Happy Birthday Bill!
Australia's Bill Levett finished fourth in the CIC 3* at Burnham Market International Horse Trials, Norfolk this weekend riding Shannondale Titan, adding only 5.2 cross country time penalties to his dressage score. Bill has been riding the 17.2hh bay gelding by Limmerick since 2010 and describes him as a ‘sensitive soul’. Bill is now hoping for a Spring CCI 3* start for Shannondale Titan, probably at Saumur. The winner of this class was Italy’s Stefano Brecciaroli on his Olympic horse Apollo W D Wendy Kurt Hoeve with Britain’s Piggy French taking second and third spots riding Tinka’s Time and Jakarta. Team medallists Zara Phillips and High Kingdom were 8th (54.7), William Fox-Pitt and Lionheart were 9th (55.0) and New Zealand's Lucy Jackson was10th riding Willy Do
Bill also had a good result on Athleet V in the Intermediate, finishing second behind Oliver Townend.
There was also great action in the CIC** with Kitty King on Persimmon taking first place with 46.1 penalty marks. Caroline Smith came second on her own horse Para Ti (50.8) and Emilie Chandler was third on Coopers Law (51.8). Ludwig Svennerstal of Sweden was fourth with Catania (53.4)
The Advanced class read like a Who’s Who of Eventing with Andrew Nicholson, Mary King, Zara Phillips, Jock Paget and more giving their horses a run. France’s Astier Nicolas riding Paif de Bneville took the top spot with the world number one, Andrew Nicholson in second and third place riding Nereo and Calico Joe.
Course designer Alec Lochore commented: “I was delighted with the quality of the competition at Burnham Market this weekend. It was great to see so many of the Olympic horses we saw at London 2012 having one of their first runs since last summer.”
Click here for full results from Burnham Market
Alec's courses included the SPC Holdings Diamond (fence 24) and EQ Life Sundial sunken road (fence 14) fences – last seen at Greenwich. In this video Nicola Wilson talks about one of the tricky fences on the CIC 3*course this weekend.
