The Americans have taken Burghley by storm this morning, on the second day of dressage, commandeering the top two places, as well as equal 8th – even if you’re as bad at maths as I am you know that’s three in the top ten, and total domination! Will Faudree went first for the USA this morning and rode Andromaque beautifully; she looked calm and smooth, there were no mistakes, and it was a pleasure to watch. Andromaque was immaculate, her coat shining in the sun, and they both looked a million dollars. [Burghley Results]
I caught up with Will after his test to talk about his test, his preparation here in the UK, and what his thoughts are on tomorrow’s cross country.
After an impressive display by Bettina Hoy, sitting so quietly and still on the enormous, just barely controlled bundle of muscle and power that is Lanfranco TSF, crowd favourite Mary King came in on her homebred mare King’s Temptress and moved into second place behind Australian Clayton Fredericks on the big, big-moving, flawless Walterstown Don. I was worried that the huge cheers when they announced Mary’s score just as Sinead entered the arena on Manoir De Carneville might unsettle him, or her, but she told me afterwards, on the contrary, Tate loved it and assumed the applause was for him, she did an extended trot down the long side outside the arena and then told me she had a feeling it was going to be a good test.
Sinead receives a congratulatory hug from incoming US team coach David O’Connor while best friend and Canadian Olympian Rebecca Howard looks on.
Incredibly proud: Meg and Tate, job well done!
I caught up with Sinead after her test, and then also with her best friend Rebecca Howard who had come up for the day to visit, these videos will take a bit longer to upload, but I hope to have them up sometime later this afternoon. Also video interviews with Allison after her test, and with Bettina and Sinead – Team Maizey Manor at Burghley, go and put your money on them now! After a quick chat with William Fox-Pitt, much more on that later, I ran back to the arena to watch Allison Springer’s test, wondering which Arthur was going to show up, and praying it was his dressage queen. Luckily that’s exactly what happened, Arthur and Allison controlled all his demons between them, and got better and better in the arena, moving into second place just behind Sinead – result for the USA! I spoke to Allison after her test and she couldn’t have been sweeter or more gracious, paying tribute to the hard work everyone at Maizey Manor has put in this summer, all the help she’s had to get to Burghley and how thrilled she is for Sinead.
So exciting were the two “Burghley’s Angels”, the blonde bombshells Sinead and Allison, and Will’s superb display on Missy, that it would be easy to overlook some other really nice tests this morning. Kate Hicks rode Belmont really well with no mistakes for a very pleasing test. Silva has been here since Wednesday helping her, and Kate has been supporting all the US riders too.
Click below for much more:
Clayton Fredericks, wearing quite possibly the shiniest boots I’ve ever seen rode a lovely test on Walterstown Don that probably had a lot of us thinking we were at the wrong venue and watching pure dressage.
First in this morning was Captain Geoff Curran for Ireland on Shanaclough Crecora, who was a reserve for the London Olympic Games. Geoff had told me at Barbury that the horse probably needs another year under his belt to really improve on the flat, and although there’s definitely scope for even more which is exciting, he did a fabulous job at this, the horse’s first CCI****.
Not quite sure how the same movement can be seen so differently?
Tom Crisp’s Liberal improved as the test progressed and he rode a very correct, accurate test with especially nice changes.
Francis Whittington’s Sir Percival had some tense moments which brought his score down, but most of it was very nice indeed. Lanfranco TSF was also noticeably tense, but Bettina managed to keep him in a pretty well-contained package right up until they left the arena!
at which point he took great exception to the man with the microphone, I think!
We still have a few more exciting combinations to come this afternoon, including last year’s winner and Rolex champion William Fox-Pitt on Parklane Hawk, Andrew Nicholson, Lucy Wiesgersma and last to go, Mark Todd, but I hope to be able to bring you news from an all-american press conference later, and you also won’t want to miss the video with Sinead and Bettina that’s uploading as we speak. Thanks for visiting the Eventing Nation as always, and especially now, Go the USA at Burghley Three Day Eventing!
