It took a lot of jumping to separate the top four horses and riders in the world in Aachen, Germany, Sept. 3. After 16 rounds of each of the riders rotating onto each other’s horses, only one rail had fallen—taken by Edwina Alexander aboard Shutterfly. So Beezie Madden, Jos Lansink and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum advanced to a jump-off to determine the individual medals. A jump-off hadn’t been needed at a World Championship since Hickstead, England, in 1974.
With his high, slow, beautifully lofty jump, the gray stallion Cavalor Cumano wouldn’t seem to be a speed horse, but he started off down the first line with ears pinned determinedly, at a commanding gallop, leaving out two strides from the oxer at fence 1 to the vertical off a bending line at fence 2, and again leaving out two strides from fence 2 to fence 3, another oxer off a bending line. Cavalor Cumano showed incredible power and talent, still jumping way up over the fences in classic form. Kicking out after fence 6 didn’t seem to slow him down much, as he crossed the finish line in a time of 45.01 seconds.
“I was trying to go as fast as possible, to put pressure on the other riders,” Lansink said. “I know my horse isn’t very fast, but in this big ring, he can gallop and leave out strides and be fast.”
Michaels-Beerbaum left one stride out between fences 1 and 2 and fences 3 and 4, but when she turned to the triple combination at fence 4ABC, Shutterfly punched out the rail with his front end, and even when she took a hard angle to fence 7, her time clocked in at 45.40 seconds.
Madden looked like the gold medal was hers as she blazed around the course, turning to the final three fences well ahead of the times of Michaels-Beerbaum and Lansink, and the crowd was already starting to cheer her as the new world champion when the front rail of the final fence fell and made Lansink the champion. Since she crossed the timers at 43.74 seconds, she earned the silver medal, and Michaels-Beerbaum was third.
“I really don’t know [what happened],” said Madden. “I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Maybe it was me and him letting down just a little—once I was over the vertical, I thought I had it. Or doing four rounds before that, maybe he didn’t make a big effort. It was heartbreaking at the moment, but I’m really happy to have the silver medal.”
Cavalor Cumano, a 13-year-old Holsteiner, earned the best horse in the world title, keeping up all the rails over five rounds today, after having dropped just one rail all week in the five rounds leading up to today, and that during a downpour in the speed round. While the three women riders had thought he might be the most difficult mount, he quickly proved to happily tolerate all of the riders, jumping fantastically for all three.
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Lansink and Alexander had somewhat rough rounds on Authentic, who ran at his fences with them but just kept all the rails up, and took off after crossing the finish with each of them. Michaels-Beerbaum quickly adapted to him, however, riding him in just the same style as Madden for a beautiful round.
Alexander’s rail came in the final rotation of horses, when Shutterfly pulled fence 4A behind. Shutterfly wasn’t thrilled with the plan, which left the horses in the main arena, in a roped-off section, while the others jumped and warmed-up. Every time the crowd cheered, he spun around his poor groom, and he didn’t want to be saddled, often rearing and bolting when someone tried to mount him, as well.
“He’s very sensitive to noise, and all the clapping worries him. That’s why I never ride him for prize-giving ceremonies,” Michaels-Beerbaum said. “I and my groom know that this would be tough for him. Considering how tough it was on him mentally, he did a great job jumping for all the riders.”
Lansink, 45, is originally Dutch, but switched to Belgian nationality in 2001. He had earned team gold at the 1992 Barcelona, Spain Olympics with the Dutch team. From 1994 until 2004, he rode for the Zangersheide stud, and then went out in business on his own. He and Cumano represented Belgium at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and won the $763,537 CN International Grand Pix at Spruce Meadows (Alta.).
Cumano is a breeding stallion, and definitely was looking the part today, keeping the crowd entertained with neighs and antics. They kept him in a separate area of the saddling and warm-up ring. “He likes to show he’s the boss, as you could see today,” Lansink said.
The only horse Lansink had any problems with was Authentic—the small, quick, catty horse can’t be any more different from the big, lofty Cumano. “I was thinking in the warm-up that he was jumping a little flat, so I tried to leave him alone to the fence, and he had a rail [over a warm-up fence]. Then, I put a little leg on him in front of the jump, and he got strong. But I had a great feeling on Pialotta and Shutterfly,” Lansink said.
In the wake of the final four, which seemed quite anti-climatic as rider after rider jumped clear rounds on each other’s horses, Lansink called for a change to the format. “I think it has to be changed. Yesterday should have been the final, and they should have awarded the medals to the top three then. Had they done that, Madden would have taken gold, Lansink silver, and Michaels-Beerbaum bronze. As it was, the horses involved in the individual final had to jump 10 rounds in the space of six days.
