Saffie Osborne and Little Indian Feather Photo courtesy Helen Revington
All six of the combinations representing Great Britain on the Charles Owen Pony squad performed well under pressure today in the cross country at the European Championships for Ponies at Bishop Burton, East Yorkshire, as GB hold both team and individual gold.
The influential cross country course caused a big shake up of the individual and team standings as the British Charles Owen team now take the gold medal position with a score of 97 and Germany, the leaders after dressage, move down to fourth on 122.6. A strong day for the Irish team move them up to silver medal position with less than one fence separating the team on 99.5 penalties and only one penalty behind them, the team from France sit in bronze on 100.5.
Similarly in the individual competition the German 1-2-3 after dressage looks very different at the end of the cross country as overnight leader Jana Lehmkuhl and Veith 14 picked up 20 jumping and 17.6 time penalties to slip to 30th, Emily Roberg and Sandro 406 move from second to sixth and third placed Maxima Homola and Nutcracker 4 now sit in 26th.
This left the door open for the GB’s riders as Saffie Osborne now occupies the individual gold medal placing after a determined round on Lord and Lady Blyth’s 13 year old mare Little Indian Feather – with whom she won team and individual silver at the 2017 European Championships. Home clear inside the time to finish on their score of 28, Saffie holds just a 1.2 penalty advantage over Ireland’s Chloe Fagan and Fernhill Timbacktoo in silver and Germany’s Sophia Rossell and Camillo WE in bronze.
Praising her horse Saffie said; “She’s absolutely incredible! I went out with so much confidence that I was on the right pony - I want to thank my owners so, so much, she’s incredible!”
Getting things underway for Great Britain Ellie Healy was out early on the Championship course and did a great job as pathfinder on her own Midnight Dancer II. Sadly picking up a frustrating stop at part B of the Bishop Burton Cordwood Stacks at fence 12, in what was otherwise a superb round, Ellie came home for the team with 7.6 time penalties giving them a completion score of 55.7 to sit in 28th place overnight – and bring back valuable information on the course for the rest of the team.
Hattie Grace gave the team a lovely clear round on Vincent Jones and Simon Grace’s nine year old gelding Noble Superman; just four time penalties to add to their first phase score of 32.8 gives them a cross country completion score of 36.8 to put them in 17th place individually.
Daisy Proctor produced a great round as team anchor on her own 14 year old gelding Holiday Chase; jumping clear and just two seconds over the time added 0.8 time penalties to their dressage score of 31.4 to put them in sixth place individually and helped the team to their gold medal position.
Individual rider Georgia King rode a brilliant round on Anya Kolleth’s 19 year old mare Drop the Subject who showed all her experience and saw the combination jumping a clear round inside the time to stay on their dressage score of 37.4 penalties to put them in 19th place overnight.
Also coming home clear inside the time, Connie Gill and her own Movie Star II were third out for the Charles Owen Pony squad as an individual and looked very classy the whole way round the course to head in to tomorrow’s show jumping on a score of 34.2 in 11th place.
The trot up gets underway on Sunday 12th August at 8am followed by the final show jumping phase from 1.30pm.
