The World Cup is More Than Just a Competition – It’s also a Teacher!

Passing Judgement on the Situation

Judgement was another horse that along with Meredith Michaels’ Checkmate did not pass the second vet inspection. Yet in Vernon’s opinion it was not a big deal and the horse was perfectly fine. “All these horses are athletes. They’ve shipped a long distance and so it is not surprising that they get a little stiff.”

After Judgement passed the reinspection Vernon commented that in the jog the horse looked “better than 70% of the horses” who had jogged earlier and he was totally confident that the horse was having no problems. “He’s absolutely fine,” concluded Vernon.

Judgement went into those final two rounds and had rails down and finished 13th overall but Madden was pleased with the way he went. Her horse was responding well but she felt her problems “had to do with indoors.” They had not competed in any indoor shows in awhile and indoors everything happens more quickly. Even on that final day Judgement kept pulling rails. Yet he’s had his time in the winner’s circle in the past and will again in the future.

When Laura Kraut went in the first of the two final rounds she only dropped one rail. That was noteworthy since she got the least faults of any of the first 10 competitors. She looked like she was on a roll. Yet in round 2 they nailed two fences for 8 penalty points. It just wasn’t going to be their day. They finished in the 16th spot.

Alison Firestone and Secret Love weren’t very lucky in those last two rounds and a total of five rails fell. Yet Firestone is always positive and looks to her past victories and knows there will be future ones. She was fine with her 17th place finish.

The disappointment was undoubtedly the hardest for Joie Gatlin, who finished 23rd, which was undoubtedly the result of the two on Suncal’s King. Yet each time her skill showed through when by her swift reaction to regroup and get back on track.

Looking at the big pictures is important and Vernon belies you have to look at things for the long haul. “Maybe today is not our day but tomorrow will be.” And so this year there were rounds that were brilliant and rounds that were a major disappointment. While most of our riders were disappointed in the way things turned out, they weren’t worried because this was a new experience from which they learned a lot.

It’s all about learning and what you take away from the experience. Richard Spooner had a good go considering he’d only been matched up with the Camaron Hills Shanroe for a short time after the owner Molly Talla turned the rider over to him when she got pregnant. They finished 18th yet what they brought back with them was much more. “I’ve learned a lot about the horse and received some valuable education on my own. I try to apply bits and pieces of what I learn and integrate it into my system.”

With that attitude you always come home a winner and maybe this time our riders weren’t in the World Cup spotlight but the experience they take with them will serve them well in the future.