LANGLEY, Canada--The young U.S.team of Shawn Cassidy, Elisa Bros, Bliss Heers and McKayla Langmeier finished fourth while competing against strong teams from Ireland, Canada and Mexico, teams that each included at least five Olympic veterans, in the Nations Cup CSIO4* at Langley's Thunderbird Show Park on Sunday, June 1.

Elisa Broz on Consult Picabello Z (Photo by Kim Gaudry)Ireland won with eight faults, with Canada second with 12 faults, Mexico third with 12 faults but a slower aggregate time, and the U.S. fourth on 20 faults.

Except for the eccentric quirk of one horse, the U.S. would have finished with 12 faults, and, according to the live stream announcer, the fastest time, would have placed second for the silver medal.

Heers' Quality Star Z jumped the three combination clean in the first round, but after jumping C clean, he kicked back and knocked the top rail down.

"That was definitely frustrating," said chef d'equipe Robert Ridland.

Then in the second round, Quality Star Z did the exact same thing, jumping well clear of all the fences, but again he kicked back at the C fence of the triple combination. and again he knocked it back and down.

"I was so angry when he did that again," said Ridland.

Without that eight faults from Quality Star Z kicking the fence down twice, the U.S. would have finished round one with12 faults and would have had three clean rounds in round two to finish with12 faults and a tie with Canada and Mexico.

 

THE LIVE stream announcer clearly didn't understand the scoring of a Nations Cup class and seemed to treat round two as a jump-off, because he would announce the time after each rider, and he kept saying the U.S. was ahead on time.

Apparently there was an official timing malfunction, and none of the results published so far post the aggregate times of the teams, so if the live stream announcer was correct, the U.S. would have been second.

But unfortunately, those two kickback knockdowns counted four faults each, so the U.S. was fourth.

The U.S. team had the two youngest riders in the Nations Cup, so the team did very well against three experienced teams, and the U.S. had a few very high spots.

Broz on Consult Picobella Z had one of only two double clear rounds in the Nations Cup, with Jordan Coyle delivering the only other double clear, quite a feat for Broz, the youngest rider in the class.

And Broz also placed fourth to Daniel Coyle, Conor Swail and Tiffany Foster in the $117,000, 1.55m Grand Prix.

Langmeier won a big jump-off class Saturday evening, going last in the jump-off and beating the always very fast Conor Swail.

“What really stood out today was our comeback in the second round,” said Ridland. “After a tough start, the team rallied and delivered exactly what we needed to stay competitive through to the end. Elisa’s double clear in her Nations Cup debut—on the youngest horse in the entire competition—was a huge highlight, and McKayla’s clear round under pressure to anchor the team was equally impressive. We came here with the youngest team in terms of both riders and horses, and they held their own against veteran teams which included multiple Olympians. This was a valuable learning day and performances like these are what build the future. They will all come back stronger because of it.”

Casady of Harriman, Tenn., on Garfield had eight faults in each round.

Making her senior team debut, Broz of Freedom, Calif., the youngest rider in the class, on Consult Picobello Z, the youngest horse in the competition, delivered the double clean.

Heers of Las Vegas, Nev., on Quality Star Z, had eight faults in round one and four faults in round two, with each round including four faults for the knockdown from her horse kicking back over the fence.

Langmeier of East Granby, Conn., on Mimosa vd Rollebeek, making her Nations Cup debut, had eight faults in round one and was clean in round two.

Ireland's team of Swail, and three Coyles, Jordan, Christian and Daniel, won for the team's third title at the Jumping Nations Cup Langley CSIO4* on a total of eight faults.

Canada's team of Tiffany Foster, Ali Ramsey, Vanessa Mannix and Mario Deslauriers was second on home soil on a total of 12 faults, and Mexico finished third with 12 faults.