The lovely Lucy Jackson
The sun has finally joined us in Normandy, brightening everything for the second day of eventing dressage and drying the mud. Oliver Townend and Black Tie were the first combination into the dressage arena this morning and they moved straight into the top 10 at that point with a score of 47.2. Oliver is riding as an individual for Britain on the off the track thoroughbred Black Tie; when asked if riding a thoroughbred around the ‘very serious’ cross country would be an advantage (as Zara Phillips thought yesterday), he grinned and said ‘Let’s hope so’. However Oliver didn’t seem totally happy about being drawn to ride his dressage test today
“We didn’t get the draw we needed really as I had him ready for dressage on Thursday, then I couldn’t give him too much work yesterday so he was a bit bright today. He went in there and didn’t make any mistakes and he behaved but he was generally a bit tense and tight so you can’t push all the buttons when they’re like that”
Shortly afterwards New Zealander Lucy Jackson, also riding as an individual, performed a lovely test on Willy Do (above) to score 43.8 to be in 7th place at the lunch break. Lucy and Willy always present a lovely image in the dressage arena and they produced their best 4* score by a long way on their World Championship debut today. Naturally Lucy was delighted especially as her less experienced horse stayed relaxed and responsive in the stadium that many are finding very atmospheric.
Lucy Jackson
Sadly for Australia, Shane Rose’s Taurus was one horse that didn’t settle well in the arena. Watching them warm up outside everything seemed to be going well but, as Shane comments, he just couldn’t get the work that Taurus can produce once they entered the arena. An error of course added to their woes but Shane, obviously disappointed but always the professional, had a quick chat with us afterwards
Shane and Taurus circle the arena just after the French rider Maxime Livio leaves the arena. Maxime received an enthusiastic reception from the home crowd, much to the surprise of his horse Qalao des Mers! (below)
