Naughty Subway was very tense and quite a handful for our US representative in the U25 division this morning. Olivia managed to restrain him for most of the test until turning up the centre line for the final time when he shied violently and bucked – what a bugger! On a more positive note he looks as fit as a fiddle and as if he could gallop all day long, so let’s hope he redeems himself on the cross country.
Speaking of which, everyone here at Bramham has been doing a great job of looking on the great side and staying positive and it seems to be working! The weather forecast has now been upgraded, less rain and more bright spots, and the sun is definitely trying to make an appearance – try harder. Nicola Wilson on Applejack, another lovely test; such a big, impressive horse he tried so hard despite getting a bit stuck in the mud every now and then – the tracks are pretty boggy, several horses were struggling, losing their balance and rhythm and then losing confidence, but Nicola looked delighted with Applejack and their score of 44.7 for equal 10th at the lunch break means she has both horses handily placed at this stage. You can find all the scores here.
Polly Stockton’s lovely grey horse Jeepers Creepers who looks like he’d last all day hunting shares 10th place with Applejack, and handled the going well.
Opposition Elite on the other hand looked to be hating every second of it; his canter work was better than his trot but if Ruth Edge doesn’t make it look easy, then you know how tough it is; his extravagant movement all but disappeared and Ruth rode him sympathetically to survive the movements and make it to the end. Ruth gave him masses of pats when they finished, almost apologetically, and it’s very rare to see her languishing half-way down the leaderboard instead of at the top of it.
Zara Phillips also rode superbly to get the very best out of High Kingdom; she kept a lid on his tension and pushed through the mud for a great score of 43.2, currently good enough for 7th.
New Zealand have a very strong hand here at Bramham (Lizzie Brown currently leads the U25 section by about 8 points) and competition for Olympic selection is very hot. Jonelle Richards was probably hoping to impress her federation with a good run at Badminton but instead will probably be disappointed to sitting nearer the bottom of the leaderboard after a ho-hum dressage here, it probably didn’t help her that she followed William Fox-Pitt and Lionheart!
Lionheart didn’t look like he liked the going at all either, but William controlled the tension to put in a nice test for a score of 45.3 and 12th place at lunchtime.
Borough Penny Z gets his tail wrapped up to keep it clean and white. Vittoria Panizzon does her test, aaargh, right now – looks like the lunch break is over, why is there never enough time at events, or fast enough internet! Off to watch the last of the dressage this afternoon Go Bramham Eventing!
