Round 1 – A Rocky Start

The excitement and hope in the air was palpable the morning of the team finals at the Pan Am Games in Lima. The big track set by Guilherme Jorge of Brazil quickly began sifting out riders, with a fall and refusals in the first early group.

Canada’s first rider, Lisa Carlsen with Parette, looked confident and began the course well, but fell afoul in the tough triple combination that turned out to be the bogey jump for many, bringing down two elements for 8 faults. She remarked, “My horse jumped super. I didn’t quite get into the triple combination as I’d have liked – I had one too many [strides] off the corner, so I didn’t jump in well enough to give her a good chance to jump it, so that was my mistake at B and C, not hers. I thought she was fabulous and I hope she comes back and I don’t repeat that mistake.”

Erynn Ballard and Fellini S had a repeat performance of the previous day’s fault-free result. ” I don’t even really have words,” said the delighted rider. “Just like yesterday the pressure’s on for all of us and he rose to the occasion. He’s good with the crowds; he knows that everybody is here watching him. At the jog when he was getting sassy I said then that he just thinks that all his fans are here so he had to put on a show for them. I think he put on a show for all of his fans out there today.”

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