Sir Mark Todd and Kiltubrid Rhapsody
New Zealand, Germany, Britain and Australia are leading the way at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials with Mark Todd and Tim Price in first and second places, Oliver Townend in third, fifth and seventh, Andrea Dibowski in sixth and Australia’s Bill Levett in equal 10th at the end of the dressage phase
Andreas Dibowski flew the flag high as the sole representative for Germany, showing the traditional strength of the German riders with a lovely test on board FRH Butts Avedon, scoring 28.5 for 6th place after the dressage phase
Andreas is headed to the World Equestrian Games as part of the German squad riding FRH Corrida so has brought the more experienced FRH Butts Avedon to Burghley. By the leading thoroughbred event sire Heraldik, also the sire of Sam Griffiths’ Happy Times and dam-sire of La Biosthetique Sam as well as Andreas’s former ride Butts Leon and is also a full sister to Kira-Annabell, the dam of Ingrid Klimke’s former team ride Butts Abraxxas, this 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding and his experienced rider certainly have the pedigree to be title contenders
“After the preparation we’ve had this year and especially after Aachen I decided this is the year to do Burghley” says the quietly spoken German “He’s almost full thoroughbred, he’s a good galloper and it’s almost easier for me to ride him in a long format competition than a CIC. I’m not the fastest rider on short format as I always take the time for preparation on course – to find the line and try to do it perfectly – whereas on a long format we can use the gallop and the big fences should not be a problem for him. It may be more of a problem for me to work out how to tackle them!”
After his test Andreas was congratulated by the past German trainer Chris Bartle, now the coach for the British High Performance team
“He was very happy for me!” says Andreas “He knows me and the horse very well and he told me that the first entry was not perfect but that, for the rest of it, it’s the best he has seen from this horse”
For some riders the day didn’t go quite so smoothly. Alex Bragg and Zagreb scored 31 to finish in 14th place, which is certainly not a bad result but it came very close to being so much better. This pair really are a treat to watch and Zagreb, despite being a big horse, is supple and elastic with a fabulous walk but there were a few problems in the flying changes which brought their score down
Alex Bragg
Pippa Funnell
Tina Cook and Pippa Funnell are two of the sport’s icons and it was fascinating to talk to them today about riding horses which are not naturally gifted in this phase but which they still find rewarding to ride
Tina’s horse Star Witness suffers from Kissing Spine and Tina works hard to manage that condition, as she told us last year, and today wasn’t their best day in the arena “It could have been worse though” laughs Tina “39.2, well, it’s still in the 30’s isn’t it!”
While Star Witness may not enjoy the dressage phase, he and Tina are machines on cross country and they have finished in the top of their last four 4* starts at Badminton and Burghley, although they missed this year’s Badminton due to Tina’s shoulder injury. The dressage was a bit frustrating as they are currently in 62nd place but they are more than likely to make it up in later phases
Pippa Funnell’s Maja’s Hope is also a bit of a challenge in the dressage arena and they too are a bit off the pace with a score of 35.2 (=40th place) but “A lot of it is mind games” explains Pippa
Lissa Green and Hollyfield II
Australia’s latest addition to the stable, the bred-in-the-purple Lissa Green also has a horse that is a work in progress between the white boards. They scored 37.9 (currently 58th place) for their debut test at Burghley
Bill Levett and Improvise
It was towards the end of the day that the big guns emerged and the placings on top of the leader board started to really change. Australia's Bill Levett was hoping for a score in the mid to high 20's but he just missed that with Improvise earning 30.4 for equal 10th place
However it was another Antipodean, Sir Mark Todd that took the lead off Oliver Townend’s MHS King Joules, who had led from the very start of the competition. Mark gained a score of 26.4 on Kiltubrid Rhapsody but he was certainly not counting his chickens.
“I was leading at Badminton” cautioned Mark “Then Oliver came out on Ballaghmor Class and went into the lead so it isn’t over yet”
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy
In fact it was his team mate at the coming WEG, Tim Price on Ringwood Sky Boy that came the closest to knocking Mark off the top spot. The horse that Tim couldn’t sell is now coming into his own and they nailed the test, including halts, for a score of 26.9 and second place overall
Oliver Townend was the first in on Thursday and also finished the Friday session with the 2017 Burghley winner Ballaghmor Class. He couldn’t quite top his score of 27.2 on HMS King Joules, who maintained third place, but the big grey was very close with 27.9 for fifth place and Cooley SRS is currently in seventh on 29.4
The three riders summed it all up at the end of day press conference ………
