The Irish dressage team made an inauspicious start to the World Equestrian Games in Rome yesterday when Katy Bradley-Lynn, making her debut at this level, was eliminated for continuous resistance, resulting in the disqualification of the Irish from the team standings.
Bradley-Lynn was first of the three Irish riders to ride in Rome's Stadio Flaminio on the opening day of the Games and conquering nerves is always an important element of team riding. But the 12-year-old Hannoverian gelding Diamant II seemed to be completely overawed by the occasion and, after warming-up well and starting the first half of the test reasonably confidently, he then refused to co-operate with his rider.
The advanced movements of piaffe and passage are both contained in the Grand Prix test, but Diamant offered them instead of the movements asked for by his rider and, after what was considered by the judges to be three consecutive disobediences, the horse was eliminated.
His removal from the competition means the disqualification of Ireland's inaugural championship team as there were only ever three riders in the Irish squad and all three scores count towards the team score. Other teams, with a full complement of four, can afford the luxury of discarding the worst mark.
Bradley-Lynn, who is based at Upper Lambourn in Berkshire, exited from the World Equestrian Games at just after 2.30 yesterday afternoon. Incredibly, a mere 30 minutes before, French rider Florence Lenzini had met with a similar fate when the Danish warm blood Ravel froze at the beginning of his test and Lenzini was left with little choice but to retire.
The French will still have three scores to count, but at least Ireland's Heike Holstein and Yvette Truesdale, who ride today, get a chance to go for a good individual placing, even if the team hopes are shattered.
Pure dressage bears very little relation to the dressage phase of the three-day event, which gets underway today at Pratoni del Vivaro, 35 kilometres south-east of Rome. Lucy Thompson, who rode at young rider level for Britain in both three-day eventing and pure dressage, excels at this first phase now she has chosen to concentrate on eventing and, since declaring for Ireland in 1995, has certainly improved the dressage averages in the Irish squad. Three years ago she came to Pratoni as the newest addition to the Irish squad and, after scoring the winning marks in the dressage with Welton Romance, went on to claim the individual gold and led her new colleagues to the team bronze as well.
She returns to the scene of her triumph with the mare's brother Welton Molecule, which she rode into 10th place at Badminton this spring. But the road to Rome has been a rocky one for the Kent-based rider as a fall at Gatcombe six weeks ago with Romance left Thompson bedridden and literally flat on her back for an excruciating three weeks.
The 36-year-old has battled to get back to full fitness in time to take the captain's berth as number four on the Irish team and, thanks to intensive physiotherapy from the squad's equine physio Chris Caden-Parker, Thompson feels that she is sufficiently recovered to give 100 per cent in Pratoni, even though she is far from pain-free.
She - and the rest of the Irish squad - will be fighting it out against the best in the world, with the New Zealander's favourite to take the team honours. But Thompson believes that she has "a serious chance" of repeating her 1995 success, even though the Kiwi team includes Blyth Tait, who won in Pratoni the following year and went on to take individual gold at the Atlanta Olympics with his ride here, Ready Teddy.
Thompson is last of the Irish into the dressage arena tomorrow afternoon, but team riders Virginia McGrath and Mark Kyle and individual Jane O'Flynn all feature today. Individual Stuart Crawford and team number three Eric Smiley both perform tomorrow morning, with Thompson drawn to go just before the afternoon tea-break.
