Tim Boland and GV Billy Elliot
Tim Boland and GV Billy Elliot are always a treat to watch in the dressage phase and, although his visiting friend Oliver Townend gave Tim a run for his money, Tim came out on top of the dressage phase with a score of 44.30 to Oliver and Napoleon’s score of 44.9
GV Billy Elliot has not been long out of quarantine following a summer in Europe, which is why he is not entered in the CCI4*and Tim thought that it wasn’t their best test but still pretty good although Billy was a little naughty in the warm up, maybe an indication of problems to come later in the day
Tim Boland
Oliver Townend and Napoleon
The second placed rider after dressage, Oliver Townend was definitely a crowd favourite, receiving a big round of applause from the spectators as he finished. Tim, the owner and usual rider of Napoleon, commented ‘this should be a nice test’ as Oliver warmed up and he was right; despite only having ridden the 11 year old warmblood four times before today, they produced a lovely test with Oliver commenting that the horse is ‘a professional, he just lifted as we went into the arena’ (Listen to our full interview with Oliver after the dressage here)
Sam Felton and Ricker Ridge Pico Boo
In third place after the dressage was another visiting international, the 25 year old Samantha Felton from New Zealand on her 12 year old warmblood x Ricker Ridge Pico Boo. They were the first combination into the arena today and set the standard with a score of 49.20 and it wasn’t until Tim and Oliver entered the arena that other sub-50 scores hit the screen. We talked to Sam about her time so far in Australia and how her tests went today
Yesterday Shenae Lowings finished in third place in the CCI2* riding Venture Sky High and today she was fourth on Ballyhoo after the dressage with a score of 50.40 while Deon Stokes, who also rides high level dressage, and Crime Time were in fifth place on 51.50
Deon, who has made the move from Western Australia to be based in NSW due to the competition requirements of his eventing and dressage career, also rode in the CCI2* and we had a chat with him afterwards about how difficult it is to be a Grand Prix level dressage rider that has to ride eventing dressage too!
Megan Jones rounded out the top six of the CIC3* after dressage but it had been quite a dramatic start to the event for the local Olympian who is riding two horses in this class
Another Olympic medallist who has flown home for her ‘local’ event is Wendy Schaeffer who is riding Sun Showers and has not had the easiest lead-up to the event with most of her fittening work being done in the sea!
The only double clear round came from Oliver and Napoleon
Later in the day the CIC3* riders came back into the big arena in front of the Grandstand for their jumping phase and there were a few changes on the leader board. Only one rider produced a double clear show jumping round and it was Britain’s Oliver Townend who took the lead on Napoleon to head into the cross country tomorrow on a score of 44.90.
While Tim Boland has the satisfaction of having one of his horses in the lead, it was probably not the one he was expecting; in the lead after the dressage on GV Billy Elliott, Tim ended up being eliminated in the show jumping this afternoon when Billy clearly was not happy and threw in the towel during the round, a most uncharacteristic and unexpected end to their 3* here
Megan Jones and Kirby Park Impress have the local knowledge
Other suffered from having multiple rails down with poor Shenae Lowings enduring a horror round on Ballyhoo, dropping 11 fences for a cricket score of 51 penalties. Only two other riders jumped clear but did add time penalties; Megan Jones moved from sixth to third on Kirby Park Impress (55.10) with just one time penalty and James Lang, a former show jumper, moved from 19th to 11th with just three time penalties (77).
New Zealand’s Sam Felton is now in second place on Ricker Ridge Pico Boo with just four penalties leaving them on a score of 53.20 but she will have to be quick to catch Mr Townend who has 8.3 penalties in hand. This course is an unknown quantity to both Oliver and Sam while Megan Jones has the home advantage and knows this terrain well but only time will tell if Oliver Townend can continue his CIC3* dominance here in Australia ...
