Paul and Kilronan at the First Horse Inspection
Paul Tapner is no stranger to Badminton Horse Trials - he has the winner’s trophy from 2010 to prove that! He is back this year to have another crack at the grand prize, this time with 4* debutant Kilronan. Whilst it is the grey' s first attempt at the level, Paul is confident that he is ready and will be competitive.
“There’s an awful lot of very good horses still to come and I certainly hope that my horse is going to be up there amongst them come the end of tomorrow,” he said. Paul wasn’t entirely sure that the judges were as fair as they could be today.
“It seems like the dressage judges are a little grumpy and a little stingy on their scores but I’m hoping that tomorrow afternoon after they’ve had a few wines for lunch, they might be feeling a bit more generous for myself and the rider’s in that last section,” he laughed.
The Australians currently sit on top of the leader board and Paul certainly would love to see himself up amongst them. “We should make it a one, two, three, four shouldn’t we. Or even a five?” Paul may only have one ride at this week’s Horse Trials but he is keeping very busy. This morning he was up at 5.30am recording a cross country course walk for Horse Hub. You can access the walk as dictated by Taperz by visiting or downloading the Horse Hub app.
Paul and Inonothing on their way to a win in 2010 Photo: Mitsubishi Motors/Kit Houghton
Finally Paul will be retiring his 2010 Badminton Champion mount Inonothing on Monday in a farewell parade. “We made the decision quite some time ago that he would need to be retired from the sport,” Paul said. “His body has had enough.”
Inonothing completed numerous 4* events and had a fantastic career in what is a truly tough sport. “It’s great to be able to bring him back here and have an official retirement ceremony where obviously he’s most famous.”
Click here for our full interview with Paul
