Burghley is getting closer by the day and so grows the pressure of the final preparatory competitions such as Hartpury, where the US horses in the UK are getting in their final pre-Burghley runs this weekend. Jacky Green has once again sent us a great report from England, for which we are eternally grateful. Jacky works for Team New Zealand and also runs her Maizey Manor Farm in the UK, where many US competitors stay on their route to Badminton and Burghley, including Will Faudree. Thanks for writing this Jacky and thank you for reading.
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Will and Andromaque at Gatcombe, courtesy of Samantha
From Jacky:
Hartpury runs a CCI*, a CCI ** and 2 sections of CIC*** which I am sure is a logistical nightmare but a little bit more information and a reliable results service would be much appreciated! The CIC*** is divided into 2 sections of which one does dressage indoors, jumps indoors and one which does dressage outdoors and jumps outdoors and obviously both run the same cross country course. No information was available to competitors beforehand so they had no idea which division they would be in. In reality they were very different competitions, the indoor was spooky for the test and ran a tight showjumping round which caused a few time faults where as outdoors the track seemed bigger but the time was easier.
Talk of the event was Chris Burton’s ride, Under Discussion who posted a fabulous test and a great showjumping clear to run the lead in the outdoor section today. Sourced from NZ and sold to AUS and now in the UK it looks pretty special. Sarah Cohen had a rail on Irish Jester to drop first place in an otherwise immaculate round. Sinead Halpin scored a 52 which was more reflective of her recent arrival than the quality of her normal work and just tipped a rail today in an otherwise smart round. Will Faudree jumped an immaculate clear indoors on Andromaque whilst Pawlow suffered an attack of the ultra careful and had a stop in the treble whilst posting a great jumping display around the rest of the track.
Jules Stiller must have been slightly disappointed with her round on Chaple Amble as she exited the outdoor arena with a stop and and three rails and I am sure she will be consulting her mentor, Mark Todd, for some help before Burghley although she had much more fun with Enjoy Me in the indoor division.
Will Coleman was busy flashing his smile on the bank and chatting up the girls and still managed to dazzle on Twizzle despite a rail. Andrew Nicholson is on flying form at present and underlined this today with clear rounds on Henry Tankerville and Mr Cruise Control topping up great dressage tests as well as Armada who not only reined back without the wave to the crowd but jumped a good solid clear in the showjumping as well.
Lucinda Fredericks put her Gatcombe showjumping behind her to jump a good clear on Prada backed up with a 45 dressage and Zara Phillips jumped clear too on High Kingdom with a good test behind her. Pippa Funnell jumped a fab round on Billy Shannon (fresh from the test event0 and both sections are still pretty open at this stage.
Grumbling amongst the riders about the ground seems well founded at this stage. It is undeniably hard and the crew are working on it as we write but they are going to have to do a lot overnight to improve it to avoid withdrawals tomorrow. We still have the Europeans, Blenheim, Burghley, Boekelo and Pau to come so August is still a time when you look after your horse in the UK and Hartpury possibly will see marching feet tomorrow if they do not do what they promised to deliver.
Report on cross country and hopefully final results tomorrow!
