Jodie Amos' smile shines out through the drenching rain of the first horse inspection
Many of the riders at the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials today would have been pleased to see the sunshine, if only to dry out their wet clothing from the very soggy start at yesterday’s first horse inspection. Some areas of the south of England were deluged by ex-tropical storm Henri moving across from the Atlantic and the riders who have just come from the European Championships at Blair Castle, such as team gold medallist Sandra Auffarth and silver team medallists William Fox-Pitt and Kitty King, must have a feeling that the wet weather is determinedly following them around the country. The good news however is that the forecast is for less of the wet stuff and more pleasant autumn eventing conditions during the next few days but it will be interesting to see if yesterday’s heavy rain has had any impact on Eric Winter’s cross country course
The two feature classes of this event are the CIC3* for 8/9 Year Old horses, one of the country’s most prestigious classes for horses of this age, and the CCI3*which is hotly contested by many of the top riders.
Piggy French and OBOS Cooley
It was a good morning for past winners in the first phase of the CCI3* class with 2011 winner Piggy French setting the pace in the morning with a score of 41.9 on OBOS Cooley, a horse ridden by Laura Collett until earlier this year, and the three times winner William Fox-Pitt with his ‘old friend’ Cool Mountain scoring 43.3. William spoke to Rupert Bell about being back at Blenheim, the first time here for Cool Mountain, and reflected on the European Championships at Blair
William Fox-Pitt
Dani Evans, who was to join William as part of the British squad at Blair Castle but had to withdraw at the last moment, overtook Piggy in the afternoon session with a score of 40.2 riding Raphael II but was in turn overtaken by the current World Champion and recent European silver individual medallist Sandra Auffarth with a very good score of 37.2.
Dani Evans and Raphael II
This is Sandra’s first time at Blenheim and she is glad that she decided to stay on and compete here, after having a few days with Chris Bartle at the Yorkshire Riding Centre to celebrate both her individual medal and the German gold-winning performance.
Sandra Auffarth is enjoying the beautiful park surrounding Blenheim Palace
“Blenheim is a beautiful place” says Sandra “Chris Bartle suggested that I came here and I’m really glad that I have – the parklands are lovely and I think I’ll be coming back again!”
She has brought Ispo, the horse previously ridden by the late Benjamin Winter, and Benjamin’s mother Sybille has travelled to Blenheim to watch them compete together. Ispo has been travelling with Sandra’s top horse Opgun Louvo, having been up at Blair Castle last week to stay in training, and the two horses have become best friends – maybe Ispo has been taking notes from the World Champion Opgun Louvo as Sandra says that he put in his best test to date today
Franky Reid-Warrilow riding Dolley Whisper
In third place is the young British rider Franky Reid-Warrilow riding Dolley Whisper. Franky’s performance in the dressage today, scoring 40.6, may be in part thanks to her very famous dressage coach, Charlotte Dujardin and her top class coaching doesn’t end there. As the winner of the inaugural Mark Todd Bridging The Gap scholarship in 2013, Franky also has Sir Mark as her trainer and mentor so is definitely one to watch for the future
Piggy French finished the day in fourth place while Australia’s Chris Burton riding Nobilis 18 is in fifth place with a score of 42 and William Fox-Pitt is currently in sixth.
CIC3* 8/9 Year Old
Alex Hua Tian likes this backdrop for dressage
While the CCI3* takes place in the Marlborough arena, with Blenheim Place providing an impressive backdrop, the CIC3* class takes place a little further away, down past the trade stands. Although it is less atmospheric for the younger horses, Alex Hua Tian, who took the lead in this class just before lunch with a score of 40.6, thinks that it would be nice to showcase the young horse class in the main arena rather than in the ‘car park’(well, almost but not quite!)
Jonelle Price and the impressive Cloud Dancer
However it was the final rider of the day, New Zealand’s Jonelle Price, who put in an impressive performance to score 33.20 and take a firm lead on the class after the first day of dressage; Jonelle won this class here last year on Faerie Dianimo, and is now on track to do well again this year with the eight year old Cloud Dancer who was fifth in the CIC3* at Luhmuhlen earlier this year. Keeping it in the family, the half-sister of Faerie Dianimo is also competing here this year and is currently in equal 12th place ridden by Jonelle’s husband Tim.
Ireland’s Jonty Evans, who was busy chatting to riders in the Celebrity Interviews area at Burghley, is in the saddle again here and has had a good start on Cooley Rorke’s Drift to score 43.8 for third place.
