It’s wasn’t New Zealand’s day at the CSIO3* Nations’ Cup in Prague, with the team finishing 12th of 13 in the field.

Bruce Goodin and Backatorps Danny V was first out for the team, crossing the flags with three rails down, followed by Richard Gardner and Calisto 5 who finished on eight faults, Tom Tarver and Popeye who bagged four at the last fence and Daniel Meech aboard Cinca 3 who had five penalties. The team finished the first round on 17 faults and didn’t progress.

Chef d’equipe Helena Stormanns said it was disappointing but felt the result didn’t mirror how the horses had actually gone. “But that is the sport,” she said. “We will have to move on and live another day.”

Tom Tarver was pleased with his grey. “I was super happy with Popeye – he just had the last fence and jumped super. We (the team) just weren’t good enough today . . . it wasn’t the result New Zealand was after. We need to be better next time. We need to be consistent every time, not just sometimes.”

Daniel was also happy with his mare who Helena felt was certainly one for the future. “She jumped awesome,” said Daniel. “We had a really unfortunate back rail at the second to last jump . . . she didn’t deserve it. Overall, the horses didn’t jump too bad, just nothing went out way.”

Richard felt Calisto had jumped a “good” round but had a couple of silly faults. “We didn’t have much luck on our side today. Everyone‘s horses jumped good. It could have gone either way and we could have got into the second round.”

Bruce was hugely disappointed. “It certainly didn’t go our way today,” said the multi-capped Olympian. “I got us off to a bad start. I felt my horse had warmed up well but he just got a little bit too strong in a couple of places and we made three unnecessary mistakes.”

He had plenty of praise for his team mates. “We had hoped to come here and put in a good result . . . so we are all pretty disappointed but we will fight for another day.” The team would review what they could have done differently and better. “You often learn more from your bad performances than you do from your good ones, so that is what we will plan on doing.”

The 1.45m class was won by The Netherlands, who finished on a score of four from two rounds, with Ireland second on eight and Japan third on 12. New Zealand finished with 17 faults from the opening round. Eight teams progressed to the second round.
Both Tom and Daniel have qualified for the Grand Prix.

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THE HORSE DETAILS:
Popeye – owned by Tom Tarver and Lucia Voss
Cinca 3 – owned by Johnson Horses GmbH and Daniel Meech
Calisto 5 – owned by Gestut Jennissen, Gut Nechen Agrar GmbH and Richard Gardner
Backatorps Danny V – owned by Backatorp Ryder AB, and Bruce and Ulrika Goodin

By Diana Dobson – HP Media Liaison