Sir Mark Todd and Leonidas II
“It very nearly brought tears to my eyes” said Sir Mark Todd after he moved into the lead on his 13 year old German-bred Holsteiner gelding Leonidas II “It is certainly one of the best tests that he has ever done. He’s finally starting to grow up”
Sir Mark Todd
American riders dominated the morning session of dressage with Lauren Kieffer on Veronica overtaking Michael Jung’s leading score from Thursday to finish the dressage phase in second place behind Mark.
Lynn Symansky on a well behaved Donner (until they tried to check his bit after the test - "I'll take a photo" said the steward who couldn't actually get her hands near him), also produced a good score of 45.5 but later it was the turn of New Zealand to shine
Andrew Nicholson started the trend just before lunch with a sub-40 score of 39.50 on the evergreen Nereo, putting him just 0.6 penalties behind Michael Jung, to finish the day in 4th place. Yesterday he wasn’t very happy with his mark on Qwanza, now in equal 28thplace, but today he felt that the judges had stuck to their game plan and his mark on Nereo reflected the quality of the work that this experienced horse produces
Andrew Nicholson and Nereo
“A lot of years have gone into the dressage. In the early days at Burghley he used to bounce around everywhere in the wrong direction but now I go in there and it’s enjoyment from the warm-up procedure to the time you come out of the arena. He’s very reliable, he’s done an awful lot of big events and he goes in there and does better than he does anywhere else” says Andrew, who adds that he only asks for this level of work at the big competition, never at home, but that Nereo knows when to ride to the occasion
And what has the multiple Burghley winner got planned for tomorrow? “My plan is to go the direct routes everywhere” (surprise, surprise!) “Once you start going the long ways you can mount up a lots of time faults and you’ve got to start off positive”
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy
Tim Price also moved into the top ten this afternoon with a score of 41.3 on his second ride, finishing the day in 7th place on Ringwood Sky Boy and equal 17th on Xavier Faer
Although the two horses are very different, Tim believes that it is an advantage to ride two horses around the course tomorrow
But while there are three New Zealand flags in the top 10 and the USA and Germany currently occupy second and third places, Britain fill out the rest of the spots
Tina Cook and Calvino II
They saved the best for last with the third last rider of the day Tina Cook, the recent team gold medallist at the Europeans in Strzegom and currently the top placed Brit at Burghley, shooting up the leader board on Calvino II into 5th place. Like Tim Price, she has the luxury (if you can call it that) of riding around the course twice on two very good horses
Shortly afterwards Oliver Townend was wearing a boyish grin as he finished his test on the big grey Ballaghmor Class. Burghley is this horse’s first CCI4* and they started with a very good performance in the dressage arena to score 40.2 for sixth place while his other horse Samuel Thomas, who finished seventh here last year, is at the other end of the board in 56th place on 60.7
However for Oliver, the ‘sharp’ grey Ballaghmor Class was ‘”right up there with my expectations but at the same time I would have forgiven him very easily if there had been more of a baby mistake”
Gemma Tattersall and Arctic Soul are now in 8th place and her friend Olivia Craddock, in 10th place on Billy Liffy with a score of 45.4, says that she has Gemma to thank for her performance today. 26 year old Olivia has brought Billy Liffy, who is the half-brother to Pippa Funnell’s Billy Walk On, through the grades since he was a five year old but recently needed some help to take their performance to the next level
Olivia Craddock and Billy Liffy
“Gemma saw me really struggling with him (Billy Liffy) at Blair last year and suggested that I got some help from Ian Woodhead which has totally turned our performance around. Gemma has been amazing and really taken me under her wing”
An emotional Olivia was over the moon with this performance at their first CCI4* and first Burghley, joining some illustrious company in the top 10, including Britain’s Piggy French who was also ‘absolutely delighted’ with her score of 43.7 and ninth place currently on Vanir Kamira
Piggy is enjoying being back in the saddle again this year after a break to have her baby and her ride at Burghley this week, Vanir Kamira, is one that has returned to her after being ridden by Izzy Taylor and Paul Tapner.
Piggy French and Vanir Kamira
“I started her eventing at Novice and Pre-Novice level and she went onto have good success with the other riders so I was surprised when the owner rang me and offered me the horse again. By then she was a 4* horse so it was very exciting to be offered a horse at that level and of course I said yes!”
“It has taken a while to get used to her; she’s definitely a mare that can blow hot and cold but she really tries and at Bramham she gave me a really gutsy run”
Piggy is hoping she’ll have another really gutsy run tomorrow but admits to being nervous
“I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and wonder ‘why on earth am I doing this?’
Izzy Taylor and Trevidden
Another British lady rider, and mum who could sitting on the couch and sipping gin and tonic in the normal world, Izzy Taylor finished the day in 12th place and was delighted with Trevidden, a horse she has only been riding for a year that is having his first 4* start here
“He actually enjoyed being watched by everyone today” says Izzy “Which is something you don’t know until you try it”
