Felicity Collins and RSH Contend Or battled the elements at an event that went from winter to summer
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
Childeric Saddles Little Downham (1) 2021 - order or view videos here
Read our Friday report from Little Downham (1)
Read our Saturday report from Little Downham (1)
In a season where event riders are having to be ever-flexible with their plans, Felicity Collins gave herself the perfect preparation for a last-minute swap from the CCI5* at Luhmühlen to the U25 CCI4* at Bicton with an advanced win at Childeric Saddles Little Downham (1).
Riding her three-time Junior and Young Rider Championship medallist RSH Contend Or, Felicity was much the fastest across country of the class, only adding 2.8 time-faults to her dressage mark of 32.5. This gave them a remarkable victory margin of 10.5 penalties over second-placed JP Sheffield and Kiltar OBOS.
"The plan at first was Badminton, then Luhmühlen, and I was devastated when the new travel restrictions and quarantine rules came in for Germany and I was forced to withdraw” she says
“Unfortunately, I can’t just drop everything else, such as my other owners, horses and commitments I have to running my business, so the decision was made to re-route to Bicton instead.”
Felicity was delighted that their flying changes were clean in the dressage, because they have been working hard at them, although “he did squeal in one and kick the boards in another!”
This was the 12-year-old Nintender gelding’s sixth double-clear in the jumping phases in a row and, because rain had softened the ground, Felicity felt able to “let the handbrake off” round the cross-country.
“I’ve looked after him so much over the years because he is so very talented - and also strong; he can come out of the start box like a hooligan and I have to go slow and settle him - that he was rather shocked when I said, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ and didn’t even think about pulling,” said Felicity with a laugh.
“I just went at a pace that he was happy and comfortable with, and it was good for me to ride positively and give myself confidence before Bicton.”
This was the 2017 British national Young Rider Champion’s first advanced win.
“I want to prove myself as a senior and to hold my own against the big boys and girls,” she said.
Willa Newton took the open intermediate class on her own and Laurence and Anne Marshall’s Cock A Doodle Doo. They scored an impressive 20 in the first phase, showjumped clear and were just one second over the time across country for 0.4 of a time-fault.
“He was brilliant,” said Willa, who bought the nine-year-old son of Clarimo from Dirk Schrade as a three-year-old.
“He went to Le Mondial Du Lion World Young Horse Championships in 2019, and then, because I missed virtually the whole of last season with a broken pelvis, he only did one novice in March and one in October in 2020
He’s come out this year feeling amazing. He’s a big horse and was just weak, so last year probably did him a lot of good; he feels much stronger, and I’ve just got to remember that he needs miles on the clock again.”
She described the intermediate cross-country course as “strong”, and similar to the CCI3* track at the last Little Downham event.
“There was a bit of everything - two waters, a strong coffin - and it was a good, educational track,” said Willa.
She will now aim the exciting Cock A Doodle Doo at Blenheim’s eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S in September.
There were three intermediate sections, which went to Angus Smales (Mount Corbitt Storm), Laura Collett (Bling) and Georgie Frow (Max E Million).
Laura Collett and Bling, Intermediate section winner
Eight-year-old Mount Corbitt Storm was homebred by his owner Susie Culloty, and is a son of Tinarana Goldwave.
“I think he will be a very nice horse,” said Angus. “We wanted to pull the trigger and see if he was coming along in the way that we wanted him to be, and this proved it. Everything I’ve asked of him so far, he’s delivered.”
They were the quickest across country of their section with 1.6 time-penalties, and only section C winner Georgie Frow managed to make the time across the three standard intermediate classes.
“I was a little bit cross with myself when I finished, because I have two default settings - inside the time or not even close, and I thought that I’d got old and lost it with 1.6!” said Angus.
“I am very lucky to have a group of horses that make you get up in the morning and want to ride them,” he said. “With a good horse like this one, I don’t feel the need to do a CCI2*-L; he’ll do a long three-star, but whether that’s this autumn or next spring, I’ll let him tell me.”
Article by Catherine Austen
Seven sections of Novice included our cross country video winners in the Open Novice Section F - Tom Jackson riding GFS Apollo, Open Novice Section G - Max Warburton and Kilnaboy Buffet, Open Novice U18 - Archie Smith-Maxwell riding Akolien and Open Novice Section K - Isabel White riding Icarus (above)
