The weather gods smiled on the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials today with mild, sunny weather perfect for a cross country day which turned out to have some unusual twists. Towards the end of the day rain threatened and darkening cloud formations swirled over Burghley House making for an impressive backdrop but, with the Kiwi domination of the day, they really should have been long white clouds.
“There are seven New Zealand riders in the top ten” said course designer Captain Mark Phillip, when asked about course statistics “But I’m not quite sure how that happened”
Of course they have numbers in their favour – 11 of the 65 starters today were riding for New Zealand which is a high ratio but there were 33 British riders and only two finished in the top ten ; William Fox-Pitt on Parklane Hawk and Nicola Wilson on Opposition Buzz.
Jonelle flies under The Lion Bridge on Flintstar
Maybe the main reason is that they have Andrew Nicholson and Jock Paget riding for them and between them today they cleaned up. Jock currently leads riding his Badminton winner Clifton Promise (37.1) and is second riding Clifton Lush (42), Andrew is in third place on last year’s winner Avebury (42.3), fifth on Nereo (43.3) and eighth on Calico Joe (48.3) while Olympic team mate Jonelle Richards is in sixth place on The Deputy (47.4) and Mark Todd on his new ride Oloa is in tenth place (55.5).
Jock and Andrew produced the only rounds under the optimum time – Jock on Clifton Lush and Andrew on Avebury and Calico Joe while Jonelle was pretty fast too adding only 1.2 time faults. We spoke to Jonelle after her first round on Flintstar, one of the first combinations on course
Interview with Jonelle Richards (who turned out to be one of the speed demons she mentions)
Looking at Jock’s domination of the leader board, it’s hard to believe that it was not all smooth sailing today. In what must be a first in eventing, he was stopped on course both times to have his horses checked – Clifton Lush for a bloody nose and Clifton Promise for blood in his mouth.
Jock and Clifton Lush
Here Jock explains what happened
Certainly looking smooth at the Cottesmore Leap - Paul and KIlronan
The Australian riders maybe didn’t dominate to such an extent as the Kiwis but Paul Tapner, Sam Griffiths and Kevin McNab still had good rides although Paul and Kilronan picked up 20 jumping penalties as well as time faults. Afterwards Paul ruefully explained that they were having a smooth ride until he smoothly bypassed the Dairy Mound! They finished the day in 33rd place on a score of 83.1
Paul Tapner talks about Kilronan’s first run at Burghley
Kevin and Clifton Pinot
Kevin McNab had a good first ride around the Burghley course, picking up ten time penalties and taking a longer route through the difficult Land Rover Dairy Mound but he was still quite rightly pleased with his ride on Clifton Pinot, another of Francis Stead’s now famous Clifton horses (rumour has it that Frances asked the bookie for odds on her three horses finishing first, second and third but was politely refused). They finished the day in 16th place on a score of 58.7
Kevin McNab after his cross country round
Sam and Paulank Brockagh
Sam Griffiths had two rides today – the young mare Paulank Brockagh was the first cab off the rank this morning and the very experienced Happy Times, who finished third here in 2009 went later this afternoon. Despite his many years in top eventing, Sam admitted to some nerves before he set off today but both horses came home looking fit and well, hopefully ready for tomorrow with Happy Times in 12th place (57.5) and Paulank Brockagh in 19th (63.1)
Sam Griffiths talks about his rides today
Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for everyone. Young British rider Tom McEwan certainly deserves the ‘stunt of the day’ award for his attempt to stay on Dry Old Party after being unseated over the Planet fence at the very influential Discovery Valley. Tom landed behind the saddle, bumped along for a few strides until Dry Old Party decided to object to his rider’s strange position and threw in a buck. Dislodged but still hanging onto his horse’s neck, Tom gamely continued to keep his feet off the ground but it was to no avail although it certainly provided great entertainment. He eventually hit the deck and was eliminated.
William Fox-Pitt had a great round on 2011 winner Parklane Hawk but he didn’t have the best ride on Neuf des Coeurs whose heart just didn’t seem to be in it today and William opted to retire him at Fence 20. However Parklane Hawk and William are in fifth place, on the same score as Andrew’s fourth place, but a frustrating 0.8 time penalties have put him just below Andrew and Avebury.
Britain's Nicola Wilson and the great Opposition Buzz are in 9th place
Another British favourite Piggy French didn’t have a great day riding Westwood Mariner when she fell and was eliminated at the Discovery Valley. This complex was easily the most influential of the day with thirteen riders picking up penalties, retiring or being eliminated here. The new Rolex Combination on the other hand seemed to ride beautifully and caused no problems.
British hearts were gladdened by Pippa Funnell’s round on Redesigned. The combination have had a few problems recently and Pippa said that she hasn’t been able to gallop the horse as much as she would have liked in the lead up to the event but her round has given her lots of confidence for the future. They go into the show jumping phase in 13th place, just in front of another British favourite, Tina Cook on De Novo News
Germany lost another good rider today with Andreas Dibowski retiring FRH Butts Leon on course but the reason why is still not clear as he seemed to be going well. However, Ingrid Klimke survived some sticky moments to finish in seventh place on 48.2.
As always, the main focus of the day is on the leaders and superstars but there are also some riders here who are just plainly, and quite rightly, delighted with the achievement of getting around the huge course. Two riders that exemplified that today were 49 year old amateur rider Joy Dawes riding Harbour Pilot C and Louise (Wiggy) Harwood.
Joy Dawes is greeted by her friends after completing her round
Louise’s horse, Mr. Potts, also has a very strong Australian connection, being named after the Australian team vet Graham Potts. Louise explained that the birth of Mr. Potts (the four legged one) was a difficult one and required veterinary intervention by the local equine vet (guess who?) In recognition of the part he played in the foal’s survival, the young horse was named Mr. Potts. As we chatted to a very happy Louise, Graham was looking after his namesake in the background and obviously still taking great interest in the foal he delivered 11 years ago.
Louise Harwood was delighted with the 4-legged Mr.Potts
As well as his interest in Joy’s Louise’s horse, Graham is part of the support team for the Australian riders here at Burghley. We had a quick chat with Sports Performance Coach Jon Pitts who is the Technical Analyst for the Australian High Performance Programme about what support was available for the elite Aussie riders competing here
Jon Pitts talks to Debbie Higgs
As always, the final show jumping day will unfold in front of packed stands and there is already talk of Jock Paget and the Rolex Grand Slam. But let’s not jump the gun – after all, no-one would have predicted today’s twists and, although they didn’t affect the outcome, who knows what tomorrow will bring? That’s part of the fun of eventing……………along with Press Conferences
Cross country rounds on BurghleyTV
