Near the end of the 100-mile endurance competition at the FEI World Equestrian Games, Miguel Vila Ubach had a simple plan. With two powerhouse French team members just ahead of him and leading the race, the Spanish rider set out to follow them in for the individual bronze medal.

Thankfully, his plan went awry. Instead, Vila Ubach passed their tiring horses and captured the first gold medal of the fifth WEG, on Aug. 21, in Aachen, Germany.

As Vila Ubach galloped into Aachen’s main stadium to an emotional finish on his 8-year-old, Arabian gelding, Hungares, the estimated 20,000 spectators cheered in appreciation. Vila Ubach completed the course in 9:12:27, crossing the finish line in a torrential downpour.

On a day when riders from Belgium, Australia and the United Arab Emirates had looked as if they would win the gold, Vila Ubach’s charge at the end took many by surprise.

Vila Ubach, 33, was 46th at the first vet check and gained ground on each loop, heading out onto the last eight-mile loop in eighth position, as the intermittent rain became a downpour.

“I knew my horse could fly over the last bit,” said Vila Ubach. “We rode out of the [last] vet gate, and I saw the French girls and decided to follow them as I was sure they would get good placings. The horse felt so strong that we found ourselves quite up front. And then I felt we could make it and decided to just go for it.”

About eight minutes later, the two French riders entered the stadium, with Virginie Atger, 22, riding the 8-year-old gelding, Kangoo D’Aurabelle, becoming the first of the French team to finish for the silver medal. Elodie Le Labourier, 22, followed closely, winning the bronze medal on her 16-year-old gelding, Sangho Limousian. With the remaining French team members not far behind, France earned its fourth WEG team gold medal (28:11:27).

Gold felt good to Vila Ubach too. After he concluded his winning ride, he turned and kissed his horse while tears mingled with the raindrops.

“I knew we were good, but I don’t believe I’m here today,” a happy Vila Ubach declared at the post-event press conference. “I was the European Champion in 1999, and I’ve been dreaming for another title ever since. But I’d never have thought it would be this one.”

All three individual medalists agreed that the weather and the mud it created was the biggest obstacle of the ride. Vila Ubach, who worked in the UAE for five years as a trainer, now trains in Spain.

The U.S. Riders Struggle
The U.S. team didn’t earn a place on the podium at this WEG, but three U.S. riders did finish. First over the line was Kathryn Downs, of Maine, on her 11-year-old gelding, Pygmalion. She described her 15th-placed finish (10:06:27) as “over the top.”

She said that Pygmalion handled the World Championship atmosphere in stride and wasn’t alarmed by the crowds of people standing alongside the trail. “We have a ride in Vermont with 250 runners who run the ride alongside the horses,” she said. “The clapping at the start startled him a bit, but he quickly recovered. He was cute along the way as he kept thinking the crowd might be his crew and they would have some food for him.”

Meg Sleeper (who rode as an individual) finished the ride on the Arabian Shyrocco Troylius in 22nd place (10:12:22). “I bred and raised this horse, so it was like when your child had done something really great,” said Sleeper of their completion.

Jennifer Niehaus, riding 14-year old Cheyenne XII, was 49th (11:57:26).

Valerie Kanavy, the U.S. chef d’equipe, said the team riders had planned to start conservatively and pick up the pace after the halfway mark. “We had all five riders in until the fourth vet check when Joe Mattingly’s horse slipped in the mud,” she said. “In the fifth check, Christophe Schork was spun. That was a shock. The horse is a choppy mover, and the vets called him lame. Our other three riders did very well, and the horses look great.

“My goal was to finish all the riders,” added Kanavy. “So I am disappointed.”

Kanavy, a two-time World Champion, believed that the results prove the team needs to advance on several fronts. “I’m a competitor, so over and over I toss in my mind how we could do better in the future,” she said. “We have to really become more scientific in our training.�This was a recreational sport 10 years ago, but now it’s changed. It’s really a 100-mile racecourse.

“We have to become more professional in our training, in terms of exact electrolytes, supplementation and vitamins,” she added. “Many other countries have a staff and trainers full-time. I’ve seen their offices and computer graphs. We still do a lot by guess and feel.”

Kanavy said she couldn’t believe other nations train that much better than the U.S. riders or have better horses. But, on the bright side, she was pleased with the way the team rode. “They really followed orders and rode smart,” she said. “I’m proud of that. There was real cohesiveness in this team.”

Team Totals
There were 148 riders from 41 countries vetted to start the ride that covered a series of six trails in three adjacent countries with the start and end in Germany.

The vet gate was located at Vaals, the highest peak in the Netherlands. From there, the trail looped back and forth through Belgium and the Netherlands with the fifth loop at the venue site in Aachen where riders had the final 8 miles. At the end of the ride, 54 horses vetted through for a 37 percent completion rate.

Ian Williams, the Fédération Equestre Internationale director of endurance, noted that this completion rate shouldn’t be considered surprising because the veterinarians eliminated many horses before a small problem became a larger one.

“Remember that the sport of endurance has by far the greatest degree of control by the vet panel that there is,” said Williams. “The vets are proactive not reactive. Many of those horses that were withdrawn from the competition were done so to eliminate any possible situation from arising. Some of the horses might have just stood on a stone, and that might be enough to create an imbalance in their gait. The welfare of the horse is paramount at all times.”

Six horses, including the winner and all four French team gold medalists, showed for best condition judging the day following the ride. In a style reminiscent of a beauty pageant, the horses that didn’t win were dismissed one by one until it was announced that Pascale Dietsch, the alternate who replaced French veteran rider Cecile Miletto, had the horse judged “most fit to continue.” Dietsch’s mare, Hifrane du Barthas, placed eighth in the ride.

The French dominated, finishing their entire team and taking four of the top eight placings. Their team riders (Atger, Dietsch, Florian Legrand and Philippe Benoit) finished the hilly endurance ride in a combined time of 28:11:27. The Swiss team (Urs Wenger, Anna Lena Wagner and Nora Wagner) earned the silver medal (29:57:10), finishing riders in 19th, 20th and 21st positions. The Portuguese team riders (Joao Raposo, Ana Margarita Costa and Ana Teresa Barbas) placed sixth, 12th and 41st for the bronze medal (30:38:32).

The French team is always the one to beat, having previously won the WEG team gold three times (1990 in Sweden, 1994 in the Netherlands and 2002 in Spain). French Chef d’Equipe Jean-Louis Leclerc built upon the selection and training model set up by the late Pierre Cazes, and now he has a new team of talented riders.

This gold-medal team included three riders in their 20s, who are part of the upcoming cadre of 14 young riders that are qualifying through the French system to compete at the FEI level.

“They are young but experienced,” said Leclerc. Commenting on the day’s ride plan for the team Leclerc said, “The horses worked well together before the competition for 10 to 12 days. We were expecting a difficult course, so we rode out together and planned to go carefully and slowly in the beginning and pick up the speed later.”

The Swiss team, including the Wagner sisters, along with Karin Maiga and Wenger, claimed their second silver medal in endurance. “We have three young girls and an elderly gentleman [on the team], and we decided beforehand that the three girls would ride together and I would go a bit faster,” said Wenger, who finished 10th. “We all arrived in very good shape, and the horses are all intact.”

Paulo Branco, Portugal’s chef d’equipe, was especially proud of his team’s bronze-medal effort, since he said there are no more than 12 horses in the country who have completed a 100-mile ride. In addition, the medal is Portugal’s first at a WEG in any discipline.

“The experience was incredible,” Branco said. “It was good weather for horses, just not to go to the beach. I’m very proud of my team; they have worked very hard.”

Raposo injured his hand while replacing his horse’s lost shoe with an Easyboot but continued on to finish sixth individually. He attended the press conference with his hand swaddled in a bandage.

Nine teams finished the necessary three riders, and nine teams finished with two riders each. Unfortunately, this included the Italian team that took the gold in the 2004 World Endurance Championships in Dubai as well as the United States team.

The highly regarded Belgian team suffered as well, as they finished just one rider.

But the UAE team, composed of sons of Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, may have experienced the most disappointment in Aachen. With their sights set on defending their 2002 WEG individual gold medal, they hoped to add a coveted team medal to their collection too. But their hopes were dashed in the Vet Check 2, when they lost two of their members. In a final blow, at Vet Gate 5, frontrunners Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, riding 9-year-old Jazyk, was eliminated due to metabolic problems, and Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, riding 10-year-old Keroual du Breuil, was eliminated on a soundness issue.

Denmark Loses An Endurance Horse
A Danish team horse from the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, was euthanized as a result of complications following a severe episode of myopathy (tying up). Dubai, an 11-year-old, chestnut gelding, and his rider, Ingelise Kristofferson, were an experienced pair. Kristofferson, 57, competed at the 2002 WEG in Spain.

In spite of intensive care and therapy over the three days following the endurance competition on Aug. 21, the horse’s general condition deteriorated, and he began to lose kidney function. After consultation among the attending veterinarians, the owner and the owner’s husband (also a veterinarian), they resolved this decision was in the horse’s best interest.