International show jumping competition gallops into Las Vegas

Kimberley McGee

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.

What: Budweiser Show Jumping World Cup 2000.

Where: Thomas & Mack Center.

When: 6:45 p.m. today; 3 p.m. Saturday; 11:45 a.m. Sunday.

Cost: Friday: $60 (plaza) and $40 (balcony); Saturday, $45; Sunday, $50.

Information: Call 260-8605.

It's been held in cities with romantic names such as Paris, Vienna, Helsinki and Geneva.

And now the prestigious, mainly European equestrian event has made the move to the Entertainment Capital of the World.

The Budweiser Show Jumping World Cup 2000, which has been held in the United States only three times in its 22 years of competition, made its Las Vegas debut this week at the Thomas & Mack Center, and continues through Sunday.

Getting there

"If this is successful -- and we expect it to be -- the intent is that every other year would be here in Las Vegas," said John Quirk, an avid horseman and member of the Las Vegas Events organizing committee.

The highly regarded show has nearly sold out with tourists from more than 26 countries booking tickets in advance. Quirk first approached the LVE in 1995 about hosting the horse show.

"It's a match," he said, because riders can sow some wild oats and Las Vegans can feast their eyes on a world-class stable of champion horses.

The sport is a pleasure to watch and a challenge to compete in, Quirk said.

"It's a combination of beauty and glamour with ... slam-bang action," Quirk said. "It's a true contact sport, but it has an artistry about it that you don't see in other sports."

The rider with the best time through the obstacle courses today and Sunday and with the least faults overall wins the coveted cup. Time is added for any faults such as knocking planks or bricks from obstacles as they ride through the course.

The sport of champions

The unpredictability of the horse and the unique skill of each rider brings a certain magical quality to the sport when a rider perfectly completes a course. Quirk said.

Sometimes the horse and rider work together symbiotically, and sometimes they don't.

"The horse is a big part of the equation -- it's 50 percent horse and 50 percent rider that makes the winner," he said.

The skills of the 42 riders from 13 leagues around the world are formidable. Many of the riders have competed against each other over the years in the Olympics.

U.S. riders have won seven of the past 21 World Cup finals, more than any other country. The United States Equestrian Team has competed in every finals competition since the show's 1979 inception and dominated the event in the early '80s.

Each competition is a matter of navigating courses and jumping the fences. There are as many as 16 obstacles and jumps in the ring. Jumps are as high as 1.60 meters, or about five-foot-three-inches tall.

"The suspense is always there -- you can think the horse is a sure winner and all of a sudden he knocks three fences down and he goes from first to fifth," Quirk said.

Riders can slip, make a small error in judgment or miss a beat and throw the horse slightly off the course, which can result in the loss of valuable seconds.

All eyes are on Brazilian two-time consecutive cup winner Rodrigo Pessoa. If he wins the cup it will be the first three-time coup in the history of the World Cup. Pessoa is also a two-time Olympian and has won 12 other competitions worldwide.

Ian "Canadian Captain" Millar and three-time Olympian John Whitaker of Great Britain will both compete with Pessoa for their third cup win. Two U.S. competitors, Richard Spooner of Burbank, Calif., and Leslie Howard of Westport, Conn., are also strong contenders to give Pessoa a run for the cup.

In the saddle

Margie Goldstein-Engle is an eight-time finals rider from Wellington, Fla., and has found the sport of horse jumping a thrill since she first rode at the impressionable age of 9.

"I've always loved horses, I've always loved animals and sports and it seemed like a great combination of the two," she said.

Goldstein-Engle mucked stalls, cleaned the stable and groomed the horses, "Anything I could to earn extra rides."

The sport of show jumping was challenging to the athletic youngster.

"It's probably one of the most humbling sports I've ever done because on any given day you may have a bad day and not know why," Goldstein-Engle said. "The horses keep you humble because they can't communicate if they are having a bad day."

What people are feeling that day -- if they are in a bad mood or nervous -- is sensed by the horse, she said. If a person is confident, it helps the horse to feel confident. A good rider will also know if the horse is having a bad day or is nervous about something and move to calm the horse and bring it into focus.

"There are a lot of little things that (horses) show us which are very obvious, such as pin their ears back, stick their heads up, that sort of thing," Goldstein-Engle.

Riders speak to horses -- not in whispers but through subtle body language.

"You have to learn to use body language and develop a horse sense so you know what to do," Goldstein-Engle said. "There's a lot more that goes into it behind the scenes that people don't see to get a horse ridable."

Working with the different personalities of each horse makes it interesting, she said.

"It's not like working with a tennis racket or a baseball bat or some inanimate object," Goldstein-Engle said. "You are working with a living, breathing, feeling animal and a very large animal -- if they don't want to do something, well, then they just don't have to."

It takes years, Goldstein-Engle said, to teach a horse how to approach a fence, to jump correctly and quickly without knocking anything down, and how to use different maneuvers to cut back on time for different courses.

"It's quite a challenge to keep them interested in what they are doing and teaching them the right steps along the way," she said. "It's really exhilarating to have those large animals jump over those fences."

It's also very rewarding, Goldstein-Engle said, when a horse trusts its rider and rises through the ranks to become a champion.

"You form a real bond with the horse," she said. "It's a real partnership."

Just like people, horses need to have passports and shots to travel the the globe for various competitions. There are very few horses that can do this on this level in the world, Goldstein-Engle said.

"This is one sport where you can be on top one day and at the bottom the next," she added. "It's anyone's game."

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