Leaving the game with class

Today’s ride was the last for Scotland’s Ian Stark and for his horse, Full Circle II, as well. Stark finished in 11th place with a score of 74.1, having cleared all the jumps and incurring 1 time penalty.

Stark, 53, got hugs all around, including from third-place finisher Karen O’Connor. They made a funny sight, Stark sitting on Full Circle and O’Connor on Theodore — he was more than a foot above her.

Full Circle had won a three-star last year in Germany and Stark said he knew Full Circle had more and so Stark came out of his first retirement in 2000.

“I felt he was a four-star horse,” Stark said. He’s retiring the horse even though he’s fairly young — only 13 — because he’s been injury-plagued.

Stark is a four-time Olympic silver medalist, multiple European champion and won the Badminton Horse Trials in 1986, 1988, and 1999. He is also the only person ever to have finished first and second at Badminton in the same year — in 1988 he was first on Jaybee and second on Glenburnie.

Stark had ridden several times at Rolex, taking both Saucy Brown and Arakai around the four-star course. He said he was happy to be going out here, saying the American fans had been great.

“What a send-off I’ve had, thank you,” Stark said.

Injured rider

Australian rider Heath Ryan, who fell Saturday on cross-country, has a broken collar bone, according to Rolex officials. His horse, Flame, is reportedly OK. Ryan fell yesterday at Jump 27, the Dray, not far from the end of his ride.

Eventers in general, and Australians, are tough. According to the Rolex website, Ryan is flying home tomorrow to Sydney and riding in competition again on Thursday.

Dog details

People came with dogs and left with a few more! The Lexington Humane Society says 14 dogs were adopted at the event this weekend.

If only he’d had a map

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry got a look at the Rolex Kentucky traffic jam first hand on Saturday. Newberry said he was stuck for about 15 minutes in the jam on Newtown Pike as everybody tried to get here in time for Theodore O’Connor’s 10 a.m. cross-country run.

Cars crawled for miles in both directions but Newberry made light of it. “It’s just something that’s got to be fixed. We’ll sit down and find a more effective way to get everybody in,” Newberry said. Although he’s thinking ahead to the WEG in 2010, he wants things better for next year, he said.

“If I’d come out Georgetown Street, I wouldn’t have had any problem,” noted Newberry.

Heartache and triumph

What a tough break for Kristin Bachman. The leader after the dressage just went off course and was elminated – giving the 2007 Rolex title to Australia’s Clayton Fredericks. Congratulations to Clayton and his wonderful mount Ben Along Time!

The amazing Theodore O’Connor ends up third, just behind Phillip Dutton and Connaught.

Perfect ending

The bionic pony that is Theodore O’Connor strikes again! The 14.1 dynamo just posted the second double clear of the day with Karen O’Connor in the irons. This little guy never even touched a fence and came in just under the time limit. Great effort across the board. Their final score of 60.1 will definitely keep them in the top ten.

Clarity

We have our first double clear! Lauren O’Brien and Dunraths Alto successfully navigated all obstacles at a solid pace to become the duo on the day with no faults. The two took six strides to the daunting fence 11 and cleared it with ease before conquering the triple combination.

Leaps and bounds

We’re more than halfway through the show jumping phase and still looking for our first clear round. Lynn Symansky and Ian Stark, who is retiring from competition after Rolex, have come the closest so far, getting through the course clear but earning one time fault. Fence 11 seems to be the biggest problem child as it has come down several times already.

Jumping forever

A crowd gathered this morning at the entance to the Kentucky Horse Park museum for the unveiling of a full-sized statue of eventing champion Bruce O. Davidson Sr. and Eagle Lion. The beautiful bronze shows Davidson’s lean form stretched back, whip high, as Eagle Lion goes over a Rolex log into the water, ears perked.

“We’re not only unveiling a statute, we’re recognizing an achievement,” said John Nicholson, horse park president. “We’re at the precipice of a great moment in the sport.”

Nicholson said that the seeds of it all were sowed at Davidson’s 1974 win at the World Championships in Burghley, England. “The Golden Age of the horse in America is the 21st century,” Nicholson said.

Davidson, not usually the bubbly gushing sports ambassador, almost seemed a little emotional himself.

“Who do you thank for the life you’ve been given? If there is a way to say thank you for all of you … my supporters … my family …. You’ve backed me for a lifetime and it isn’t over yet,” Davidson said. His son, fellow eventer Buck Davidson, and Buck’s family came out to pose with him by the statue.

Fans shouted out their thanks. “We love you, Bruce!” “Ride on!” Davidson acknowledged it all with a wave.

Sculptor Jean Claggett said the statue was “my chance for a gold medal … the right horse, the right rider and the right place.”

Davidson is truly one of the sports greats — in addition to his 1974 world championship, he won the 1978 championship that helped establish the Horse Park, and won the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event a record six times (according to the statue’s plaque).

In 1995, he became the first American to win the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials in England.

He competed in the Olympics five times, winning team silver in 1972, team gold in 1976, team gold in 1994 and team silver in 1996.

Nicholson remarked that he sometimes feels as if “Doctor Peaches (another of Davidson’s great horses) and others have made their celestial foreverness here. They will run and run and run …”

To which Davidson commented later, “Sounds like Doctor Peaches and I will be riding here for a thousand years. I feel tired already.”

Update

Catherine W. Kohn V.M.D from the University of Pennsylvania just gave an update on the condition of Le Samurai. The bay gelding lost the support of his ligaments in his left front leg but sustained no broken bones. He is currently resting comfortably at Hagyard-Davidson-McGee. Good news to say the least.