Wow - what a test from Tim Boland and GV Billy Elliot
It’s not very often you see a sub forty score on dressage day. More often than not the scores hover around the forty mark but today GV Billy Elliot treated the Werribee crowd to a wonderful display of harmony between horse and rider which earned them a cracking score of 35 and put them over six marks ahead of second placed Lauren Balcombe and Kootamootoo on 41.2.
Tim, who is coached by Roger Fitzhardinge, cruised through the test, with flying changes that were hardly detectable because they were so smooth. The counter canter looked easy and the extended trot exploded across the diagonal.
A couple of weeks ago Tim led the dressage at the Equestriad CIC3* on a score of 41.7 but a silly run out on cross country dropped them back down the leaderboard. That mistake will have no doubt made Tim even more determined to hold onto his overnight lead after cross country day.
Second placed Lauren Balcombe and Kootamootoo (pictured above) rode a really good test, looking very smart in her Equiline jacket complete with the boots with bling. Like Tim Lauren didn’t have the best time at Equestriad when she opted to retire on cross country, as Kootamootoo wasn’t feeling right and some tests the following week proved that was the case. “He’s feeling great now,” said Lauren “I’m still a little worried about tomorrow as we go around some of the corners because I hurt my left foot a while ago and only came out of the ‘moon boot’ a week ago. So turning onto some of the fences might be a bit tricky when that foot has to be my outside leg.”
The leader after the morning session of dressage was Craig Barrett (pictured above) who finished the day in third place. “I was pretty pleased,” said Craig. “The judge at C, Martin Plewa, gave me 74% which was great but the marks of the other two (Gill Rolton and Barry Roycroft) left me on 43.6. Tomorrow is another day and things could change quite a lot given the weather conditions.”
Shane Rose and APH Moritz were looking on track to be up in the early forties but a little ‘misunderstanding’ in the rein back saw Moritz get a little too high in the air before they carried on with an otherwise good test. Their score of 47.2 saw them finish in fourth place.
CNC3*
The CNC3* class which was put on specially for the shadow squad riders attracted seven riders. Unlike the CCI horses who had the luxury of riding their tests in the indoor the CNC riders had to face the elements in the outdoor. Given the fact that these riders are aiming for London and given the probability of bad weather in London during the Olympics maybe the selectors wanted to see how the horses would react in cold wet weather!
It has to be said most of the horses didn’t appreciated the rain or the wet sand in the arena hitting up on their tummies and if stunning tests were expected by the crowd they would have been a little disappointed.
The best of the seven tests came from Shane Rose and Taurus (pictured above) who tried to ignore the sloshy sand and produced an accurate obedient test, which scored 43.6. The next five tests were all within 0.5 of each other, starting with Megan Jones on 49.2 and finishing with Emma Mason on 49.7. Megan’s score with Kirby Park Allofasudden would have been better had she not lost two marks with an error of course in the canter movements. Natalie Blundell’s test on Algebra was fine and the little grey horse certainly tried but just couldn’t pull off a stunner of a test, while Emma Scott and Mustang didn’t’ show off the movement that they had at Sydney three day event.
Emma Mason give F1 Pharinelli a pat after her test
Three of the seven riders (Emma Mason, Christine Bates and Shane Rose) will not be running cross country tomorrow while the remaining four will run round a modified 2* course after the CCI2* class has finished.
RACV Farm Insurance CCI*
Adam Benson held onto his lead in the CCI* class and is now sitting just over a mark ahead of Amanda Ross riding Michelle Clough’s and her own eight year old warmblood gelding Loxley. In third place is Chelsea Priestley and Blameitonthebear on 47.7.
Equitak Excel CCIJ*
Naommi White riding Mighty Tosca leads the field in the Equitak Excel CCIJ* on a score of 46.5 with Tamara Campain and Rockingham Tiggeriffic second on 48.8. Jamie Stichel and Image Blue Ice in third place aren't far off the pace on 51 and with just over one stop cross country sepearting the whole field of 20 riders the positions could well change tomorrow.
The rain, which left puddles, was enjoyed by some
All photos by Toni-anne Collins, Equine Images
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For results after dressage CLICK HERE
