Steffan Peters on the gorgeous Ravel was the highest placed US rider finishing 4th overall today riding in the Musical Freestyle which was factored in to the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special scores. He rode to various catchy tunes such as The Safety Dance (if memory serves me correctly it was a 1980s one hit wonder song!) as well as the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil. Courtney King-Dye finished in 13th place aboard Harmony's Mythilus and Debbie McDonald did not qualify after the Grand Prix since Brentina was a bit spooky (very uncharacteristic of this horse) which resulted in several mistakes. We all feel badly for Debbie since this was Brentina's last competition before retirement. We wish them all the best and know they enjoyed a wonderful partnership and did an outstanding job in representing the USA in previous Olympic Games and World Equestrian Games. Without their contribution in fact, we probably would not have received medals.
The sad news is that this is the first time we didn't medal in dressage - in quite some time. In both the Sydney and Athens Games we received a team bronze in dressage.
The good news is that both Ravel and Mythilus are younger horses so watch for them at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky 2010 and the next Olympic Games 2012, London.
Our next possibility of medals are on Thursday, when the individual show jumping competition takes place.