New Zealand rider Tim Price, riding Wesko, won the Blair Castle Barclary International Horse Trials CCI3* last weekend by the smallest of margins just 0.2 ahead of second placed Niklas Bschorer.
Bill and Silk Stone produce a winning test
The top scores were all very tight and dressage leader, Bill Levett, thought he had held onto his lead at the end of cross country but, as it turned out, that was not the case. Bringing forward a score of 43.6 from dressage Bill and Silk Stone flew round the cross country course to finish one second over the optimum time, which left him on a score of 44, still just ahead of Tim Price and Niklas Bschorer. Then several hours later the decision was made by the organisers that a second should be added to everyone’s cross country time. (We have tried to clarify the reason behind this decision but at this stage have not heard back from the OC)
Looking good on cross country
This left Tim Price in the lead on 44.2 while Niklas Bschorer (Ballyengland Rebel) and Bill were on the same score, 44.4, but with Niklas closer to the optimum time he slipped ahead of Bill.
When it came to the show jumping phase several riders, early on in the class, took rails down but the top three didn’t touch a fence and the placings remained the same.
Another faultless performance on show jumping day
Nevertheless it was a great result for Bill and his team and many thanks to Francis Birks, the owner of Silk Stone, for passing on these great photos from the weekend.
A moment of suspension from Silk Stone and the rosette!
