The weather is set to improve in the few next days at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, but the first day of dressage was a bit cool with occasional heavy showers.
The leader at the lunch break, William Fox-Pitt riding Catherine Witt’s 13-year-old gelding Seacookie, had to ride during a heavy shower which Seacookie found a little annoying. William rode a very tactful test with some lovely extended work but you could see poor Seacookie ducking down a bit to try and avoid the rain in his ears and eyes! However, William looked very happy as he left the arena and stayed in the lead on a score of 46.5 until his compatriot Ruth Edge overtook him later in the morning riding Rogersdale (pictured below) on a score of 45.5.
Ruth is well known for her dressage expertise and Roger didn’t disappoint his rider. According to Ruth, the 10-year-old gelding by Welton Ambassador is “ ...a very kind horse, genuine and generous who doesn’t get very lit up by the atmosphere. He got a little tired towards the end of the test today so muddled up the changes a bit, but with maturity that will improve.”
Ruth will give Roger a quick jump tomorrow in preparation for the cross country on Saturday which, despite his inexperience at this level, she is looking forward to, saying, “Roger is an easy horse to turn who looks for his jumps. He’s had a great time today and it seems that he loves being at Burghley.”
Australian Bill Levett was the last rider in the arena before lunch and performed a good test on Hippolyte (pictured above) to score 49.8 and put him in 8th place overall. There were a few hiccups in the changes and a glitch at the end of the medium walk which brought the score down slightly, but there was also some very good work such as a very good extended canter and consistent 7’s and a sprinkling of 8’s throughout. We caught up with Bill afterwards and he was slightly disappointed (maybe it’s not fair to interview riders straight after their test as they always seem to be more critical of it immediately afterwards!) but he is certainly in a good position at the end of the first day of dressage.
Bronze medal-winning New Zealand Olympic team member Jonathan (Jock) Paget was on soon after lunch (a very civilised break of well over an hour allowing for a decent nibble). Jock’s horse Clifton Lush, a New Zealand thoroughbred that was fifth here last year and won the CIC 3* at Barbury Castle this year, showed some lovely paces and movements to score 46.2, nudging William Fox-Pitt into third place. Someone may need to buy Jock a new top hat for his next event however; as he smartly saluted the judge during his final halt, Jock lifted his top hat but his inner browband remained on his head, giving him the impression of having a bandage on his head! Luckily he is so handsome it doesn't matter.
Now where did that come from???
When asked if the Burghley course looked familiar, William Fox-Pitt didn’t hesitate in saying that the only similarity to the Greenwich course are the three fences (‘The Olympic Games Horses’, ‘The Planet’ and ‘The Sundials’) being incorporated into this event. William also mentioned that, due to quarantine restrictions and lack of exercise facilities in quarantine, it is unlikely at this stage that he will bring his horse, Navigator, over to compete at the Australian International Three Day Event but he will still definitely be visiting Australia in November.
As we were leaving, the sun came out and hopefully our four Australian riders competing tomorrow will enjoy some better weather. The dressage recommences at 9:30am and Megan Jones (Kirby Park Allofasudden) is the first Aussie on at 10am, Clayton Fredericks (Waltersdown Don) at 10:15am then Paul Tapner (Inonothing) at 1.02pm and Sam Griffiths (Happy Times) at 2:52pm. With many other top combinations from around the world competing tomorrow it is going to be a great day of eventing dressage and we’ll be catching up with more of the riders and checking out the course (plus of course a bit of shopping!).
It's not just action in the main arena; in Ring Two today the Burghley Pony Club Team Jumping took place while tomorrow sees the Dubarry Burghley Young Event Horse
Sadly no-one asked a question of Ruth Edge's dog at the press conference as I'm sure he would have had a few pithy comments
For today's photo gallery CLICK HERE.
To view videos from today's dressage visit Burghley TV.
