Horse Illustrated Magazine

All four combinations of the U.S. Jumping Team passed the Second Horse Inspection at Equestrian Park in Tokyo, Japan, as they prepare for the Jumping Team Qualifier tomorrow night under the lights, beginning at 7:00 p.m. JST/6:00 a.m. EDT.

Tomorrow’s team competition will see Laura Kraut, of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., and Baloutinue lead off as the pathfinding combination for the team, while Jessica Springsteen, of Colts Neck, N.J., and Don Juan van de Donkhoeve will go second in the team order. The anchor combination of McLain Ward, and Brewster, N.Y., and Contagious will look to cement the team’s placing in the top ten teams that will move forward to Saturday’s Jumping Team Final competition for medals. The U.S. Jumping Team will go 13th in the order of 19 total teams.

“There’s been incredible team spirit internally. All the decisions have been made jointly, and McLain coming in fresh for the team has always been the plan. Fortunately, all the horses are sound, and the riders are feeling great, and we can do exactly what we were planning on doing,” said Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland after the second horse inspection for jumping at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. “That’s our strategy, and our expectations, of course, are to live another day and move on to the final on Saturday and we all feel prepared and well-positioned to do that.”

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