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August 25, 2004 3:15 pm

McDonald just short of equestrian bronze

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

MARKOPOULO, Greece - Think of dressage at the Summer Olympics as a kind of pairs figure skating, only with horse and rider.

Then ask former show jumping rider Debbie McDonald what she was doing Wednesday, two days before turning 50, one of the oldest athletes in the Olympics, competing in dressage in the Individual Grand Prix Freestyle.

Short answer: McDonald, from Hailey, Idaho, was putting together a fourth-place finish aboard Brentina, her trusty mare. And she was marking a 15-year transition from one equestrian form to another.

Riding to a medley of Gershwin hits, she missed out on the individual bronze medal in dressage by roughly 1 percentage point.

Riders and horses faced a stiff wind swirling across the plains of Attica at Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Center.

The freestyle competition is a ballet on horseback with programs choreographed to snatches of music chosen by each rider. The rider is required to perform moves demonstrating control of the horse, and judges award points.

The wind was nothing new for the riders. They've adapted during this Olympics. And last weekend, McDonald and Brentina helped the U.S. to bronze in team dressage.

As the individual competition concluded, McDonald had a combined score of 75.653 percent.

The Netherlands' Anka van Grunsven, the defending gold medalist, won on a new mount, Salinero, with a 79.278. Germany's Ulle Salzgeber, the world's No. 1-ranked rider, rode Rusty to the silver medal (78.833), and Spain's Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, riding Beauvalais, took the bronze (76.667).

``My body wasn't working with my brain. That happens,'' McDonald said after sending Brentina to the stables. ``I came, I lived the Olympic experience. I'm going home with a bronze, and it's OK.''

American Robert Dover of Lebanon, N.J., and his mount Kennedy finished sixth (74.713).

``It's a shame my horse became a bit nervous in the beginning. Something bothered him at the back of the stadium. Then he lost concentration for awhile,'' said Dover.

For McDonald, the journey to Athens as a first-time Olympian was a milestone along a 15-year comeback trail. She switched events in her sport after she lost her nerve following a riding accident.

A horse fell on her, cracking her ribs, injuring her spleen and herniating a disk in her neck.

Going from show jumping to dressage as McDonald did is a little like moving from speed skating to figure skating.

McDonald was asked if she ever misses show jumping, particularly after watching the U.S. team into the wee hours Wednesday as they beat Sweden in a tense jump-off to claim team silver.

``Parts of it, yes, when you see a competition like last night's. I was very excited for the U.S. team,'' she said.

McDonald, who made U.S. equestrian history as the first American to win the Dressage World Cup in 2003, said she'll celebrate her birthday in London with her husband, Robert; son, Ryan; and Brentina's owners, Peggy and Parry Thomas.

Brentina was nicknamed Mama by McDonald because that's what the 13-year-old Hanoverian mare has waiting for her at some point in her future.

``For now she gets some well-deserved time off,'' said McDonald. ``I told her she's going to a green pasture in Idaho definitely until spring.''

Dover, meanwhile, was feeding Kennedy carrots and sugar as his reward late Wednesday afternoon.

As for the rider's reward, he's off for a few days in the Greek Isles. ``I'm going to lay on a beach, then go to Paris and see Madonna,'' Dover said.

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