Every two years, the never-ending process of finding a better way to pick our championship teams repeats itself, as this, the second part of our recollection of selection trials, proves.

Show Jumping Team Has Some New Faces
May 23, 1986
When the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Show Jumping Selection Committee announced its World Championship squad after the final selection trial, the Mercedes Empire State Grand Prix on May 18, there were some raised eyebrows. The team is quite different from the 1984 Olympic team that won the USET’s first gold medal.

In alphabetical order, the riders and their horses are: Katharine Burdsall (The Natural), Conrad Homfeld (Abdullah, May Be); Michael Matz (Chef and Bon Retour), Katie Monahan (Beanbag and Amadia), Lisa Tarnopol (Adam). The non-traveling reserve is Leslie Burr Lenehan (McLain and Boing).

Double gold medalists Touch Of Class and Joe Fargis did poorly in the trials: they were clean in the first round at Children’s Services but had 12 faults in the American Invitational and two knockdowns and a refusal on Sunday. Melanie Smith and Calypso had a knockdown and a refusal in the American Invitational and did not compete again.

Some were surprised that Lenehan and McLain did not make the squad since they had just won the FEI Volvo World Cup Final, but the Selection Committee weighed performance in the trials most heavily. Said chairman Linda Allen, “The quality of riding was so high, it was extremely difficult to make the final cut. We go to Aachen with a strong team, high hopes, and a great deal of confidence.”

(Editor’s note: Burdsall, Homfeld, Matz and Monahan won the team gold medal.)

Kappler Surprises Himself At Children’s Services
Ellen B. Wiese
May 27, 1988
F or Olympic show jumpers, the journey to Seoul has begun. The first of five selection trials was held in Farmington, Conn., as part of the Children’s Services Horse Show, May 10-15.

In the $30,000 Chrysler Grand Prix, Chris Kappler, St. Charles, Ill., guided his Concorde to two flawless rounds to grab the victory over a star-studded field. Although declared as an Olympic candidate, Kappler still feels his best hopes will come in 1992, but if this pair continues to excel they will be hard to overlook for 1988.

“This was the last thing I expected to do in this field,” said the exuberant winner. “I didn’t really consider myself a candidate for the Olympic team–I’m awfully young. I thought of this class today as just another class. Now that I won, I’m right up there.”

Davidson Survives Lynch’s Test At Kentucky
John Strassburger
May 13, 1988
Karen Stives seemed positively clairvoyant when, before speed and endurance day at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, she said, “The thing I worry about is that one of the best combinations–someone we need–could have a hiccup and we could lose them.”

That’s exactly what happened on Patrick Lynch’s unforgiving 6,840-meter course of 28 fences in Lexington, Ky. It knocked both Kerry Millikin and Mike Plumb out of the Olympics and nearly claimed Bruce Davidson, who overcame its challenges and two broken ribs to finish first on Doctor Peaches and second on J.J. Babu.

Millikin became the first victim when her first mount, the experienced HMS Dash, hit fence 3, the Hayrack, and couldn’t get up enough speed to clear fence 4, the Broken Bridge, about 50 meters later. Millikin reached back to hit him two or three times just before take-off, but Dash veered right into the 7’6″ wide ditch between the bridge’s end and the brush fence on the far side.

Dash was only shaken, but Millikin’s left leg caught the brush fence and she broke her fibula. Consequently, The Pirate, winner of both the Kentucky and Chesterland (Pa.) CCIs last year and of an advanced division at Fair Hill (Md.) in his last start, stayed in his stall.

Two horses later, Mike Plumb’s streak of seven consecutive Olympic teams ended when Gold Band, whom he had been riding for student Barbara Hill for only two weeks, refused at the log off the Lexington Bank a second time and fell into the gap between the bank and the log. Plumb stayed on as his shoulder met the huge log and separated. As a result, Derby Knight, who had shown steady improvement through the three previous selection trials, stayed in his stall too.

Dover And Callin Lead The Team At Gladstone
Lisa Belcastro
May 18, 1990
Excitement and hope filled the air as the eight invited Grand Prix riders gathered at U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, N.J., to compete in the Miller’s/ USET National Dressage Championships, the final U.S. selection trial for the World Championship squad.

From the results of the April 27-29 trial and the Mannheim, West Germany, trial held May 5-7 where Carol Lavell, Linda Smith, Heidi Ericksen and Marie Meyers competed, the USET would name six horses and riders to compete at the Hamburg, Munich and Schoten CDIs and the Aachen CHIO. The World Championship team will be chosen after Aachen.

When the Gladstone weekend was over, Robert Dover and Dennis Callin, the top two finishers, were on their way to Europe as the first two named to the squad.

For both, a spot on the team would mark a milestone in their careers. The World Championships would be the feather in Dover’s cap before he “retires” from the international show ring. For Callin, it might make up for the chance he missed two years ago when he was forced to withdraw from the Olympic selection trials for Zorn to undergo surgery.

Lenehan Rides Alone At Top Of Show Jumping Trials
John Strassburger
July 8, 1994
T here was no doubt who had the hottest saddle during the two weekends of U.S. Equestrian Team selection trials for next month’s World Show Jumping Champion-ships. Leslie Lenehan’s dominance began in the four rounds on June 15-18 and climaxed at the IBM/USET Festival of Champions. She finished with 12 faults each on two similar-looking gray horses, riding six clear rounds out of 14 on Gem Twist and Charisma.

At the end of the grueling, seven-round trial, Charisma, owned by American Horse Shows Association President Jane F. Clark, was declared the winner because the 15.2-hand mare’s drop-out score was 4.25 faults, compared to a 12-fault score for Gem Twist. But when USET officials reviewed their own rules 24 hours later, they discovered Charisma and Gem should have jumped off for the biggest part of the pot. Consequently, they were declared co-champions.

For Lenehan, 37, her dominance earned her a spot on a championship team for the first time in 10 years. Even though she won the FEI Volvo World Cup Final in 1986, she hasn’t been on an Olympic or World Championship team since contributing to the team gold medal at the 1984 Olympics.

But the most compelling moments involved Patty Johnson Stovel. Two weeks before the trials she fell from a preliminary-level horse and broke her right wrist and suffered a stress fracture of her left collarbone. At the trials she rode with a cast on her wrist. She and Mont Cenis held down first place after two rounds, but then Mont Cenis fell during round 4, re-fracturing Stovel’s left collarbone.

Despite that, the pair stood third after the first weekend. Stovel, 36, wasn’t sure until Thursday, the day before round 5, that she could continue. Mont Cenis jumped three rounds with one rail down in each, getting a limited amount of help from his rider, and finished fifth.


Kursinski and Matz Come Out Of Devon Trial Atop Olympic List
John Strassburger
June 14, 1996
Anne Kursinski climaxed her efforts in the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Olympic selection trials the same way she began them seven weeks earlier–with a perfect round. Kursinski, the two-time Olympic veteran, turned in a perfect trip on Eros in selection trial round 6 at the Devon Horse Show on June 2 and became the first rider to make the Olympic team.

She didn’t have to ride in round 7 because she could use it as one of her two drop scores. And when she also dropped her eight-fault score in round 2, she finished with 0 faults for five rounds.

Right behind Kursinski is Michael Matz, who’s also ridden in two Olympics. Matz won round 7 at Devon on Rhum IV and finished with a total of 8 faults. Matz won three rounds to Kursinski’s one, but Rhum had two four-fault rounds before Devon and then knocked down two fences in round 6. That forced Matz to show in round 7 to be able to drop the eight-fault score, and he heartily patted the bay gelding and smiled broadly after crossing the finish line with a clean round in the fastest time.

Although she didn’t ride as if she felt pressure, Kursinski admitted she was relieved the hard part of the selection system was over for her.
“The stress of this is enormous,” she said.

Flim Flam And Foltaire Dance To Top Of Olympic Trials
John Strassburger
June 2, 2000
Flim Flam and Foltaire. Their names sound like dance partners, and in a way they are because it looks as if they’ll be anchoring the U.S. dressage team’s Olympic chorus line in Sydney.

That’s because these two geldings emerged from two consecutive weekends of Olympic selection trials in Loxahatchee, Fla., in the top two places.

Sometimes opposites are an attractive pair, and maybe that’s why this pas de deux works, because the two horses don’t look or go at all alike.
Ironically, their in-ring personalities do not match their appearances. Flim Flam, 13, is the poet–gorgeous in his suppleness and lightness when Blinks has him in the right mood, with passage that seems to flow across the ground and a spontaneous piaffe.

“He’s charismatic and theatrical; he has a volatile feel to him at times,” said Sue Blinks, of Mt. Kisco, N.Y. And he was at his best in the Grand Prix Special, when all five judges placed him first.

Foltaire, 13, is the studio musician. He executes the movements correctly and smoothly, no matter what, and when he’s done you say, “That was a nice test.” But you’re a bit surprised by the good marks he’s gotten–because he rarely gives the judges a reason to penalize him.

“His strength is his consistency. He goes in there, and you know you can pretty much rely on him,” said Guenter Seidel, of Encinitas, Calif.

Brentina Gets A Bye For The Selection Trials
June 11, 2004
Brentina and Debbie McDonald won’t have to contest the Olympic selection trials, on June 12-13 and June 19-20 in California. They’ll go straight to the final consideration for the team, following the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s confirmation on June 4 of the dressage selectors’ unanimous recommendation that Mr. and Mrs. Parry Thomas’ mare should get a bye.

Brentina finished fourth as the best U.S. horse at the 2002 World Championships, where the team won the silver medal, and then she was named the winner of the FEI World Cup Final in April 2003. In February, Brentina and McDonald won the U.S. Freestyle Championships, and in March they won the Grand Prix (74.21%) and the Special (75.40%) at the CDI Dortmund (Germany).

But right after Dortmund, McDonald discovered that Brentina, 13, had suffered a slight tendon strain, which forced her to withdraw from the World Cup Final. The chestnut mare hasn’t competed since, but she’s now reportedly in full work.