Rider blasts to World Championships third place despite costly mistake: ‘Most of it was brilliant’
Tamie Smith riding Mai Baum
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
The USA’s Tamie Smith impressed in her eventing World Championships dressage test in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy, today (16 September), despite having one costly early mistake.
Riding Mai Baum, who is super-talented in the first phase, Tamie, who hails from California, posted a score of 24 to sit behind Britain’s Yasmin Ingham and Laura Collett.
Tamie and 16-year-old Mai Baum, who is owned by Alexandra and Ellen Ahearn and Eric Markell, scored consistently high marks throughout their test, with a smattering of nines from the judges, bar when the 16-year-old broke into canter in the first medium trot. The judges dropped their marks to fours and fives for this movement as a result.
“I think he just tried a little bit too hard and you know, you can’t fault him for that – he doesn’t have the best medium trot and I’m pretty sure that’s the best medium trot I had before he broke into canter, but it is what it is,” explained Tamie. “I think he was pretty spot on everywhere else, so I’m really proud of him.”
Reflecting on how their performance today compared to the one they did at Badminton, where they scored 25.3, Tamie said: “I feel like it was better than Badminton – he’s in much better self-carriage and relaxation and most of it was all brilliant. It was just unfortunate we had that one little mistake, but you try to try to go for it and you know, he’s not quite strong enough to hold that, but I’m still super ecstatic. I mean, it’s a 24, so I’ll take it!”
“He scored a touch better at Pau, but I think this was the better test. It’s crazy to think at the age of 15, I feel like I’m just getting him where I want him,” said Jonelle. “He’s been a frustrating horse because I’ve felt like I’ve made progress, but not been able to reflect it in the marks – as I walked out today, I really didn’t know if I was on 31 for the eighth time this year. It wasn’t until I saw the score that I was able to breathe.”
Jonelle explained that McClaren had a slightly unusual path to top level of eventing.
“He was with a young boy in Swindon until he was 10, doing Pony Club for the first chunk of his life. And then Mark Todd got him and sort of fast tracked him to the World Games in Tryon, so he sort of then went from zero up to top level very quickly.
“He’s a cheeky little bugger and his body has probably developed in less than ideal ways, for example trotting a straight line is quite difficult for him, so some things that other horses have naturally from day one, he hasn’t had.”
“It all came together in there as I haven’t had a clean change from right to left today, so to save them for in the arena, where we did get them, was good,” said Kevin. “He went in then and grew a little bit, which was great. He did some really nice thing and it’s a personal best for us at five-star level.”
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