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It is an outstanding, worthwhile, and fun event," said Todd Minikus, USA Equestrian’s 2001 Equestrian of the Year, who was recently named the Most Valuable Player on his Pewter Medal Winning Triathlon Team. "It is a kick. Everybody who comes to watch enjoys it and has a really good time." The second annual Sidelines Equestrian Triathlon Presented by Outback Steakhouse on March 4, in Wellington, Florida, brought out the stars of show jumping, dressage, and polo as a benefit for Paul Rizzo, a lifetime horseman stricken with cancer. Through ticket sales and donations, plus the sale of Triathlon t-shirts and caps, more than $10,000 was raised to benefit the Rizzo family. The triathlon featured three hours of horse sports, a steak barbecue, and a celebration party at Tim Gannon’s Outback Polo.
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Winners of the 2002 Sidelines Equestrian Triathlon, Sunny Hale, Chris Kappler and Michelle Gibson, Team Cosequin
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Held on a Monday, the traditional day off for professional horse people, over 800 professionals turned out to watch four teams of three riders each – a dressage rider, a jumper, and a polo player – compete against each other in the three-phase event.
For opening ceremonies, flag-bearer Erin O’Brian on her palomino Sunshine, decked out in red-white-and-blue, led the 20-horse parade of dressage horses, jumpers, and polo ponies into the competition area where they halted in formation facing the crowd as Charles Pitt sang the National Anthem. Then it was – let the games begin!
"If I could have a chance to do it again I would," said Mike Azzaro, the only 10-goal American polo player in the world. "It opened my eyes to how difficult dressage is and how fun jumping is. Jumping is a blast. Dressage is very challenging. It makes you appreciate how good those riders are and how much we need to work on our riding. The whole event was great. It was a great challenge and a great benefit." Azzaro said he practiced his dressage once with teammate Bent Jensen and was "so sore the day after I didn’t want to do it again." He didn’t practice jumping at all. "They just told me to use my legs and hold on. Let the horse do the work. The horse was awesome." Azzaro said he had so much fun jumping he’s thinking about getting a jumper for himself. "I would love to jump again. I drive by courses now and say, ‘I could jump that!’" And as far as the cigar in his dressage test? "Some friends of mine said to spark it up. I smoke cigars, so I did it to add a bit of humor. I was trying to look sophisticated and looked like an idiot, but that’s all right."
The jumpers and polo players rode a second level dressage test to music for judge Janne Rumbough while FEI ‘I’ Judge Lorraine Stubbs judged Best Dressage Horse. Riders were evaluated not only on their riding skills, but also on their choice of music, and the directive was to make it fun – which was a good thing because it was hard to take some of the polo players’ machinations seriously. The dashing Adolfo Cambiaso may be able to gallop and hit balls, but he could barely steer the gracious Independent around the dressage ring, much to the amusement of all his polo friends in the bleachers who were there to cheer him on as he bounced along to Shakera. Tipping his hat to the audience for encouragement (which he got!) and flapping his elbows to sit the trot, Adolfo managed to go off course even though teammate Jan Brons was calling the test! His teammate Chris Cawley also rode Independent, an FEI Grand Prix horse who appeared a little disconcerted by two riders in a row that didn’t quite ride in the way he’s accustomed to. But he did his best and Cawley good-naturedly put in a kind ride, keeping the beat to "Hey Mister DJ."
Chris Kappler, the USET’s Athlete of the Month for February, demonstrated that a first class show jumper knows flatwork. Kappler rode to "Hot Blooded" and won the first phase for his team, Cosequin, with an elegant ride on Loki, a seven-year-old third level horse. Kappler’s teammate, Sunny Hale, the highest rated woman in polo, also rode Loki to the tune of "How Do You Like Me Now?" She put her horse in a round frame, on the bit and rode to the letter, sitting a huge trot with a style that looked remarkably like Michelle Gibson’s – her teammate and coach. Hale placed third individually. "I thought it was a great event," said Hale. rode dressage a long time ago as a kid and I had two lessons with Michelle, which was great preparation. I had a ball jumping. Tim Gannon was nice enough to let me ride his horse over at the show grounds in a lesson with Chris Cawley. It was a blast!"
Azzaro stuck a cigar in his mouth and hammed it up to "Spirit of the Forest" on the seven-year old Holsteiner stallion, Colombo. Judge Rumbough found his performance slightly better than Cambiaso’s, placing him next to last. Azzaro’s teammate Olympian Lauren Hough saved the Sidelines squad by putting in a very professional test on Colombo to Cher’s "I Believe." Hough earned second place individually.
Ruben Gracida took the dressage test seriously and tried his best, putting in a nice ride to "Abba" on Halloween, scoring a respectable sixth place individually. Todd Minikus was perfect on Halloween, and actually looked like he enjoyed the ride to "Peter’s Mountaintop," but he had a bobble at the end that cost him and put him in fourth place.
At the end of the dressage phase, the team placings were: 1st Cosequin; 2nd EPS; 3rd Sidelines; and 4th Outback. The teams’ next challenge was the jump course.
Steve Stephens, an FEI ‘O’ course designer who is qualified to build for the Olympics, set the eight-jump, 3’3" to 3’6" course for the triathletes. Only the polo players and dressage riders jumped. In this ‘Hit and Hurry’ style competition, the riders had 60 seconds to jump the course. When the buzzer sounded, their time was up, but they had to jump one more jump to stop the clock. Depending on where they were on course, they had the opportunity to score one or two more points.
How do you set a course for people who are not professional jumpers? "It actually was easy," said Stephens. "‘Hit and Hurry’ is the best plan for this type of event and you just build it simple. There are no in-and-outs, which makes it a little bit easier and safer for those people that really don’t practice this. The ‘Hit and Hurry’ gives you two points for every fence you jump clear, and one point for every fence you knock down. You build the first couple of jumps a little straightforward and then you make it twisty and turny so they don’t get running, to make it safe. It really was fun to do and they didn’t have trouble with it. I think everybody did fine over it really."
No one crashed, no one fell off, and only Azzaro had a refusal, but he got over.
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(Back row, l-r) Tim Gannon, Todd Minikus, Chris Kappler, Ruben Gracida, Chris Cawley, Adolfo Cambiaso, Jan Brons, Bent Jensen, Samantha Charles. (Front row) Sunny Hale, Susan Dutta, Michelle Gibson, Lauren Hough, Mike Azzaro
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The jumper riders on the teams were the loudest coaches and fans on the sidelines, screaming for their teammates to go faster and helping them out when they got lost on course. It was definitely not an ‘equitation over fences’ class but the horses were fabulous and took care of their charges. For Outback, Jan Brons rode Delgado to score 22 points and his teammate Cambiaso scored 24. For the Cosequin team, Michelle Gibson, USA Dressage Team Bronze Medallist, and Hale rode Kappler’s horse King, and both showed remarkable style. Gibson racked up 26 points to finish second individually and Hale scored 18. Susan Dutta tied with Hale scoring 18 for the EPS team while her teammate Ruben Gracida showed that polo players can jump too – he accumulated 24 points. Bent Jensen, Danish Dressage Olympic Team Member out-scored everyone riding Leroy, picking up 28 points while teammate Azzaro, despite the stop, racked up 22 for Sidelines.
Susan Dutta cheerfully admitted, "I had jumped before [as a young rider]. As I was jumping around I remembered why I quit. I didn’t ever see one distance the whole time I was jumping around. I thought, oh yeah, now I remember why I don’t do this. That was really fun!" In the jumping phase, the Sidelines Team earned 1st place, Outback was 2nd, Cosequin 3rd, and EPS 4th.
At the end of the first two phases, the team placings were: Tied for 1st place Cosequin and Sidelines; 3rd Outback; and 4th EPS.
In the polo phase, all the members of each team played. The polo players however, were only allowed to hit the ball twice in a row, and they were not allowed to score. It was amazing to watch the transformation when the polo players, who looked a little clumsy in the dressage and jumping phases, suddenly looked elegant, graceful, and at one with their ponies. The dressage riders and jumpers proved they could go fast, but hitting the ball was a different story. The polo pros kept the ball moving and made it look easy while the non-pros showed everyone just how difficult polo can be. "I always have fun," said Jensen, who was participating for the second year. "Polo is hard but the most fun. It’s hard to hit the ball!" But he did score a goal.
The first chukker of polo set Cosequin against Sidelines, with Cosequin coming out the winner. Chris Kappler was a star, scoring all the goals for his team. In the second chukker, EPS played Outback with Outback the winner. Todd Minikus was simply awesome, obviously a man who loves to go fast and seriously tried to whack that ball. In the third chukker, EPS and Sidelines played for third and fourth place and Sidelines won. You had to love Hough’s style – polo is played right-handed but she’s a lefty and played her game ‘wrong-handed’. In the fourth chukker, Outback and Cosequin, played for first and second place. Outback won the polo match when Kappler accidentally bounced the ball through the opposing team’s goal posts. It was all in fun, and this was the perfect ending!
Tony Coppola, a professional announcer for major polo tournaments called the shots and kept the action understandable and amusing even for novice spectators. "It just goes to show that if you can ride a horse, you can play polo. It’s one of the basic requirements of the sport," he said.
Adding up all the scores from all three phases the outcome was: 1st Cosequin; 2nd Outback; 3rd Sidelines; and 4th EPS. The players were showered with prizes including Gold, Bronze, Silver and Pewter Medals, Tiffany crystal, duffel bags full of Horseware of Ireland products, trophies, and of course, their team hats and shirts designed by Polo Gear.
The horses were rewarded also with custom-made and embroidered coolers from Horseware Products of Ireland for the Best Horse (Despite the ‘Efforts’ of the Rider) in each phase. The Best Horse in Jumping went to Leroy owned by Lise Quintero. The Best Horse in Dressage went to Independent owned by Robin Wambold. The Best Playing Polo Pony went to Sabrina owned by Ruben Gracida.
Earning the Most Valuable Player Award for each team were Michelle Gibson, Chris Cawley, Bent Jensen, and Todd Minikus.
"It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time," said Gibson, who hadn’t jumped a course in 15 years adding that it was the phase she was least prepared for. "Chris warmed up the horse and I just got on and told myself I’ve just got to get through this. The horse carried me around. It was great meeting the riders from the other sports. Polo is my new hobby."
"It was a lot of fun, the whole Triathlon," said Susan Dutta. "For me it was pretty amazing. I hate to be star struck by other top professionals in other sports but to have Todd Minikus and Lauren Hough and all the top guys helping you jump is pretty fun. And then to go out there and play polo with Adolfo Cambiaso and Mike Azzaro, and Ruben Gracida – that’s special. You’re not going to get that anywhere else in your life. That was pretty cool and there were a lot of people cheering us on."
Donations for Paul Rizzo are still being accepted. If you would like to contribute, send your contribution to Paul Rizzo Benefit, c/o Sidelines, 11320 Fortune Circle, Suite 14G, Wellington, Florida 33414.
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