"It's my lucky bib!" Pippa Funnell maintains her lead after cross country
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at
Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials - find out more here
“You really don’t have any time to enjoy it” says Pippa Funnell of the cross country ride that kept her in the lead today at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials after a challenging and exciting day that saw just 33 of 64 combinations complete Captain Mark Phillips’ course. Wearing her lucky numbered bib (77 is the bib number worn by Tilly, the character in the children’s books authored by Pippa), Piggy is hoping that it will continue to bring her good luck tomorrow
Ludwig Svennerstal took an early lead on his first horse Stinger and the Swedish rider stayed there for much of the day, but three big British names of the sport, Pippa Funnell, Piggy French and Oliver Townend finished the day with a firm grasp on the podium positions.
Riding MGH Grafton Street, Pippa added just four time penalties on cross country to end the day in pole position on a score of 26.8 but the margin to second placed Piggy French, her good friend and team mate, is miniscule with just 0.1 penalties separating the two
Piggy and her Badminton-winning mare Vanir Kamira was the only combination to finish the course without jumping or time penalties and they head into tomorrow’s show jumping phase on a score of 26.9 while Oliver Townend, who rode today’s cross country course nursing a bulging slipped disk in his back on board his 2017 Burghley winner Ballaghmor Class, added two time faults for a score of 27.3.
There is then a sizeable gap to Sweden’s Ludwig Svennerstal in fourth place (38.8), Sarah Bullimore on Reve Du Rouet in fifth place (39.6) and Gemma Tattersall on Santiago Bay (41.1) rounding out the top six
The second horse inspection takes place at 9am tomorrow before the first session of show jumping in the morning and the top 20 show jumping followed by presentations in the afternoon
Our full report and rider interviews from Saturday coming soon .......
