Shane and Virgil looking good at the last fence - you would never know what just happened
In the middle of the night the weather at Le Pin au Haras decided to change and the rain came down accompanied by thunder and lightning. Fortunately by the morning the rain had cleared, leaving a cool, overcast day – perfect jumping and cross country weather although a bit chilly for the spectators first thing in the morning.
The day started at 8am with the CIC 3* show jumping in the grass arena near the Trade Village. As this is also basically the location for the start of the cross country course and the CIC 1* was due to start at 11am, there was a need to get through the 3* show jumping on time. However the French are speedy in their show jumping arena management with one rider jumping, one circling inside the arena and one waiting outside the arena. There are pretty much always two riders in the arena at any one time, much to the astonishment of two English ladies who were sitting next to me.
Mark Todd and Leonidas II
Here I must admit that I was very remiss in not seeing the first few riders including Mark Todd on Oloa and Australia’s Alex Townsend on Parodie. The 12 year old Oloa is a new horse for Mark, who is looking to re-build his string of horses and has been looking for more potential 4* horses. Oloa was previously ridden by William Fox-Pitt and Emma Humphrey but Mark took on the horse in time to compete him at Barbury and Gatcombe Park recently.
“We’re still getting to know each other” he says, but is still aiming the horse at Burghley next month. Part owners of Oloa, Peter Cattrell and Di Brunsden, are also the owners of Leonidas II, also competing here, and had Major Milestone, who is now retired, with Mark for many years. Along with their dog Murphy they are spending a weekend in France watching their horses but Oloa let them down a bit today, dropping four rails in the show jumping. No doubt there is better to come in the near future
Long time owners with Mark Todd, Peter Cattrell, Di Brunsden and Murphy
Alex’s horse Parodie was sadly eliminated in the show jumping and it certainly didn’t seem like it was Australia’s day when Shane Rose and Virgil had a near miss on course, resulting in eight faults. The impressive looking Virgil, immaculately turned out as always by super groom and AEL blogger, Michelle Robson, jumped the first part and the end of the course beautifully but a slight miscommunication in the middle saw Shane nearly jumped out of the saddle, much to the concern of the French commentator who declared it the ‘scoop’ photo of the day and was most concerned about any indelicate injury Shane may have sustained. Shane was fine, if a bit frustrated by his luck this week, and the limited number of clear rounds meant that he only dropped three places
Sebastien Cavaillon and Only One du Reverdy - leader going into the cross country phase
Alex too had eight faults riding Bendigo putting her in ninth place (53.4) and the overnight leader, Mark riding Leonidas II, had one rail and one time fault (45.2), dropping him just behind France’s Sebastien Cavaillon riding Only One du Reverdy (44.6) who had one of only eleven clear rounds out of the 55 starters.
Canada’s Rebecca Howard moved up from 10th to third (47.9) with another clear round and the biggest move of the day was French rider Christophe Guillemet on Mach de la Barre, moving from 18th to fifth (51.0) with a clear round, behind his countryman Maxime Livio on Cathar de Gamel. Maxime was the last rider to go in the dressage yesterday and, due to a slight hiccup in finalising results, his third place after dressage was not listed in the results until late last night.
Alex and Bendigo
As both Shane and Mark commented yesterday, there are some real questions out on the 3* cross country course tomorrow so it will be very interesting to see the changes in the leader board after the final phase (which will run in drawn order and not reverse placings)
Meanwhile today, following the CIC 3* show jumping the CIC 1* riders set out on course to great fanfare. These guys certainly know how to get a crowd (even a reasonably small one) razzed up with a bit of music and an enthusiastic commentator; speaking of which, a highlight of this event is the excellent commentary in both French and English.
Arthur Bonneau and Beauty Boy
138 riders started out on Pierre Le Goupil’s 2,720m course consisting of 20 fences and 28 jumping efforts to be completed in 5m 02secs. Although this cross country class occupied most of the afternoon, it took only until 1:18pm to know who had won the CIC 1* when French rider Arthur Bonneau and Beauty Boy, the overnight leaders came home clear and one second under time to finish on their dressage score of 37.5.
Even a winner has to carry his saddle home!
Thomas Carlile and the talented young stallion Tenareze
Only 0.6 penalties behind him was another up and coming French rider, Thomas Carlile who also finished on his dressage score (38.1) and was very happy with the six year old stallion, Tenareze by Jaguar Mail in his first 1* start. We spoke to him afterwards (and yes, he speaks very good English as you'll find out).
Interview with Thomas Carlile
French riders dominated this class with Maxime Livio taking third, fourth and sixth and Sebastien Cavaillon in fifth place. David Doel was the highest placed British rider in 16th place on Jiggle Jones and Jonelle Richards, the only Kiwi rider in this class, enjoyed a steady ride on the promising young horse Cloud Dancer to finish in 32nd
Jonelle Richards and Cloud Dancer
But wait – there’s more! After 5 ½ hours of CIC 1* cross country, the ponies were yet to come and the CCIP1* started at 5pm. We’ll bring you more about that in tomorrow’s article and no doubt Libby will have some flying ponies in tonight’s photo gallery
