LION'S CLAW (POGROM – UKRAINE II)

A horse of Polish breeding (Karol Skarbek), starting under Capt. Józef Trenkwald contributed to winning the bronze team medal in the eventing competition.
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This is what Leon Kon wrote about Lionclaw's performance during the 1928 Olympic Games Amsterdam (the original language has been retained in the text):

“During the spring "Horse Championship" in Warsaw, he turned out to be a suitable shaft. gn. “Lwi Claw, full-blooded, bred by Count. Skarbka service horse; rtm. Trenkwald, 8th floor, prepared personally by him. The rider and the horse determined their suitability to go to the Olympics based on the result achieved. (…)

As for the professional preparation of the arena, nothing could be faulted.

The judges were placed along the short wall of the quadrangle opposite the entrance, at a distance of several meters from it. This was an improvement compared to 1924. that each judge had a separate table and a secretary, as it has been done in our country for several years. In this way, it was impossible for one judge to influence another. (…)

The test was very slow with large gaps between one rider and the next. (…)
“Lwi Claw” under Capt. Trenkwald performed the work on the arena very nicely and correctly. He lacked presence, especially compared to horses of other nationalities. In this respect, according to the proposal, judges have quite a lot of freedom and 10 points at their disposal, which, after applying the multiplication, significantly change the arithmetic mean of this sample.
Lion's Claw lost several points because of this.

For the steeple, a distance of 4000 m has been set. time standard 6'40”, i.e. pace 600 mtrs. for a minute. (…)

Only two horses achieved the maximum time: "Donese" under Lt. Col. Rómmlem and "Flucht" gray class, German Lt. Zipperf. Therefore, individually in the steepleu ex-aequo, first place belonged to these two riders.

"Lionclaw" made up 33 seconds. and received 508 points; “Moja Miła” made up for 45 seconds, so she was awarded 514 points. (…)

The cross-country distance was 8 mtrs, the standard time was 000'17″ at a pace of 46 mtrs. for a minute. For making up every 450 seconds. (in the previous Olympiad, for making up for every 10 seconds) 5 points were added without using a multiplier (35). Covering the entire distance faster than 2'13", i.e. at a pace of 16 mtrs. per minute was out of the question. In this way, the maximum number of points a rider could obtain was 600 points.

Rtm. Trenkwald on the "Lion's Claw", misled by the flags hidden by the spectators, confused the parcours by heading in a different direction than he should have. The mistake noticed by the rider almost immediately was immediately corrected. However, turning the horse around and starting the race from the place where the mistake occurred resulted in the time being exceeded by 45 seconds. time standards, so he was given a multiplier of 157.5 penalty points for cross country, i.e. after deducting this number, he received 542.5 bonus points. (…)”

Author: Leon Kon
“Amsterdam – Hilversum” (1928) – Leon Kon

Below you will find links to related materials in the Polish Digital Equestrian Library.