Happy! Pippa Funnell and MGH Grafton Street
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at
Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials - find out more here
The Land Rover Burghley dressage lead changed hands several times during the course of Friday but we had to wait until the final session to find out who will be in front going into cross country on Saturday morning.
Pippa Funnell and MGH Grafton Street will start in pole position after delivering a smooth, forward-going test that just got better and better. After a ‘senior moment’ on Billy Walk On during Thursday’s test when she halted in the wrong place Pippa ‘told herself off’ last night and delivered the goods today to score 22.8, a personal best for this horse at his 5* debut.
Oliver Townend didn’t let a sore back stop him from slotting into second place on Ballaghmor Class, scoring 25.3. He hurt it earlier this week and has barely been able to ride since Wednesday. After the test he paid tribute to Team GB physio Ash Wallace who he said has worked miracles on him, and also to his lovely, little grey horse who at only 12 years old still has so much more to come
“He’s a high class horse that obviously is becoming more and more established and it’s just lovely to have a horse of that calibre at these sort of events” and who is now becoming so relaxed in the big atmospheres of five star events that Oliver reported actually having to kick him along in the walk
Izzy Taylor rounds out the top 3 on the stunning Springpower, just 0.3 behind Oliver Townend “I’m very pleased with him. He’s still green at this level, he’s ten years old ; he went to Badminton on Friday afternoon and that slightly went to his head a bit so we had a bit of homework to do” but their hard work paid off with Springpower staying obedient and calm and showing off his impressive natural paces.
Less than ten penalties separate the top twenty as we head into tomorrow’s phase. Pippa Funnell remarked that she’ll forget about today’s test once she wakes up tomorrow, that it becomes a brand new competition and her mark will have no bearing on how she’ll ride the course.
The first horse (Tim Price’s Bango) will set out on course tomorrow at 11:15am and horses will be started at four minute intervals. We’ll have a full report and wrap up of today’s action on our website soon.
Oliver Townend, Pippa Funnell and Izzy Taylor at the press conference
