In this series, the Chronicle follows six riders as they seek to fulfill their Olympic dreams in Hong Kong in 2008.
I had actually been thinking about [the 2008 Olympics] throughout last year. After the 2007 FEI Rolex World Cup Final, my team sat down and made a plan.
We didn’t show Sapphire heavily in the summer. She did a few shows in Europe, but then she got a little bit sick. But by September, she was great, and we went to [the Spruce Meadows Masters (Alta.)] and she jumped well [having 4 faults in the first round of the $876,681 CN International] and ended the year on a good note.
We decided not to aim her for the World Cup Finals this year. We wanted to give her a nice long rest and make sure she was fresh for the upcoming season. She actually didn’t even get ridden from after Spruce Meadows through Thanksgiving. She got turned out and would go on the horse treadmill every day. We try to keep her pretty fit even in the down time.
After Thanksgiving, she had two months work before we started jumping her in Florida. The horses shipped to Wellington right around Christmas and went right back into full work. We rent a barn just down the road from the show grounds, which is nice. It lets the horses get away from all the activity.
I started showing Sapphire the last week of January, and she was second in the [$40,000 KRR Enterprises Grand Prix]. The next week, she had 4 faults in the grand prix but jumped very well.
Sapphire’s Understudy
I have a nice luxury—I also have a nice new horse in Philippa, who I think is a real up-and-coming star. It allows me, now that Sapphire is 13, to be choosier when to call on her. Before, when it was a big day, I only had Sapphire. It gives me a nice 1-2 punch, which I think will make both of them better horses.
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In a lot of ways, they’re very similar. Obviously, Sapphire is very experienced. You’re never surprised by anything, which is very nice. You never worry about a funny fence or a water jump. She’s been all around the world many times. Sapphire has been a steady, consistent show jumper for years. Philippa is a flamboyant jumper, but she’s a little less experienced and a little bit harder to ride.
Philippa is going to do the trials and then the FEI World Cup Final [April 23-27 in Gothenburg, Sweden]. I hope she’ll qualify to go to Europe.
With Sapphire, I have a Plan A and a Plan B, depending on what the next few weeks bring. If the powers that be feel that she’s proven herself enough and looks on good form and decide to give her a bye, that’s the Plan A. She’d jump later on in Palm Beach and in the Budweiser American Invitational, and then go to Europe.
If they feel they need to see her jump in the trials, which is also fine, we’ll go to Plan B and schedule accordingly.
In this sport, it’s a little of “What have you done for me lately?” So you have to constantly prove yourself. I never take anything for granted—I’m always prepared to jump. I certainly think that receiving the bye would allow me to set the horse up a little better for the Olympics, but I also think she could jump the trials quite handily and be quite successful in the summer as well.
The plan will stay the same, no matter where they end up in the trials. Ideally, I’d like to take both horses to Europe following the World Cup Final and jump both of them in Europe. Obviously, Sapphire is my No. 1 choice for the Olympics as of right now, but it’s nice to have two great horses. It gives you options. You not only have to deal with whatever situation comes your way, but you also have to be open-minded to a hot streak.
She’s Reliable
My preparation with Sapphire is quite different than it was four years ago [for the 2004 Olympics], but it’s not very different to two years ago [for the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany].
Four years ago, Sapphire was a green horse to be doing what she was doing, so we had to go to the trials to prove ourselves. She performed well, but she was a less-experienced horse and the performance showed it a little bit. Then, we were living more month-to-month, where I think that for the WEG, and this year, we can pinpoint it to the exact moment when we want her to peak.
I think what enables Sapphire to do that is that she’s been so consistent. Even at the World Cup Finals last year, which was a little bit disappointing, still the horse was consistent.
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Obviously, Sapphire is a heavy horse, and that’s always a factor. We work hard to keep her very fit and very light. It’s a constant battle, but I have a great team who does a great job at that.
Not Worried About The Heat
We’re aware, looking at Hong Kong, that there will be a heat issue. But Sapphire has handled the heat pretty well over the years. One of the things that I think was a little bit of a mistake on my part before [the 2007 World Cup Final] was that Sapphire hit a hot streak here in Florida, and I may have gone to one too many shows. She was jumping very well, but in hindsight I might have shown in a couple too many classes. But you’re always going to look back and see what you could have done better.
As Americans, I think we have a real advantage when it comes to heat, because we’re much more used to the humidity than the Europeans are. Maybe not to the extremes we’re going to see in Hong Kong, but I remember all the talk about the heat before Atlanta and Athens, and it really didn’t affect the American horses. The heat and humidity we deal with in July and August here is quite significant to anything they see in Europe.
I was involved a little bit [in the development of the selection trial process]. I think we’re going in the right direction. I think it’s a thing that you always have to continue to tweak and fine-tune to close the net on the mistakes. I like the fact that we’re starting to incorporate the trials into pre-existing events. I think that as time goes on, it can be done even better, and maybe over a longer period of time.
But I think there has to be a clear objective way to make the team. I think we’ve lost that a little bit this season, where once we get to Europe, it’s quite subjective. And that concerns me a little bit. I think for the good of the sport, we have to have a clear objective route to make the team. There has to be a way that you cannot be removed if you have performed to a certain level. As we go on, I think it will evolve even more.
Click here to read McLain’s second Road To The Olympics entry from our April 25 Issue.
