“Fantastic way to kick off the post lockdown season” says Kitty King on her Facebook page and indeed it was.
On the first day of a return to competition in England, Kitty’s Monbeg Hendricks won the Novice Section D on his dressage score of 26
“So proud of how this super six-year-old has come out after such a long break from competition” says Kitty of the talented young horse that won the Novice at Gatcombe (2) late last year (see video below)
The first day of Tweseldown’s four days of competition saw 258 combinations across eight classes of Novice and Intermediate runners
Jemima Stratton and Global H took the Open Novice Section A while Piggy March and her new ride, Dargun, previously ridden by Emily King won the Open Novice Section B on a very good score of 22.8. Australian riders Bill Levett and Kevin McNab were in the top 10 with Bill on Loxley’s last Stand in sixth and Kevin on Vidalgo in seventh
Pippa Funnell riding Billy Cassidy won the Novice Section C and the French rider Gaspard Maksud moved ahead of Dani Evans in the Intermediate Section E to take the win in the Intermediate Section E on Cado Louvo, a horse he told us about last year
Dani made it to the top of the Intermediate Section F riding C Born Fresh Z, a few penalties ahead of Australia’s Chris Burton riding Leopard’s Action in second place while another Australian, Sam Griffiths took fourth place riding Annaghmore Valoner
The Open Intermediate Sections G and H were awash with big names but it was the young rider Georgia Bartlett on last year’s BE Junior Championship winner at Rockingham Castle, Spano De Nazca, who won the Section G, adding just two time penalties to their dressage score of 28.6 to take the win.
Georgia Bartlett and Spano De Nazcar at Rockingham Castle 2019
H stood for Harry in the final section with Harry Meade being the fastest on cross country with just 0.4 time penalties on board Gideon ahead of another speedy young rider, Phoebe Locke (like Georgia, also maintaining her title as the Young Rider Champion) while Laura Collett was a little more circumspect on cross country riding Calmaro for third place, after posting a great dressage score of 28.7
“Thank you Tweseldown Volunteers” said Kitty “For running such a slick event, with great social distancing measures so everyone felt able to return to competition safely”
Last year’s Burghley winner, Pippa Funnell admitted on her Facebook page “I wasn’t 100% sure how excited I was to get back Eventing this year, but having three lovely horses to ride in Billy Cassidy, Maybach and Billy Wonder it made me realise how much I have missed it and how much I still get such a buzz from our great sport and the smiles it puts on the horses faces”
It was a special day for Pippa and her mum, Jenny Nolan, who was at Tweseldown yesterday to witness Pippa’s anniversary win on Billy Cassidy
“I was so thrilled they were all stars with double clears and nice tests, Cassidy earning his first British Eventing points with a win in his first novice, some 36 years after my first British Eventing win at Tweseldown with Sir Barnaby. Dear Mum was there then, as she was today, watching her own and Ruth McMullen’s Billy Wonder hopefully on the road to becoming a star of the future. Top job Tweseldown and its huge team of volunteers”
