The blue stands at the newly constructed National Equestrian Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, overflowed with show jumping aficionados decked out in green and yellow face paint and wigs on July 27 for the show jumping team final at the Pan American Games.

Medal-crazed fans belted out patriotic songs and soccer chants between trips, hungry to bring the team gold medal back to Brazil. They were justly rewarded for their support when Brazilian international superstar Rodrigo Pessoa posted the final double-clear performance of the day, ensuring the team gold for Brazil.

The Canadians gave the hometown team a run for their money, however, staying neck-and-neck with the Brazilians all week and just missing out on the gold medal to take silver.

Gold didn’t escape the Canadians, however, as Jill Henselwood clinched the individual title aboard Special Ed, relegating Pessoa to silver with Rufus (see sidebar). Canadian Eric Lamaze rounded out the individual medals with the bronze aboard Hickstead.

The U.S. team overcame some major difficulties to earn the bronze medal, led by Lauren Hough on Casadora. First Laura Chapot’s mount Little Big Man ran into some medical issues that nearly forced her to withdraw from the competition (see sidebar). Then veteran Todd Minikus had unexpected problems with Pavarotti that forced the anchor rider to become the team’s drop score.

But the U.S. squad rallied in the second round and edged Mexico for bronze. The youngest U.S. rider, 28-year-old Cara Raether, finished eighth individually, the highest-placed U.S. rider, in her first international team championship. 

Worth The Trip
With Brazil hosting the Games for only the second time in history, the public was eager to see the team regain the gold medal they’d won three consecutive times before 2003. So the Brazilian Equestrian Federation called up three-time FEI World Cup Finals champion Pessoa and his 2004 Olympic teammate Bernardo Alves, who train and live in Belgium, and offered them a bye to join the Brazilian Pan Am team.

But Pessoa, in particular, debated going back home, as the difficulty of the travel and interference with his competition schedule made the trip extra demanding. Plus, with so many of Brazil’s top riders competing in Europe, Pessoa didn’t want to make the journey if the country wouldn’t be able to put together a competitive team.

In the end, Pessoa made the trek, along with Alves and rising star Pedro Veniss, who trains with Rodrigo’s father, Nelson Pessoa, in Belgium.

“My father suffered a lot through the process, and I suffered as well,” said Rodrigo. “In the end, I definitely made the right decision.”

By winning the team gold medal and the individual silver aboard Rufus, Rodrigo repeated the medal result that his father achieved at the 1967 Winnipeg Pan Am Games.

The excitement over having Rodrigo, the individual gold medalist at the 1998 World Equestrian Games and the 2004 Athens Olympics, back in Brazil dominated the media. He’s achieved rock star status even among mainstream Brazilians.

Once back on Brazilian soil, the public fully expected their champion to lead the Brazilians to victory and earn the individual gold. When he finished with the silver instead, the national newspaper O Globo included his name on the “thumbs down” list. Like individual gold medalist Henselwood, Rodrigo only had one rail down all week, but Henselwood gained the edge with a quicker speed round.

Still, Rodrigo’s reception wasn’t altogether negative. The show jumping team gold boosted Brazil’s total medal count for the 2007 Games to a record 124, and by the time the last anthem played, they upped that
number to 161.

Though he was the only non-Olympian on the team, and the least well-known team member, it was Veniss, 24, who spearheaded the Brazilian team victory.

He posted three clear rounds aboard the gorgeous Un Blancs de Blanc to finish the team competition at the top of the leaderboard. The rest of the Brazilian team, Rodrigo on Rufus, Alves on Chupa Chup 2 and Cesar Almeida on Singular Joter II, laid down clear after clear to clinch gold.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Veniss after earning the first gold medal of his career. “It’s a marvelous feeling to be able to win this award here in Brazil.”

Rodrigo echoed his younger teammate’s sentiment. “I’ve had the opportunity to win World Cups and Olympics, and it’s always felt great,” he said. “But to win here, in front of the crowd, after all the problems—it’s really fantastic.”

Team Canada also sent their A-team to Rio, which was anchored by eight-time Olympian Ian Millar and included Henselwood, Lamaze and Mac Cone. They were all smiles as the silver medals hung around their necks. They traveled to the Games eager to qualify for the Olympics, and qualify they did.

The top three finishing teams earned a coveted Olympic slot—aside from the United States, which qualified at the 2006 WEG. So Brazil, Canada and Mexico will be packing their bags for Hong Kong in 2008.

The Canadians were proud of their performance, finishing just 5.05 penalties from the gold medal.

“There were no major errors with our team today,” said Canadian team captain Millar. “This is a game in inches, and the Brazilians got a few inches ahead of us.”

An Unlucky Week
Hough had already won a Pan Am Games gold team medal in Santo Domingo in 2003, but she decided to pass up taking Casadora to Europe in order to help ground a slightly less experienced U.S. team and make a run for her first individual Games medal.

The graceful pair started the week out strong, finishing fifth in the speed class and earning 5 faults on Nations Cup day to stand fifth. As the highest-placed U.S. rider, her strong performance boosted the U.S. to the team bronze medal.

But in the first individual round, when she sat just 3.45 penalties off the lead, the rails started falling. Casadora caught a rail at the second jump of the difficult triple bar in-and-out line, then ran into trouble at the triple combination, snagging a rail at two of the fences to bank 12 faults.

Sitting a distant ninth with one round of competition left, Hough decided to let Casadora stay in her stall and rest for next week’s $1,000,000 Athina Onassis International Horse Show CSI***** in São Paulo, Brazil.

“Getting an individual medal is really a goal of mine, but, unfortunately, it didn’t happen today,” said Hough. “We have a big class coming up next week for a lot of money. I’m always one to ride for my country, but, being so far down, I was out of medal contention. I’ve done these enough; I didn’t feel that I had to go for experience.”

Hough’s teammate Cara Raether put in an admirable performance during the biggest competition of her career. She and the scopey Ublesco posted a crucial clear round during the Nations Cup and had three more four-fault rounds throughout the week.

“I was really happy with his performance,” said Raether after finishing the individual competition in eighth place. “Obviously, I would have been even happier if we didn’t have those rails, but he really went great.”

Chapot’s long-time partner Little Big Man showed no sign of his grave condition just hours before the competition during his impressive performance. The game little horse only gained 8 faults throughout the
first two days. Although Chapot ranked eighth after the team competition, in good position to fight for an individual medal, she withdrew.

“I was so impressed with him,” said Chapot. “I was a little worried he wouldn’t have his normal stride, but when he got in the ring he was on.”

Despite having extensive Nations Cup experience—and wins—it was the first international team championship of Chapot’s career.

Minikus rode anchor for the first time in his career, but unfortunately it wasn’t his week. A bold approach to the first fence of the speed class backfired when Pavarotti stopped. In the first round of the Nations Cup the following day, Pavarotti suffered a stutter-step just one stride before the takeoff for the four-meter wide water. Minikus valiantly pressed the gelding on, but having lost momentum, Pavarotti landed in the middle of the water and slipped, sliding on his face for several feet as Minikus rolled off over his shoulder.

Despite his unlucky weekend, the rest of the U.S. team insisted that he played an integral role in the team’s success.

“Knowing that we had such a strong player on the team who was going to be our anchor rider took a lot of the pressure off,” said Hough. “Maybe his score didn’t count, but he’s certainly a player on this team. We’ve all been there.”

Chef d’Equipe George Morris expressed his approval of the team’s effort. “I’m very happy to have some new couples here,” said Morris. “We could have done better. Laura’s horse had a stomachache, and Todd’s horse got green. If everything went perfectly we could have won silver or gold, but I’m very happy with the bronze.”

Little Big Man’s Big Pain
Just 12 hours before the first class of the show jumping competition at the Pan Am Games, Laura Chapot’s long-time partner Little Big Man was fighting for his life.

Things got off to a rough start for Chapot and Little Big Man from the start. The horse arrived in Rio de Janeiro along with the other U.S. show jumpers on July 19. He didn’t seem quite like himself over the weekend, however, and on July 23 “Pony” was diagnosed with an impaction.

Chapot stayed by the horse’s side the entire time, spending the night at the stable on a cot outside his stall. But the gutsy chestnut bounced back, and two days later Chapot was able to take him into the training session where he jumped around the ring looking sprightly and ready to go.

“He’s a lot better than he was 24 hours ago,” said Chapot after the training session. “And we still have 24 hours to go.”

But that afternoon the 15.2-hand gelding took a turn for the worse and was once again in distress. Team veterinarian Tim Ober diagnosed Pony with a displaced colon and recommended jogging the horse up and down the hill outside the stable in an effort to get his intestines back into place. Luckily, by that evening Ober determined that all was back on track.

“When he did the exam and determined that everything was where it was supposed to be we all almost cried,” said Chapot.

But still she wasn’t positive she was going to compete until the morning of the class, after she’d spent another night sleeping outside his stall along with Pony’s groom, Tiffany Matthews, and Ober.

“I made it very, very clear that I would not take my horse to the ring if there were any possible repercussions,” said Chapot. “The horse means too much to me emotionally.”

Chapot and Pony successfully contested the first three rounds of the competition, banking one clear round and two four-fault trips in the first two days. After helping the U.S team earn bronze in the Nations Cup, Chapot opted out of the individual competition so Little Big Man could rest.

Special Ed Gets His Gold
For Canadian Jill Henselwood, winning the Pan Am Games individual gold represented a spectacular achievement for her and her horse.

“It was so important to me that Special Ed won a title. Horses around him, who weren’t as good as him, were winning Canadian championships. This was his first championship win ever,” she said.

Special Ed arrived in Canada from Germany as a top dressage prospect, but when he didn’t take to the sport as much as his owners hoped, they recruited Henselwood to find out if he could jump. The rest is history.

In 2006, the pair traveled to Kuala Lumpur for the FEI World Cup Final and finished second in the $75,000 World Cup Grand Prix at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. This year they picked up grand prix ribbons on the West Coast during the HITS Thermal Circuit (Calif.) before traveling to Brazil for the Games.

Henselwood and Special Ed started the competition off strong, winning the speed class and staying toward the top of the pack all week. They accrued 4 faults when one rail fell on the second day. The athletic Oldenburg made even the difficult fences look effortless, and his huge stride ate up the ground between the jumps.

Coming into the final round of individual competition, Canadians occupied three of the top four slots, leaving the door open for a clean sweep of the medals. But with fewer than one rail separating the first- through fourth-placed riders, nothing was certain.

By the time Eric Lamaze entered the arena, he’d already watched 21 riders struggle to find a way around the course in time. But the gutsy Canadian found a shorter track for Hickstead and left all the jumps up to post the first double-clear performance of the competition.

But Rodrigo Pessoa wasn’t willing to give up a medal so the Canadians could have their day. Rufus easily conquered the course, with Brazilian fans clucking and encouraging the duo during difficult moments. Pessoa and the young horse finished within time to post their fourth clear round of the competition, putting pressure on the remaining riders.

For Ian “Capt. Canada” Millar, just 1 time fault would cost him the silver medal, and a rail would place him clearly outside the top three. After a bobble during a bending line, In Style caught a rail coming out of the three-stride, dashing Millar’s hopes for a medal and Canada’s clean sweep.

The Brazilian crowd couldn’t contain its excitement and a huge cheer erupted after the rail fell halfway through the course, dropping Millar to fourth and securing at least the silver for Pessoa.

Henselwood, the final rider, entered the ring needing a clear round for the gold. When the pair came in a little tight to the combination, Henselwood kept her cool and gave Special Ed just the support he needed to leave the jumps up. The pair left every rail in the cups and whizzed through the timers well within the time to win the gold.

For Henselwood the road to success was just a matter of determination. “There is some luck involved,” she said. “But it’s a matter of hard work and a desire to do your best. If you have it under the hood, you will get there.”

Henselwood’s gold and Lamaze’s bronze were the first of each color to go to Canadian equestrians at the 2007 Pan Am Games. This was Lamaze’s third Pan Am Games and his first individual medal. Though he is thrilled at the honor, he definitely had mixed feelings about usurping a medal from teammate Millar.

“He’s done great things for Canada and for the sport,” said Lamaze. “I’d have loved to have seen him on the podium. I’d trade places with him in a second.