Ian Millar finds motivation in Pan Am 'miracle' medal
Toronto 2015 has 'best equestrian facilities' ever, says Millar
Of his nine Pan American Games medals, Ian Millar's most treasured is the gold he won on home soil.
The veteran Canadian show jumper was 10th heading into the final day of competition at Red River Exhibition Park in Winnipeg in 1999.
"So at the end of the first round (of the final), don't you know I'm fifth," recalled Millar. "I go back and jump clean in the second round, (but) I'm thinking 'it would take a miracle to get a medal.'
"I stood there and watched the other four (riders) disintegrate and won the individual gold with this horse called Ivar, which is actually a horse that my son chose and loaned to me for those Games."
The 68-year-old from Perth, Ont., holds the record for the most Olympic appearances with 10, but his Pan Am history is also storied and deep.
Millar won both individual and team gold aboard Big Ben in 1987 in Indianapolis, where "it was seriously hot."
"Big Ben had what we call a stone bruise, an abscess in his foot, which he fought bravely through and ended up winning the gold," Millar said. "You really appreciate it when a horse does that."
Millar was chosen Canada's flag-bearer for the closing ceremonies in Winnipeg. The man who has earned more Pan Am medals than any other show jumper knows what it is to compete and win in front of a home crowd.
"There's nothing better," Millar said. "The athletes describe it as home-court advantage. The point is we get that little bit more pumped up when we're doing it at home."
Show jumping at the 2015 Pan Am Games runs July 21-25 at Caledon Equestrian Park northwest of Toronto. More than medals are on the line for Millar and teammates Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, Ont., Tiffany Foster of North Vancouver, B.C., and Yann Candele of Caledon.
Those four riders made up the Canadian team that finished eighth at last year's World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. They needed top five to qualify a full team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The top two countries at the Pan Ams — excluding host Brazil and the already-qualified U.S. — get express tickets to Rio.
"Our result is very important for that," Millar said. "The South American countries have been really upgrading their horsepower and their riding skills. They are a serious threat. This is going to be a very formidable challenge in Toronto."
Advised TO2015 organizers on venue
Millar was a Toronto organizing committee equestrian consultant for the $11.7-million renovation at the Caledon Equestrian Park. He's bullish on the venue on two fronts.
"I would tell you it will be the best equestrian facilities in the history of the Pan American Games," Millar said. "More importantly, or just as importantly, is the legacy it's going to leave for the entire sport going forward.
"We're going to have indoor facilities for us now. The only place in the whole of Ontario to have an indoor competition is at the CNE grounds in Toronto. We'll be able to have those high-end indoor competitions at the Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park."
Big Ben was the second horse to be inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 after thoroughbred Northern Dancer.
Millar had retired the 18-year-old chestnut gelding from competition in 1994. A few months after Millar won that Pan Am gold with Ivar in Winnipeg, Big Ben died of colic at Millar Brooke Farm.
There will be a little of Big Ben in the ring with Millar in Caledon.
Millar's top mount Dixson is related to Big Ben on the maternal line "which is really odd," said Millar. "I didn't know that when I went to see him."
The 12-year-old bay is owned by Sue and Ariel Grange of Lothlorien Farm near Caledon.
Dixson and Millar posted three clean rounds, including a jump-off against 20-year-old American Reed Kessler aboard Cylana, to claim last September's CP International at Calgary's Spruce Meadows. That event is one of the riches in the sport with $1.5 million in prize money.