Austria Nations Cup

It was a rainy cold day at the Lamprechtshausen show in Austria, but that didn't stop anyone from showing in today's nations cup.  There were five teams in the Young Rider Nations Cup: Germany, Italy, Austria, U.S. and Switzerland.  After the first round, with Catherine putting up a score of 4, Ricky with 1 time fault, and Jessie and Reed with fault free rounds, the U.S. team was tied for first with Switzerland with just 1 fault each.  When the second round began, the rain had been pouring down for quite some time, and the footing began to get a bit slippery. Our first, Catherine, jumped clear.  Ricky's horse had a little trouble with the footing and refused one jump but finished the course.  Reed once again jumped clear, so we had two clear and a 15 fault round in the second round.  Switzerland, too had scores of 0, 11, and 0, so it all came down to the anchor riders.  Our anchor, Jessica went first, and had one unlucky rail down.  As we all watched, biting our nails, the final rider for Switzerland had 9 faults, two rails down and a time fault. So, that meant the U.S. won! Everyone was so excited because it was the first Nations Cup this tour that we hadn't been second, we finally won! Ceremonies followed, and the National Anthem was played.  Everyone was very proud, and now we are all confident heading in to our Grand Prix day on Monday, but more importantly as we head to Hagen in Germany, probably the biggest show of the tour.  

 

Michelle, our Chef for the final weeks of the tour, is clearly just as excited as all our riders!!!  Awesome Job Everyone