As cross country day dawned at Rolex, the two days of dressage were marked by very stiff judging. Only one rider broke 40 penalties and that was Allison Springer on Arthur for a 39.5. More than 4 points behind her were the next 20 riders with less than 10 points separating them. Cross Country was very influential for the riders, as the course was very difficult with many tough accuracy questions.

It was down to the last fence on the show jumping round at Rolex to determine the winner. Lauren Kieffer delivered a flawless clean round to put the pressure on William Fox Pitt who could not afford a single fence down. Despite the pressure, William kept his cool and left all the poles up to seal the win. Clean rounds were hard to come by on Richard Jeffries very technical course. Riders had to keep their concentration in the myriad of related lines and mistakes happened throughout the course. There were several US riders who delivered faultless rounds and the US team won the team competition and shows great promise for the program in the next Olympic cycle.  The weather was perfect, the horses amazing and the competition was exciting!

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