Ladies lead at Le Lion

Ingrid Klimke and Weisse Duene

Last year Ingrid Klimke and Weisse Duene scored 38.6 in the dressage phase of the 6 Year Old Championship but this year they improved on that with a 36.9. Two of the three judges, Austria’s Christian Steiner (E) and Sweden’s Anne Persson (M) had them in first place while France’s Eric Leiby (C) preferred the test of Pippa Funnell’s Billy Walk On, in second place on 39.

The top two ladies are two of the best known names in the sport and these young horses are likely to be their stars of the future. Ingrid “fell under the spell” of Weisse Duene (White Dunes) when Hans Melzer saw the grey mare in 2014 being ridden cross country by Marina Köhnke and suggested that Ingrid take a look at her. The mare came from Norderney, an island off the North Sea of Germany and Ingrid says she has “good elastic paces and an especially big and light footed canter. She has natural talent for jumping and is bold cross country. She is a curious and good natured mare with that something special - everyone loves her with her trusting and attentive character”

Last year the pair led the dressage at Le Lion and, although a refusal on cross country put them out of contention, they finished with a clear show jumping round.

Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On

Pippa Funnell’s horse is also very special to her. Billy Walk On is a half-brother to Billy Shannon, the mare she lost to leukaemia in 2013 and Pippa describes his career in eventing so far as ‘freaky’ with the hardest thing being to resist the temptation of pushing him too hard too soon as he finds everything so easy. Listen to our interview with Pippa after Billy Walk On’s first international win at Chatsworth in 2015

Both horses have had good wins in their short careers; Billy Walk On hasn’t been out of top ten in nine international starts and has won or been placed in the top three on seven of those occasions and Weisse Duene has had seven top 3 finishes with four wins including a win recently at Varsseveld in the CIC2*. Significantly for Weisse Duene, he has incurred no cross country jumping penalties since his little run out at Le Lion last year

So, it is going to be a fascinating battle on cross country tomorrow with Ingrid not only having the slight advantage of a few penalty points in hand but also going late in the draw and knowing what she has to beat

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats

Yesterday’s dressage leader, Austria’s Charlotte Dobretsberger and Vally K are in third place and another top British lady rider Kitty King is in fourth on one of her ‘French horses’. Kitty and Vendredi Biats won the CIC2* at Rockingham Castle earlier this year when Kitty told us that this is a horse that is really nice to ride on the cross country

“He is so balanced and nippy that he just whizzes around. You don’t have to do much on board him which is quite phenomenal for a seven year old – you literally sit, point and go”

Find out more about Vendredi Biats, the horse that was ‘banished from William Fox-Pitt’s yard for bucking his stable rider off three times in a row!’ in our interview with Kitty here

France’s Maxime Livio is now in fifth place on Vroum D'auzay (no doubt they will vroom around the cross country course – sorry, couldn’t resist) and Gemma Tattersall on Chilli’s Gem is in sixth place

7YO Results after dressage here

7YO cross country start list here

Izzy Taylor and Jockey Club Fleurelle

Yesterday’s leaders of the CCI1* 6 Year Old class have remained in the top spots with husband and wife team Kai-Steffen Meier and Lara De Liedekerke-Meier in first and second places. But it is yet another British lady that has moved into third place with Izzy Taylor and Jockey Club Fleurelle scoring 43.4 to be 3.1 penalties behind the leader.

This combination has not been together very long but recently came second at the KBIS British Eventing Young Horse Championship, adding nothing to their dressage score

“She started eventing in April this year so it’s been quite a learning curve for her” said Izzy in the press conference, adding that a cross country course like tomorrow’s is something that the young mare has never seen before

“It’s a beautiful course but I think that the atmosphere and all the people will have an effect on the young horses – they’ve never seen anything like it before. She’s never galloped before for nearly nine minutes and it’s not just the very clever little questions being posed but it’s also the concentration required by the young horses and maintaining for such a long time for them”

However Izzy is not known for hanging around on cross country so will definitely be in the chase tomorrow, as will another speed demon, Chris Burton. Chris and Fire Fly also recently scored a second place at the South of England in the CIC1* and again they are well within reach of the leader with a score of 44.2