No problem through the water - Angus Smales and Ballinteskin Rado Photo: ESPhotography.co.uk
After a season of hunting with his owner Sean Frankham, Ballinteskin Rado was returned to his eventing rider Angus Smales just 18 days before winning the Intermediate Section D at Belton International.
Having hunted every week during winter with the Fernie Hunt, it is maybe not surprising that he gave Angus a “very, very good” cross country ride but even more impressively the eight year old gelding also performed extremely well in the dressage arena, scoring 25.9 to be in third place behind Bill Levett’s experienced Alexander NJ, who was competing Hors Concours, on 24.3 and Mary King’s young King Bill on 24.8.
However, when Bill didn’t run after the dressage and Mary had a little hiccup on cross country that saw her walking home, Angus’ good dressage score and double clear cross country saw him take the win despite a couple of rails in the show jumping. Zara Tindall also jumped a double clear cross country round and had one rail in the show jumping for second place on BGS Class Affair while Willa Newton riding Moonlight Dance S took third place
We talked to Angus and Sean after the presentation about the remarkable young horse that seems to be able to shift from the hunting field to eventing with ease and who handled the Belton course that ‘can mess with a horse’s head’ without penalty
Angus Smales
Sean Frankham and Ballinteskin Rado
