It was certainly a showcase of the country’s leading riders at Oasby Elite, the first event of the season, with many of the major players heading to the Lincolnshire venue.
Organised by the team at BEDE Events, Oasby Elite saw more than 150 horses taking part in five strong Open Intermediate sections. The line-up was second to none with many riders bringing their top horses to compete, get their season started and make their way around Stuart Buntine’s pipe-opener cross country course.
Check out the winning videos below to see how each of the combinations handled the 2860m course, which had an optimum time of 5:12.
Of the 149 runners on cross country, 92.6% jumped clear with Fence 11AB (approximately 2 minutes into the videos) causing the most problems (four combinations picking up 20 penalties), followed by Fence 6 (3 x 20 penalties), Fence 20 (2 x 20 penalties) and Fence 16B (one x 20 penalties). Fence 3 saw one error of course and one elimination at Fence 13.
Of course, none of the Section winners incurred any jumping penalties and the combinations below showed that they are on top of their game, despite having been in lockdown for some time.
Section A provided a great win for North Yorkshire-based Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin, finishing on their dressage score of 26.4 penalties to hold off Laura Collett and Dacapo taking the runner-up spot.
Laura Collett did take home a win however on the Pau CCI5* winner London 52, adding just four time penalties on cross country in the Section D
Oliver Townend and his winning Burghley ride, Ballaghmor Class secured Section B, also adding nothing to their dressage score
Piggy March got 2021 off to a great start with two wins, the first in Section C on Brookfield Inocent and the second in Section E on Fonbherna Lancer, who added just 2.4 time penalties on cross country
