Emma Brussau and Dark Desire GS
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It was an event of PB’s at Floors Castle as the two young German riders, Emma Brussau and Felix Etzel took first and third places in the Cazenove Capital CCI3*-S, seperated by Britain's Hector Payne on Top Biats
The two German riders are currently based at the Yorkshire Riding Centre with Chris Bartle, a man they say has helped enormously with these good results this weekend. Felix will be staying to head to Houghton Hall later this month but Emma, who is studying psychology at University, will return home with her two horses
The 3* Ground Jury, Jane Tolley and Vanda Stewart, were very impressed with the dressage tests of the top three riders and were delighted to see that they maintained their top spots after all three places. Emma and her 10-year-old black mare Dark Desire GS show jumped clear and then came home clear and under time on the cross country to finish on their fabulous dressage score of 18.6. They were originally given one second over time but this was later removed
The presentations for the class were held in the buzzing Sponsors and VIP Marquee which was awash with people having a wonderful time. We caught up with the top three riders before they dashed off to ride in the Anderson Strathern CCI2*-S
Emma Brussau
Felix Etzel and the eight-year-old stallion Polartanz recently had a win at Oudkarspel in the CCI2*-L but 23.8 is their best finishing score at this level. They started with a dressage score of 20.6 and added just 3.2 time penalties on cross country to finish in third place on 23.8
Felix is based at Warendorf, the German Olympic Equestrian Training Centre and base for the German Federation, DOKR, and this was his first visit to Floors Castle
Hector Payne and Top Biats head out on cross country
Britain’s Hector Payne stopped the German domination of the class with a very good score of 23.1 on board the past William Fox-Pitt ride, Top Biats, in second place. Their dressage score on Friday morning was the first sub-20 score of the day and Hector added just 3.2 time penalties, exactly the same as Felix, on cross country
Oliver Townend and Dreamliner (above) took fourth place and Hannah Bate on Fanta Boy was fifth (below)
