- 9 Aug 08, 02:42 PM
I'm starting to wish I hadn't been shouting my mouth off about Team GB's eventing medal chances!
The words ''clean sweep'' and ''all five in the top 10'' have been uttered more than a couple of times by me over the last few weeks.
However after William Fox-Pitt and Daisy Dick's dressage tests this morning I am wondering if Britain will be lucky to win a bronze.
William's wife Alice Plunkett described Parkmore Ed's performance as the worst she's ever seen and William himself admitted he was lucky to get just 50 penalty points.
I think it's generally agreed amongst the experts here in Hong Kong that his score could have been a lot worse.
William blamed Ed's excitement and spookiness which also contributed to Daisy's under-performance.
But there's no need to be too gloomy.
Britain still have the superb talents of Mary King, Tina Cook and Sharon Hunt to go and don't forget only three of their five scores count towards the team medals.
It's just the sight of Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks' names on the top of the leaderboard that is giving British fans the wibble wobbles.
Those two are clear favourites for Australia now. Lucinda's performance on her much-loved little horse Headley Britannia was particularly good, she even scored a perfect ten for one movement.
But as William said after his test: "It's not just a dressage competition.''
And of course he's right. Eventing is a triathlon of equestrian sport.
The cross country and show-jumping should be as important as the dressage.
This was just not the start Britain had hoped for and if the eventing team are going to win any medals here this summer, the last three to go have a lot of catching up to do.
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Remember the commentators curse!
Cannot understand why you guys insist on trumpeting our chances here there and everywhere - you are either right, so no suprise or you look foolish when it all goes pear shaped - and in the process help to convince sceptics and doubters that we are wasting resources and efforts because we cannot evn win those events of which you were so certain in the beggining.
A little cautious optimism might be more advisable.
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When the dressage summary came up just now I looked forward to seeing Lucinda Fredericks test but... having watched the afternoon tests we saw them again and about 2 steps of the best. What a shame. Moved over to channel 5.
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Don't do the team down before they have all gone. Why not start you piece with 'Sunday is a make or break day for the TeamGB Eventers as good scores are required by the three remaining event riders...
The press does not always have to put pressure on the competitors in every sport, but negativity is by far the worst way of betraying any sport.
I am a little bias in my views as Mary King is my sister. Get with the team spirit Lizzie and let's give them the boost they deserve.
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interesting (?) to see that countries smaller than the UK are as usual on the medals table on day 1.
Guess UK sport will never change so unlike China leading in 2008, UK will be nowhere and the same in 2012
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People that are clicking on the equestrian section are looking for comment from someone that knows one end of a horse from the other. We want details. For gods sake get her out of here and get some one like Lucinda or Zara out there. This womens description of walking the course was pathetic.
Get behind the team women, learn what you are writing about or go home.
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I think that Lizzie is being unnecessarily negative - two riders haven't even ridden their tests yet and already she is painting a picture of doom and gloom! Even with the 3 scores already in for the dressage, we are in 5th place, which is not exactly disastrous. It seems to me from following eventing that it is quite normal for other countries such as Germany - who are very strong in dressage but lack the cross-country flair of the British riders (especially without Bettina Hoy on the German team) to be ahead of us at this stage, so I think that such extreme negativity is unwarranted!
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This is one of my favourite Olympic sports. Horses are a bit thick, so getting them to prance about meticulously is impressive. As everyone know, the origins of dressage are military, which adds to the fun of it because such fancy dancing seems at odds with the brutality of war.
My only quibble are the outfits of the riders. A bit more glamour wouldn't go amiss.
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I agree with all of the views abbout Lizzie - your so called equestrian reporter. For once it would be appreciated for equestrian sport to actually have some thought out support, instead of seeming like an afterthought.
Also, regarding comment no.7 - "Horses are a bit thich" had you ever been around these intelligent and gentle creatures, I doubt you would make such a comment, and eventing is not a fashion parade, it is probably one of the most diffcult and dangerous events in the Olympics, the clothing is as such for a reason. Come on guys, stop picking at silly things and get behind the team!!!
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I was disappointed but not surprised by the dressage commentary on R5Live in the eary hours of 10 August. The commentators described everything except what the horse and rider were doing, and how they were performing. They appeared to have no knowledge of basic equine paces, let alone dressage elements. The BBC wouldn't get away with a commentator who know nothing about gymnastics, football, tennis, figure skating etc...With the numbers of pundits in Beijing paid for by license fee you could at least provide some helpful coverage of sports that are perceived to be 'minority' (even though a million people in the UK ride, 300,000 turn up to watch Badminton Horse Trials). And the eventing is one of the few sports where Britain has a chance of winning a medal...I know Clare Balding can't do everything, but she is the only one who provides any useful insight on the equestrian events. I thought things might have improved since 2004, but obviously not...
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Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks may not be competing for team GB but they do choose to live and work in the UK and have a very successful and highly-thought of operation here. To that extent, their success is partly ours, and we can get some consolation from that! Well done to them, and here's hoping that Mary King and her fellow team members continue a successful start.
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I m sorry but if you are going to get someone to report on the Equestrian side of things, please don't insult us by picking someone in the name of Liz Greenwoodhughes who doesnt have a clue, get behind the team and stop undermining our team and your country! We are only at the beginning, as you see from Mary Kings test yesterday, things change!
Tired of these so called reporters who have the occasional hack but have never really competed or simply dont have a darn clue about the individual discipline, and what you need to do to get there, and then feel they have the knowledge to comment on the expertise of delivery! please remove her! or EDUCATE HER!
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Dressage is a superb discipline, and it's great to see Mary King and Call Again Cavalier turning out such a wonderful performance. The horse has cracking movement!
Re. comment 7 about horses being 'thick' - I'm intrigued to know what makes you think this? In my opinion this couldn't be further from the truth. Horses are gentle and intelligent - they are quick learners and despite the fact that horses and humans don't share the same 'language', they are able to learn a great deal provided they are taught properly.
A bad performance is evident of some form of miscommunication between horse and rider. Horses will (sometimes!) do what they are told - so a bad performance is often caused by a wrong signal from the rider, or maybe a disturbance somewhere which affected concentration.
Even so, horses are living breathing animals and they will not always choose to obey our commands - but this is what makes the sport so exciting. Watching a near-perfect dressage test or a thrilling jump-off is proof of a great partnership between horse and rider - so let's hope we see plenty more of this before the competition comes to a close!
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