionship team since 1972 and is one of the legends of our sport, riding just as well as anyone else in it.
He has quite a good team to lead this year, as we saw in the CSIO Palm Beach (Fla.) last March, where Canada won the Nations Cup. It could be a big surprise to everyone, but as I said, they've done it before. The only weakness in their program is their lack of current European experience as a team.
Backing up Millar will be Eric Lamaze, in his fourth consecutive WEG. He'll be riding Hickstead, a very careful and fast horse who was third in the Grand Prix of Aachen (Germany) in June.
Mario Deslauriers, the youngest World Cup Finals winner at age 19 some 22 years ago, will ride the chestnut Paradigm. This pair was third last year at Spruce Meadows (Alta.) in the $843,844 CN class.
