Eric Lamaze finishes 27th at World Equestrian Games

Schomberg area resident Eric Lamaze finished the third day of competition at the recent 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, in 27th position individually.

The second round of Team competition, held last Thursday, saw the top 10 ranked teams competing for Team medals. Canada had finished the first round of Team competition last Wednesday in 13th position from a field of 24 nations and did not make the cut. Before Thursday's Team competition got underway, 53 individual competitors, hoping to qualify for Saturday's Individual competition, took to the main stadium to attempt the extremely challenging track set by German course designer Frank Rothenberger. Of the 53 individuals, only RolfGoran Bengtsson of Sweden came home with a perfect score of zero faults riding Ninja La Silla.

Lamaze, the final individual rider on course, had produced clear rounds last Tuesday and Wednesday to be ranked second overall in the standings behind American Beezie Madden. Riding Hickstead, a 10-yearold Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Torrey Pines and Ashland Stables, Lamaze started the course confidently. The vertical at fence number seven came down, followed by the 'b' and 'c' elements of the triple combination at fence eight, which was an oxer to a vertical to another oxer. Although he successfully jumped the rest of the 13obstacle course, the 12 faults incurred dropped Lamaze to 27th place in the standings to just miss being among the top 25 riders to qualify for Saturday's Individual competition. "I am sure Eric is

disappointed," said Terrance Millar, chef d'equipe of the Canadian Show Jumping Team. "It was not the round he was looking for. The triple combination was very scopey and it gave many riders trouble tonight."

Lamaze went into the third day of competition looking good, after the second day, in which he and Hickstead were in second place behind American Beezie Madden, the duo returned for Round 1 of the Grand Prix and put in a perfect round.

Lamaze rode Hickstead carefully through the challenging course, putting in a clear round just under the time allowed. After walking the course in the morning, Lamaze said, "It's a nice course; high and very difficult. The triple combination coming just after passing the in-gate may be a problem and there's an interesting line to the water jump. But, it's a fair course for the horses."

"It's a difficult course," Millar said. "A lot of the jumps are at the maximum height and the oxers (spread jumps) are very wide. It's not easy for us to prepare for something like this. In Canada the national-level shows don't build courses like this. Confidence-wise, it would help if the Canadian riders had more opportunity to compete in Europe."

In Team competition, the Netherlands won the Team Gold with a final score of 11.01. The United States (Margie Engle, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, McLain Ward) took the Silver Medal with a score of 18.85 while the home side, Germany, had to settle for Bronze with 19.16. As the top five teams, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, Ukraine and Switzerland all qualified Teams for the 2008 Olympic Games.