Olympic newbie Colleen Loach was first in for the Canadians, and had just one rail with Qorry Blue d’Argouges at a tricky vertical penultimate fence in an oxer-vertical combo that had caused some problems. “He was great, I just should have set up more at that vertical. He felt great; he jumped amazing. Qorry read it really well; if I ever have a rail with him it’s usually the back rail of an oxer. So I just rode the oxer a bit too hard and wasn’t set up right.”

Reflecting on her first Olympic experience, Loach said, “Well, it wasn’t quite as I would have liked it to have gone, but my horse was good and I learned a lot and we’ll be back to fight another day. I think if I had been a little less nervous on cross-country I could have helped my horse out a little better.”

Back in Canada it will be back to business. “Qorry’s going to have a nice long well-deserved break and I have have a little homebred mare I’m going to do some two-star stuff with this fall. Then we’ll see what happens after that.”