A field of 42 took on Argentinian Jose Ortelli’s 4.5 km cross-county test on Saturday morning at the Pan Am Games in Lima, facing 26 obstacles and 35 jumping efforts on a twisty course. When the dust settled on the battlefield, Canada had slipped from second to third place behind a very determined Brazilian squad, while great rounds from the Americans helped them retain first place by a widening margin with two of their riders – Lynn Symansky and Boyd Martin – logging the only double-clear efforts of the day and sitting first and second on the leaderboard.
Following the same order as the previous day’s dressage, Canadian Karl Slezak was second in the order of go aboard Fernhill Wishes. The pair looked strong at the first water, taking the direct route and showing the crowd how it should be done. They ran into trouble later in the course, however, when the horse slipped a bit at the far side of the big hill at #23 and failed to make the turn to the fence, incurring 20 penalties and 11.2 time penalties and landing in 13th place individually with a score of 58.9.
Slezak said, “It was riding well; he was a bit spooky at the beginning, as it was the first time he has seen crowds and was trying to figure out his lanes. There’s a lot to do at the beginning. I was a little bit down on the clock; going up to the mound at 23 I thought he jumped around it nicely but he almost slipped and I couldn’t make that turn. It was a bummer. Then he was back on it and he felt great to the end; he felt like he had lots of running still.”