Nicola Wilson and Bulana, 2015 Boekelo winner, started the season well with a third place at Isleham
The weather caused the cancellation of some of the first British Eventing competitions for the season but it was a week for the mares at Barocca D’Alva in Portugal
British Eventing kicks off
The weather played its part in England for the first weekend of the 2016 season with all competition cancelled at Askham Bryan College (1) on 5th and 6th March due to a combination of snow and very wet ground.
Aston Le Walls (1) was slightly luckier with competition being cancelled on Saturday 5th March but went ahead on Sunday meaning that only the BE90, BE80 and BE80T took place. Despite the weather, the new eventing riders proved to be a hardy lot with three sections of the BE80T, where ‘T’ stands for training and 80cm denotes the fence height, taking part. The aim of the BE80T classes is to introduce new competitors to the sport with the emphasis being on education, safety and fun. Riders taking part are supported by dedicated British Eventing Accredited Coaches who are there to help competitors at this level, completely free of charge.
Lily Good riding Hunter was the winner of the Airowear BE 80(T) Section L while Jordan Keal riding Moothyeb Geneva Mill won the Section M and Stephanie Faulkner won the Section N.
Isleham in Cambridgeshire saw competitors from BE90 to Open Intermediate turn out but many in the higher classes opted to withdraw before the cross country. Many of the big names were there with Nicola Wilson, Jock Paget, Tina Cook, Izzy Taylor and Pippa Funnell having an outing to start the year. Izzy won the Open Intermediate Section P on Be Touchable, Sam Penn won the Open Intermediate Section O on Pusiden and Louise Cullen riding Simply Barntown won the Intermediate Section Q.
Simon Grieve was second in the Intermediate Section Q on Traveller Royale but had several wins in the other levels, winning the Novice Section I on The Rutman, the BE90 Open Section G on Willey’s Mayday and the BE100 Section A riding Wallstreet VB. Quite a good way to start the year!
Blyth Tait braved the weather to win the Open Novice Section K on Dassett Courage while his fellow NZ High Performance squad colleague Tim Price took his top guns, Ringwood Sky Boy and Wesko out for a stroll
Gemma Tattersall and Chilli's Gem at Chilham Castle 2015
Barocca d’Alva, Portugal
Christopher Stone, one of the brains behind the new Eventing Rider Masters series and owner/breeder of the ‘Chilli’ horses had a good weekend in sunny Barocca d’Alva in Portugal with Belgium’s Karin Donckers winning the CCI1* on Jalapeno, a talented eight year old mare by Christopher’s Chilli Morning and Chilli’s Gem, a seven year old also by Chilli Morning ridden by Gemma Tattersall, finishing 10th at her first three day event.
As Gemma explained in our interview last year, Chilli’s Gem is the first of a few horses bred by Christopher for Gemma to ride with the lovely breeding combination of the Badminton-winning sire Chilli Morning and the 4*mare King’s Gem. These ‘Chilli babies’ are certainly ones to watch ........
Karin followed the CCI1* up with another win in the CCI3* on her WEG 2014 mount Fletcha van't Verahof thanks to the only clear double clear cross country and show jumping rounds, finishing on a score of 39.5 earning them a well deserved qualification for Rio. Gemma also finished second on Chico Bella P, another horse owned by Christopher to make it a triple celebration for the riders and owners.
Another British rider, Sarah Bullimore was third on Lilly Corinne, making it a real week of chestnut mares. Sarah also won the CIC3* on Rêve du Rouet. Equal first with Andreas Dibowski on FRH Butts Avedon after the dressage, Sarah show jumped clean and added only 2.4 time penalties on cross country while Andreas jumped a double clear cross country round but added eight faults in the show jumping. Belgium’s Joris Vanspringel finished third riding Lully des Aulnes
The CCI2* winner Tiana Coudray was over the moon with Sambuca F that was purchased for Tiana at the beginning of 2014 from former rider Felix Vogg. However the grey mare was sidelined by an accident that put her out of action for the rest of that season and 2015
“It has been a long, long time coming” said Tiana on Facebook “ I can't thank enough everyone who has helped bring Sambuca back over the past two years. The thousands of hours spent hand walking down the road, and then thousands more spent hacking have finally paid off! I am feeling so thankful and so excited for her future”
The pair led from beginning to end, adding only 0.8 time penalties on cross country to their dressage score of 44.7 ahead of Ireland’s Padraig McCarthy riding Mr Chunky
