WEG Wrapup: Tragedy After a Clear XC Round

Another  tragic equine fatality in the XC phase of eventing. Shawn Flarida later brought down the roof in Individual Finals.

Top photo: © Hippo Foto Team – Dirk Caremans

EVENTING-CROSS COUNTRY

Team

1. Germany–177.9
2. Great Britain–186.8
3. Australia–226.8

Individual

1. William Fox-Pitt and CHILLI MORNING (Great Britain)
2. Sandra Auffarth and OPGUN LOUVO (Germany)
3. Michael Jung and FISCHERROCANA  (Germany)

Wild Lone dies after a clear XC round. Another unexpected death made for a sad day for eventers and horse lovers everywhere. Wild Lone, owned by Charlotte Opperman and ridden by Harry Meade for the British team, suddenly collapsed after Harry dismounted. “In view of the ground conditions and terrain, that played no part in what happened to Wild Lone,” said his rider Harry Meade, “He’s done six four-star events and he was fit as he could be. He felt extremely comfortable the whole way round and I’d felt I could have asked for more…I’m obviously devastated about what happened.” Per standard protocol, the FEI will conduct a post-mortem to determine the exact cause of death.

11 of 88 riders pulled their horses up on course, and four withdrew from competition. Apparently the course did dry up a bit today, and officials altered the course slightly, but…a week of rainy days, an extremely technical course, and 88 horses riding through that course one after another? Not good.

Mark Todd’s fall, Eventing Nation

It wasn’t all bad. Exhibit A: The obscenely patriotic outfits of our tireless EN reporters Leslie and Jenni.

Stolen from Leslie Wylie’s Facebook. #sorrynotsorry

Exhibit B: Someone finally interviewed this guy.REINING

A glitch on the WEG website seems to be preventing final scores from appearing properly, but Team USA won the gold, and Shawn Flarida won individual on a score of 233.5! (We’ll update this post as soon as final scores are available online.)

Individual

1. Shawn Flarida and SPOOKS GOTTA WHIZ (USA)
2. Andrea Fappani and CUSTOM CASH ADVANCE (USA)
3. Mandy MacCutcheon and YELLOW JERSEY (USA)

An All American Podium with Shawn Flarida on top ! #Reining #WEG2014 pic.twitter.com/yzzVHAOOn5

— Normandie2014 (@normandie2014) August 30, 2014

And Flarida gave his medal to his son Sam. Awww. “He’s a real horse enthusiast and he told me we’d have to work hard for this tonight, so I thought it would be fitting if I handed it to him,” said Flarida in a press conference.

Go Riding.