Holly Woodhead and DHI Lupison
The British riders threw down the gauntlet today in the first phase of the dressage with five of their lady riders finishing in the top ten
The first of the British team riders, Kitty King on Persimmon set the standard with a score of 36.90 on her 10 year old Persimmon. Kitty is no stranger to Championship events, having become the first person to represent Great Britain at Pony, Junior, Young Rider and Senior level at the European Championships at Blenheim in 2005, making her the perfect trailblazer for the British team. France’s Thibaut Vallette riding Qing du Briot ENE HN just pipped her by 0.10 penalties soon afterwards but it was 21 year old British rider Holly Woodhead, riding as an individual on her chestnut thoroughbred gelding DHI Lupison, who blew the judges away with her relaxed, flowing and supple test to move well into the lead with a score of 31.70
Holly’s father Ian Woodhead is well known as a dressage coach but this week he is busy coaching the Irish team here at Blair so Holly’s mum Heidi, also a dressage trainer, is providing the support from the sidelines but Holly also credits her sister Amy, with whom she trains, for a great result
“I would have been happy with a score in the 40’s but a 31.7 is my best ever score in a 3* and to do it here is great – big pats for the pony I think” said Holly in our interview after her test. Her low score remained at the top of the leader board even after many of the top riders in the world had competed
There were several other Personal Bests within the British camp - Laura Collett was delighted with Grand Manoeuvre’s score of 37.80 that left them in sixth place at the end of the day.
“He tried really hard in there for his best test yet so he’s certainly chosen a good time to do it! He’s been on cracking form and I just feel that he’s been getting better and better so it’s nice that it’s come off at the right time”
Sarah Bullimore and Lily Corinne
Just behind Laura in seventh place is Sarah Bullimore who rode the very expressive Lily Corinne to show some lovely flying changes and lateral work. Sarah was called up at the last moment to replace Dani Evans whose horse Smart Time was not 100% fit so, instead of returning after the horse inspection as expected, Sarah found herself in the dressage arena today.
“She’s very fit as we were working towards competing at Pau so she’s feeling well but our preparation has been a little different to normal” said Sarah “You normally have a pinnacle that you’re working towards and there are those last stepping stones that you have as you work towards it in the last week that are missing. But maybe sometimes we over prepare and actually it’s good just to get in there and do it”
The second British team rider of the day, Nicola Wilson riding One Two Many (above) cemented Kitty’s strong start with a score of 34.60, leaving them in third place at the end of the day. Nicola’s trademark beaming smile said it all as she both started and finished the test and the supportive crowd showed their appreciation with loud applause. This horse, that has had great success this year with wins at Hopetoun and Burgham plus seventh place at Badminton, produced a very accurate test with lovely extensions and a beautiful walk to achieve a PB for Nicola
Nicola Wilson
A very proud mum!
Michael Jung’s mother, one of the owners of his horse fischerTakinou, was riding every stride of the way with her son as she watched their test on the sidelines. The youngest horse in the field at just eight years of age fischerTakinou, a chestnut gelding by Jaguar Mail, was fourth at the World Young Horse Championships at Le Lion and won the CCI3* at Strzegom earlier this year so, although young, is very talented. This talent showed in their dressage test today, scoring 33.50 to move just above Nicola and slot into second place
Michael Jung and fischerTakinou
“It was always the plan to bring this horse here” said Michael “He has a lot of thoroughbred for the cross country and I’m hoping to take Halunke to Pau for the 4*”
And what does he think of Ian Stark’s cross country course?
“Everything at the start of the course is going uphill until Fence7 which is a long way and there are not many tracks where you can really gallop fast. I think that the time is very difficult and there are a lot of interesting fences also towards the end of the course so I think we will have an interesting day on Saturday”
Thibaut Vallette riding Qing du Briot ENE HN
Although the British had a very good start today and lead the teams competition on a score of 71.50, the French are not very far behind in second place on 75.50 thanks to two very good tests by Thibaut Vallette (fourth individually) and Karim Florent Laghouag riding Entebbe de Hus in eighth place. Both riders were extremely pleased with their horses, with Karim saying that he is ‘very happy, it is the best test ever on this horse’. Tomorrow Thomas Carlile and Mathieu Lemoine will be looking to close the gap but Britain will have the big guns out with the super experienced William Fox-Pitt and Pippa Funnell taking up the reins.
Germany is in third place on a score of 76.60 with Michael Jung in second place and Dirk Schrade riding Hop and Skip in 11th then there is then a bit of a gap to Sweden in fourth place on 91.40, Ireland is on 96 and Italy 99 penalty points with the final riders from all teams to go tomorrow but sadly, not Sweden's Ludwig Svennerstal who has chosen to withdraw Franzipan saying
"It's with major disappointment and grief I need to announce that I have made the decision to not continue competing Franzipan here at the European Championship at Blair. She didn't trot up that well yesterday at the trot up and we have spent the day investigating what the problem is without success. We have decided that it is not far on the horse and not in the interest of horse welfare to continue competing. Franzipan will now go home for further investigation to find the problem. I have really been looking forward to this event and the event looks great so it's an indescribable feeling of disappointment to withdraw but the horse welfare always need to come first"
But before tomorrow starts, let's hear from the top three today ...........
