Inevitably, and sadly, the main story will be the weather today, and although the rain fall was largely consistent throughout the day, the footing deteriorated as the day progressed and temperatures fell. Young Dutch rider Merel Blom who held on to her lead on Umberto for a large portion of the day was a breath of fresh air when I spoke to her after her second test, and I hope she achieves her goals of qualifying for London here, and we see her at the Olympics next year.
Buck stole her lead shortly after lunch with a beautiful test on Ballynoe Castle RM, showing their relationship together, their experience and professionalism.
Michael Pollard also rode a lovely test on the stunning grey Jude’s Law to move into 2nd place, hard not to think of Icarus when you see him on a floaty white grey,who incidentally Michael tells me is absolutely fine, back home in Georgia with no real injuries apart from being sore and bruised.
James Alliston and India McAvoy’s Jumbo’s Jake put in a nice workmanlike test to slip into 3rd place ahead of Merel. I squeezed under the umbrella with James’ mum and dad to watch his test, and after a rather large glass of wine forced on me by his mum earlier, I was glad to see the judges agreed with us, we thought his test was marvelous, despite his mum saying dad John can’t tell Jake apart from an Apaloosa!
The running commentary alone was priceless and it wasn’t just the wine that had me in giggles, but James’ dad, “Come on, son, Nail the Finish!” He must have heard us, although I thought we were terribly discreet! More from Galway later, go eventing!
