The crowd await the the first riders before the rain comes down
Legendary coach Chris Bartle told Bettina Hoy that “It doesn’t have to be pretty” before the cross country phase at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and, in many cases today, it wasn’t
16 riders were eliminated and 12 riders retired during the cross country phase. Some were just plain unlucky, such as Sam Griffiths whose stirrup broke on the early part of the course. Sam jumped through the first water with one stirrup then tried to fix the problem by putting his foot through the stirrup leather but it obviously wasn’t a workable solution and, probably thinking of the welfare of his 17 year old horse Happy Times, he opted to retire at Fence 14.
Pippa Funnell and Second Supreme were looking very good until they jumped over the big log at the Trout Hatchery and pecked on landing. Second Supreme floundered in the water and tipped Pippa out of the front door – although she luckily avoided a soaking and ended up on dry land she was obviously completely bemused, and no doubt frustrated, to find herself on the floor. Young Olivia Wilmot also was unseated here and Andrew Hoy’s second horse The Blue Frontier fell in the water, also after pecking on landing. Both are fine and Andrew’s first horse Rutherglen had more luck, completing the course with 23.6 time penalties for 15th place
The course designer Captain Mark Phillips confirmed that the landing area in the water had been checked and no problem found and attributed many of the problems, not just here but around the course, to riders falling forward on landing and losing control (more on that coming up in our video of the press conference)
“It was harder work for the riders than I thought it would be” he admitted, although he had warned them beforehand not to believe that the course was ‘softer’ than last year
Jonelle and Classic Moet
The only rider that we spoke to in the past two days who believed that it was slightly softer was the fastest rider on course today, New Zealand’s Jonelle Price. Jonelle had difficulty stopping Classic Moet as they descended the Dairy Mound (you really needed a maths degree to work out all the options here), nearly running into the tree and knocking over several decorative buckets in the process but they worked their way through and steamed off again, with Jonelle feeling a little cross. They came home with the fastest time of the day, thanks to Jonelle’s irritation and this mare’s amazing capacity to handle these types of courses, to move up from 22nd after dressage into fourth place on 50.1
Jonelle Price
Bettina Hoy heeded Chris Bartle’s advice and kept pushing on although she certainly had some hairy moments, with Designer 10 dropping his back legs on the Maltings oxer and the corner in the Trout Hatchery. It was a determined ride and she was rewarded with fifth place at the end of the day despite picking up 19.2 time penalties
“It was so big out there and with the rain it reminded me of Blair last year where I didn’t have the greatest ride. But what a horse! I made it hard work for him to start with but he is such a good jumper – he really nailed it for me in quite a few places!”
Bill Levett and Improvise
Bill Levett also rode a measured ride, taking advice from riders that had gone before him but their 20 time penalties were good enough to move him from 12th place up to ninth on 62.5
“It was one of those days when you just had to get it done” said Bill
Shane and Virgil balloon over the Maltings oxer
Fellow Australian Shane Rose didn’t have the best of the days and, although he did ‘get it done’ on Virgil, he wisely opted to withdraw Shanghai Joe just two fences from home in the Main Arena. Virgil’s scopey jump was working overtime today, causing Shane all sorts of problems and they kicked out a frangible pin at the very big Cross Rails at Fence 25, picking up 11 jump penalties and 34.8 time penalties for 25th place. It was, says Shane ‘horrendous’
Andrew Nicholson and Nereo
Jonelle was not the only New Zealander to do well today with her husband Tim, Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd and Caroline Powell all putting in very good rides in the wet conditions to take second, third, sixth and seventh places respectively
Tim and Ringwood Sky Boy
Tim had a tricky time on his first ride Bango, picking up 20 penalties and working hard to help the less experienced horse around the course, but it did give him a good look around the course before heading out on the much more experienced Ringwood Sky Boy. They were held on course for a short while as the frangible pin broken by Shane and Virgil was repaired but still came home with just six time penalties for the third fastest time of the day and second place on 44.9
Cedric Lyard and Cadeau Du Roi
The French rider Cedric Lyard had a minor tack failure on course, a broken martingale, which he fixed as he travelled around the course. This may have slowed him down slightly but he still finished with just 13.6 time penalties in eighth place
Tina Cook and Star Witness
Yesterday Oliver Townend was the only British rider in the top 10 and he is once again in that position but with a different horse. Samuel Thomas II is lying 10th, having moved up from equal 42nd after the dressage, thanks to incurring only 9.6 time penalties. Oliver was not the only British rider to make an impressive jump up the leader board – Tina Cook put in a marvellous round on Star Witness to move up from 40th to 12th with just 12 time penalties despite losing a shoe on course
Oliver is also in 19th place on Dromgurrihy Blue but his final ride on MHS King Joules, the horse that Andrew Nicholson thought may be the only one able to make time here today, ended with a refusal at Fence 24 and Oliver opting to walk home. By then the leader had been established with Australia’s Chris Burton going late in the day, despite being tempted to ‘spend the afternoon in bed!’ after watching quite a few of the first rounds
Chris Burton and Nobilis 18
It was a delight to watch as the pair made their way around the course, making it look easy and coming home with just 3.2 time penalties
Sadly two other Australian riders didn’t have quite such an easy time with Sonja Johnson parting company from Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison at Capabilities Cutting, Fence 15. Until that point they had been eating up the course so it was a real shame although they were luckier than Paul Tapner who was taken to hospital after his fall from Up In The Air.
“Well that wasn't to plan!’tweeted Paul “I've had a nice rest in hospital, X-rays show nothing broken so they've kicked me out! Up In The Air is all ok too”
Watch a replay of the dressage and cross country action here
