The centre line on the dressage arena at Burghley has been mown by the same man, George Bates, for the past 58 years. Even more impressively, it has been done with the same lawn mower
Interesting facts but they probably weren’t at the forefront of the riders’ minds today as they cantered down the centreline for the start of their 2018 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials campaigns.
Oliver Townend was the first into the arena on board his first ride MHS King Joules. Obviously the first rider is going to take the lead but the very in-form Oliver maintained that lead until the very end of the day with a score of 27.2, a score he was pleased with on the 13 year old gelding by Ghareeb
“I was really pleased with him. It was a mistake free test, he stayed calm and really with me so if he stays on that mark I’ll be very happy” said Oliver “But this is Burghley and there’s a very big course out there. It’s probably the biggest in terms of dimension that I’ve ever seen and very stamina sapping with three serious hills and nowhere where you can give them a proper breather. Normally we get one coming down Winner’s Avenue or from where the cricket stumps normally are but this is going to be very, very tough on them”
Oliver has the advantage of two more horses to come with both Ballaghmor Class and Cooley SRS starting the competition tomorrow and, as for the two he hasn’t started here, Cooley Master Class and Ulises, ‘God knows where they are going to go next”. It doesn’t really matter where Oliver goes at the moment however, he seems to be in the lead
Oliver Townend and MHS King Joules
The next man into the arena also stayed in second place for the morning session despite a couple of errors of course which Sir Mark Todd jokingly put down to his age
“The horse was very good but unfortunately I let him down with two errors of course. At this level, with the scoring the way it is and with everything so tight it’s bloody annoying to say the least!”
Mark hadn’t walked the course at that point but “From what I’ve heard it’s typical big Burghley with difficult terrain and a bit more up and down than we’re used to”
He was about to head out for his first course walk after the dressage, adding ruefully “If I don’t lose my way there”
Tim Price and Bango
Another New Zealand rider, Tim Price on his first horse, Bango, then took third place on 32.1. Bango did a solid test but a couple of head shakes during the test may have left a bad impression on the judge at E, Dr Ernst Topp, whose marks were quite a bit lower.
Tim Price
Two more Kiwi riders had their turn in the arena this morning with Caroline Powell, who looked fabulous at yesterday’s first horse inspection to win Best Dressed Female, riding On The Brash for a score of 35.1, finishing the day in equal 21st place
While Caroline has competed at Burghley many times and is a past winner (2010 on Lenamore) Ginny Thompson is experiencing her first Burghley.
Ginny Thompson and Star Nouveau
Ginny arrived in the UK from New Zealand to base herself with Blyth Tait just before Badminton and felt that her test here on her 14-year-old mare Star Nouveau (Paige) was much better than that at Badminton. The pair presented a very nice picture and had some good moments including a 9 for the rein back but some mistakes in the flying changes and the lack of ‘oomph’ brought their score down to 36.5, leaving them in 24th place overall
“It was an awful lot better (than at Badminton). She definitely wasn’t perfect, nor was I, but as far as our journey goes, we’re heading in the right direction” Ginny told us in our video interview here
Like Mark Todd, Ireland’s Austin O’Connor had a ‘bit of a moment’ resulting in an error of course on board the 10-year-old Lucky Contender. Despite that they finished in 10th place at the end of the day with a score of 32.4
After lunch, everyone was wondering if Piggy French could knock Oliver off the top spot. Her horse Vanir Kamira has gone full circle, originally being produced by Piggy, then ridden by Izzy before competing with Paul Tapner who rode her at Burghley in 2015.
Piggy took the ride again at the beginning of 2017 and they finished second here last year. In fact none of the judges had Piggy in the lead but she did move into second place with a score of 29.9 and finished the day in fourth place after being dislodged by two other British riders, Harry Meade and Sarah Bullimore
Harry and the 11 year old grey gelding Away Cruising (above) have really started to click in the dressage phase this year with a score of 28.4 at Barbury CIC2* and scores generally in the low 30’s
Today Harry rode masterfully to keep the horse relaxed and confident during the test and they were rewarded with a very good score of 29.5, currently in third place
Sarah Bullimore and Reve Du Rouet
No sooner had Harry started to celebrate than the second place once again was usurped, this time by Sarah Bullimore riding Reve Du Rouet. This experienced combination has nine four-star completions together including a career best with second place at Les Etoiles de Pau CCI4* in 2017 so their starting score here of 27.3, just 0.1 behind Oliver puts them into a very strong position after the first day at Burghley
