It seems that fourth place is the position to be in heading into the final phase of the Young Horse Championships at Le Lion; Chris Burton won the CCI1* from there last year and this year France’s Astier Nicolas took the win from fourth place with a clear round in the show jumping on Alertamalib’or in the CCI2* 7YO Championship
With so little separating the top riders in this class after the cross country, it was always going to come down to the wire and the overnight leader James Avery and second placed Mary King both added penalties, dropping them from the top spots. Mary and King Robert had a tough round with 16 jumping faults and three time penalties to move them way down the leader board and James’ Vitali added nine penalties to finish in sixth, having led from the start until that point
The top three at the end of the day all jumped clear but it was the 28 year old French rider, Astier Nicolas who claimed the gold medal in front of the anxious and delighted home crowd who were riding with him all the way
Izzy Taylor didn’t let the champagne from the first press conference after winning the CCI1* 6YO class go to her head and returned to the arena to take the silver in the CCI2* 7YO on Direct Cassino – a very good day at the office!
And while these relatively young riders took the top spots, it was a the experienced Andrew Nicholson on his Spanish bred Yacabo BK that moved into third, putting in great performances in the cross country and show jumping to move from 14th after dressage
Yacabo BK is for sale (price dependant on whether you want the saddle or not ...) but Andrew would be naturally be happy to continue campaigning this talented youngster if a sale doesn’t eventuate!
Britain’s Laura Collett, who won here in 2015 on Mr Bass, had an unfortunate rail on the French bred Sir Papillon putting her into fourth place and Sweden’s Ludwig Svennerstal was also in the money in sixth place on Box Leo
Gemma Tattersall on Chilli Knight and Ben Hobday on Shadown Man both produced clear rounds to finish in the top 10 but Australia’s Chris Burton picked up penalties on Lawtown Boy to drop to11th place
With Izzy Taylor, Astier Nicolas and Andrew Nicholson on such great form, look out for them at our next stop - Les Etoiles de Pau
Australia's Ben Leahy on Feloupe (above) finished in 13th place and Sammi Birch, now also heading to Pau with Hunter Valley II, was 19th on The Kincooley Ceili
