Consider this your highlights reel from Day One of Eventing dressage in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Now let’s hope no one gets shot.

Jessica Phoenix draws first in the order, scores career best.

After the rocky path that was Jessica Phoenix’s road to Rio, the Canadian eventer had the unfortunate luck of drawing first in the Order of Go. Now, normal people might think, “REALLY, RIO? After all that, now I have to go first in the ring, too?!”

Not Phoenix.

Her response to being lead-off off rider:

“What an honor! Oh my gosh, opening up the Rio 201 Olympic Games was a huge honor for A Little Romance and I.”

Suffice it to say, that kind of relentless optimism is exactly why she’s at the Rio Games in the first place. It’s also how she scored a career best today.

“I couldn’t be happier with A Little Romance,” said Phoenix. “It was her personal best and my personal best at an Olympics, so just extremely proud of what she did in the ring today. She relaxed. She enjoyed every minute of it. It was just a lot of fun.”

Canada, it’s worth noting, fielded the only all-female eventing team at the Games. #GirlPower.

William Fox-Pitt takes the overnight lead.

Speaking of rocky roads to the Olympics, no one has had a more meteoric rise from the ashes than Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt. From a week-long coma due to a traumatic brain injury in October 2015 to his return to the show ring this past April, the pride of Great Britain has had an uphill climb to Rio. Complete with blurred vision, memory problems, and a litany of expert help.

Looks like all that rehab paid off. Fox-Pitt’s near-foot-perfect test aboard Chilli Morning shot him to the top of the leaderboard with a score of 37.00.

“Of course it was I was dreaming of. He was good on the flat. He’s worked brilliantly with Tracy Robinson during the build up this year. He’s capable of a good test. He had a good test at WEG. He had a good test at Malmö. He’s done lots of good tests, so I just didn’t want to let him down,” said Pitt.

“Today, he felt lovely. Of course there are lots of good horses to come, so what’s to come will come, but it’s a good start and I hope I don’t let him down. We’ve got our work cut out.”

Team USA’s medal hopes are looking bleak.

Boyd Martin started the Americans off with a respectable 47.70 on the team’s greenest horse. It’s right about where the nine-year-old gelding, Blackfoot Mystery, should be, said the Pan American team gold medalist.

“I was pleased with him. You always dream about doing an unbelievable score, but it’s about where he is. He’s still a green horse at this level and he wouldn’t be the biggest mover here, but he didn’t make any huge mistakes. I could have done a couple points better, but it wasn’t disastrous,” said Martin.

“I don’t think I got any 4s or 5s, which is good.”

The team’s medal hopes veered off course when Clark Montgomery took to the 20×60 and scored a disappointing 46.60.

“He started out really well and I don’t know what really happened. He really sucked behind my leg, where he constantly wanted to walk or stop. But I squeezed every point I could of him,” said Montgomery.

“He hasn’t been out of the 30’s since I don’t know when, so leave it the Olympics for him to do it, but that’s horses and that’s sport so it is what it is.”

While it wasn’t the round he was hoping for in his Olympic debut, Montgomery wins #quoteoftheday. When asked if the audible gasp from the crowd when his horse broke in the extended trot played into his performance, he replied:

“That had nothing to do with anything. They should have clucked!”

https://twitter.com/hclandry/status/762033907961303041

Chris Burton scored the only other 30 of the day.

Australia’s Christopher Burton and Santano II slid into the second spot overnight on a score of 37.60. He credits his “lovely horse” for their stellar performance:

“He makes my job really easy, that lovely horse. I was nervous as I rode down from the warm up, and I was like ‘Come on, Chris. If ever you get a chance enjoy yourself, it’s on this horse in this arena at the Olympics. Just have fun.’”

But, as always in dressage said Burton, “there can be things better” in the test:

“Cat’s out of the bag, the horse doesn’t have a good walk,” said the world #2. “We’ve done a lot to work on it. But sadly, today, he went lateral and the judges marked it accordingly and that’s fine. As long as they recognize the trot with high marks it’s fine.”

In other news, a stray bullet shot through the media tent.

But that deserves it’s own post entirely. Stay tuned.