Many thanks to Rachel Watts, Chris Burton's groom for letting us take a peek into the real life at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. Not only does she do an amazing job looking after Chris' horses but is also so organised that she has managed to send a report and photos every day!
Here is her final day report which ended on a high note (literally) for Australia and congratulations to Imogen Mercer, Sam Griffiths' groom who received the Mark Holliday Memorial Trophy as the groom of winning horse, Paulank Brockagh. Great job, girls!
Early starts are the usual after a hard day out on cross country. The stables are closed between 11pm Saturday night and 5am Friday morning to let the horses have rest. Trot up started at 8:30am so between 5am and then it's all about checking, trotting up, icing if needed, maybe a hack out if the horse is stiff and then also plaiting and presenting.
The stables were half empty early this morning due to a lot of eliminations and retirements. There wasn't the usual buzz feeling around knowing you had fit sound horses ready to trot up and show jump. A lot of horses were tired from the heavy going yesterday. James however was ready to go again, there are just some thoroughbreds that thrive off a good gallop and run cross country! He trotted up well and was accepted.
Georgina Tapner (Paul's wife and groom) taking Kilronan out of the stables to the show jumping warm up
The riders who didn't have a great day yesterday were packed up and trying to get on the road home as quickly as the tractors could pulled them out of the mud. After trot up there was a mad rush to get as much as you can packed up as quickly as possible to have the horses saddled and ready for the first lot of jumping starting at 11:30, James was 10th out and jumped super to have an unlucky rail down, but was the best round I the morning. It turns out the only clear jumping round (but 3 time penalties) was jumped by Aussie Wendy Schaeffer.
The warm up for the show jumping can be a stressful situation, horses and riders going everywhere and jumping a lot of different jumps, there were quite a few jumps set up so there was room to spread out. You not only have to look after your rider and change the jumps for them but also try to work around every other rider who wants to jump the same fence but two holes lower and wider. Today we had team coach Gilbert Bockmann there giving advice to the riders and helping them with a warm up plan.
Chris and James ready for the Parade of Competitors
After the morning session of jumping it was a matter of packing up everything into the truck, except for the tack for James to wear at the parade of competitors, this is where all the horses that are left in the competition are ridden around the main arena and introduced to the spectators. After this it was time to let James rest and take plaits out and leave him alone!!! I went straight up to watch the end of the show jumping (a very rare occasion) - what a competition it was, it certainly wasn’t a dressage competition and all three phases had an influence in the final standings!
Sam Griffiths came out on top of the leader board and did an amazing job in all three phases, unfortunately it couldn't be an Aussie double with Taperz not having the greatest day. It was quite a great feeling to hear the Australian National Anthem in the presentation ceremony and also see Imogen Mercer receive the grooms award for the winning horse.
We are now on the drive home, after delays trying to get on the road out of Badminton with many spectators trying to leave at the same time. The drive is usually time to reflect on what went wrong and how to improve for next time, a disappointing run out cross country for James but he tried his heart out today for a good jumping round. He will now have a few weeks off and enjoy some English grass. There is plenty to do tomorrow as the truck needs to be cleaned out and all the gear washed and sorted out, the work never stops!
Happy winners - Sam Griffiths and Paulank Brockagh for Australia
