Sarah Bullimore and Coromiro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
After all the fun and games of yesterday’s first horse inspection at the Defender Bramham International Horse Trials, perhaps we could all have been forgiven for thinking the event’s officials would be in a rather jolly mood. Banter! Wisecracks! 8s and 9s just because sometimes it’s nice to be nice!
Alas. Instead, across both the feature CCI4*-L and the CCI4*-S class, incorporating the new-look under-25 championship, we’ve seen high standards and hard-to-please judges, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s hardly bucket hats at the palace, is it?
What those exacting standards did mean, though, is that when a really great test came along, you truly enjoyed the moment — even if, as one of my media colleagues sagely remarked, “I don’t know why we even bother with dressage here — it doesn’t mean anything.” She’s referring, of course, to Bramham’s status as the beefiest behemoth of the four-star scene, where the leaderboard often tumble-dries itself beyond recognition over the weekend in pursuit of greatness-in-the-making. But here we are, still doing the dancing bit, and sue us: we quite enjoy it.
We reckon Great Britain’s Sarah Bullimore also quite enjoyed it today. Not only did she get a bit of a lie-in — she was last to ride in the CCI4*-L today — but she also merrily pranced her way straight to the top of the leaderboard with the nine-year-old Corimiro on a score of 24.6.
The pair’s performance was hardly unexpected. Though the gelding, who she rides for husband Brett and co-owners Bruce Saint and Christopher and Susan Gillespie, only stepped up to four-star a year ago, he’s been a runaway success, posting a 27 in his CCI4*-L debut at Boekelo last October and a 24.4 in his most recent outing in the inaugural CCI4*-S at Belsay two weeks ago.
“I mean, I’d have like a 21, but I’m happy with that,” grins Sarah. “He’s still only nine, and he was hot to trot yesterday — he knows what these events are all about now, and so he was quite wired.”
But, she continues, “he’s a hot horse, but hot in a nice way — he’s got such a good brain, and he just wants to get on with it and do the right thing. So he went in there and he was almost quiet; I actually had to say, ‘come on, let’s get going!’ Yesterday, in the arena familiarisation, he just wanted to walk up to the side and see the crowd. He loves to look and stare, and the busier it is, the more he relaxes, which is a bit random! At home, when it’s quiet, he’s looking out every window to see if something’s going on or if he’s missing anything, and then when it’s busy, he’s like, ‘great, I know it’s busy, that’s fine — I’ll just go to sleep!'”
Corimiro’s sparky streak comes from his dam, Sarah’s former team mount Lilly Corinne, who’s become a prolific mother via embryo transfers since her retirement from the sport, and is expecting two more full siblings to Corimiro due this week. But unlike his maternal half-brother Corouet, with whom Sarah won individual bronze at the 2021 European Championships, he’s sired by the stallion Amiro — and whether it’s his father’s influence or just something in his own makeup, Sarah’s found him a much more malleable horse to produce than his tricky, talented older brother with his penchant for heartbreaking.
“He’s just a lovely horse, and I’m very, very lucky to have him — he means an awful lot to me,” says Sarah. “[All of Lilly’s offspring] are dominant horses, but he’s far, far easier and more trainable than Corouet. That would be Corouet’s Balou du Rouet lines, though! [Coromiro’s] a pleasure to train because he wants to do the right thing and stay onside, whereas Corouet can think he knows best and sometimes would rather I just get off and let him do it on his own.”
Whereas Corouet is pint-sized with an oversized ego, Coromiro is a much bigger stamp of a horse who’s not quite aware of his own power — and Sarah is quietly hoping to keep it that way.
“He’s a big, strong boy, and he doesn’t need to learn that he’s big and strong and could actually get away with me,” she laughs. This Saturday’s dimensionally beefy, terrain-heavy track, though, should be one that suits this stage of his education perfectly, and keeps him well on side — particularly as new course designer Andy Heffernan, who takes over this year from Ian Stark, has made some very minor softening tweaks to some of the perennially tricky questions here.
“I think he’s done a brilliant job,” says Sarah. “He’s not softened it in a way that it’s not a true Bramham, but he’s just made a couple of things a little bit kinder. I’m really looking forward to getting out there.”
Louise Romeike and Caspian 15. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Sweden’s Louise Romeike is also well-mounted on an incredibly exciting young horse in Caspian 15, who sits in second on a 27.4 after an impressive test just before the lunch break. Caspian has two years on Corimiro, and as a ten-year-old competed at last summer’s Olympics, where he finished 24th, but it’s just this year that he’s learned to channel his talent and exuberance into sub-30 scores at this level. In fact, today’s is just his second: he posted a 25 in the first phase of the CCI4*-S at Marbach last month, which he handily won, but was more consistently in the low-to-mid 30s over the last two seasons, and put a 37.7 on the board in Paris.
The key to getting the best of him, Louise says, has simply been time.
“I think every show got a bit better last year. Actually, his last show [of 2024] was the Olympics, and that was the most difficult one, so he didn’t show the progress that was there — but over the winter, I did so much dressage training, with all of my dressage trainers, everyone helping, and it’s so much better. The way we were training him was always the right way, but he’s just a little babyish still, and he can make himself a little bit small sometimes, like a little guy. But he stays with me now, and he got stronger, so he can carry himself much better, too.”
This is just Louise’s second visit to Bramham; she last competed here ten years ago with two horses, finishing just outside the top twenty with one and withdrawing before cross-country with the other. That she makes her return here this spring is no accident; the Swedish A team, who have long been working to climb up to the big leagues at championship level, are here in force this week, gaining mileage and experience over a hilly, tough, very British track ahead of the European Championships at Blenheim later on this year.
“I’m really happy to be here again, and now it’s all about the cross-country — that’s why we’re here,” says Louise, beaming atop the cherubic gelding, who, she says, “is just a wonderful horse.”
Barnie Brotherton and DHI King Nelson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
22-year-old Barnie Brotherton and his ten-year-old DHI King Nelson have been firmly in the spotlight over the last couple of weeks, thanks to an excellent turn in their winning British senior team debut at the Bicton leg of the FEI Nations Cup series. Though they didn’t quite catch the 28.2 they posted there in today’s test, their very respectable 29.4 is still good enough for third place overnight, and it represents their second-best four-star test — prior to Bicton, they’d never broken the sub-30 barrier.
Still, though, Barnie was disappointed to feel that he’d left some marks on the table in his CCI4*-L debut today.
“I know he’s capable of more, and so am I, but we’ll take it,” he says pragmatically. “I was pleased that he got both changes, because that’s been quite tricky for him in the past, but there’s always room for improvement everywhere, and I’d just like a little bit more relaxation. But he’s only ten, and there’s so much more to come.”
Coming here off the back of that excellent Bicton means that Barnie’s aware of more eyes on him as he tackles his job — but, he says, “I guess you’re always being watched when you’re competing! When I’m on the horse I feel quite zoned in and I tend to forget about everything else.”
Daniel Alderson and Blarney Monbeg Pepper sit fourth overnight on a 32.6, followed by Tom Jackson and new ride Hawk Eye, formerly produced by Nicola Wilson, who slot into fifth on 32.7.
“I’m very happy,” says Daniel, who has been based in Ireland for the better part of a decade but is originally from just down the road. “Dressage is her weakest phase, and she actually doesn’t really like it, to be honest, so for her to go in there and behave and listen to me, I was very happy with that. This is a local big event for me, so I’ve always wanted to compete here, and I feel very lucky to be here. Hopefully we can give it a good go.”
The top ten at the end of day one of dressage at the Defender Bramham International.
Sebastien Cavaillon and Elipso de la Vigne. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
The CCI4*-S is led overnight by France’s Sebastien Cavaillon, who posted a 26.9 with Elipso de la Vigne. Like Louise and the Swedes in the CCI4*-L, Sebastien and his compatriots are using Bramham as a stepping stone to Blenheim, but largely focusing their attentions on this class instead of the long format one.
Making the decision to come to the UK to prepare is a loaded one these days, Sebastien explains, and you need to be sure of a return on your investment, either in winnings or in experience.
“Honestly, it’s very expensive now with Brexit — it’s just horrible with the paperwork and the money. I think it’s very hard for French people to come to England now. But our chef d’equipe said we needed to come to England to prepare for Blenheim, and it is a good test,” he concedes. “This horse has run many times at long format leading up to the Olympics, and so now it’s not needed for him to run another long format, and he can do a short format instead.”
Elipso de la Vigne, who was bred at the same stud as Japanese Olympic horse Vinci de la Vigne, is “a lovely horse, and he’s really good in all three phases — he’s very careful and really listens,” says Sebastien, who was named as a reserve for the French Olympic team with the eleven-year-old last year. “The canter is amazing; the flying changes, amazing. It’s easy when you ride a horse like this. The difficulty is for me: I need to be better for him.”
Their long-term Blenheim preparation was bolstered by a trip to Royal Jump at Berticheres last week, where Badminton course designer Eric Winter was in charge of the course, “so it was another taste of an English track,” says Sebastien — though, he laughs, with the appointment of Andy Heffernan as course designer here, “we’ve come to England to ride a Dutch track!”
Tom Woodward and Low Moor Lucky. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
This year, the coveted under-25 title isn’t being contested at CCI4*-L level — instead, it’s been changed to a CCI4*-S, and rather than being held as a completely separate class, its contestants have been shuffled in with the broader short-format class here. That means that current leaders Tom Woodward and Low Moor Lucky can also proudly count themselves as overnight runners-up in the whole section on their score of 28.1.
They’ll have been expecting a competitive score: though Tom is just at the start of his professional career, he and the 18-year-old gelding have already earned themselves a solid reputation as first-phase performers. Indeed, just last month in their CCI5* debut at Badminton they put an impressive 27.9 on the board, earning themselves sixth place going into cross-country.
That they’ve ended up here instead, though, comes down to an early runout at the Agria Corners before the Lake Complex, after which Tom reapproached, achieved a neat and tidy jump, and then decided to put his hand up and call it a day. It might not have been plan A, but every day, he says, is a chance to learn and grow as a rider.
“It was obviously a bit of a roller coaster of emotions,” says Tom. “I think it’s great, obviously, to be exposed to that sort of atmosphere and get a little bit more recognition from people who didn’t know who we were, which is obviously fantastic going forward. And, of course, getting the reassurance that you can perform under that pressure, because until you go and do it, it’s a bit unknown as to how you’ll feel. I felt really relaxed all week at Badminton, and I’ve thought about the cross country day over and over for the last three weeks. Next time I’d try and rev myself up a bit more, I don’t know — it’s just a really big learning curve and [an insight into] how you might do things differently. We’ve learned a lot about the horse as well — I’ve had him for seven years, and he’s 18 now, but I’m still learning about him every time we come out.”
One thing that hasn’t changed at all in that Badminton learning experience is Lucky’s approach to the first phase: he remains a very cool character.
“I didn’t even do the familiarisation last night because I wanted him to come in here and [get a bit of a buzz], and even with that, he just goes in and trots around,” laughs Tom. “I’m like, ‘come on, Lucky, give me something, give us a little bit more!’ He knows his job now, so just — without being mean about him — he sort of does the bare minimum, because he’s so within his capabilities in the work. He knows what he needs to do, he goes and he does it, and he goes [to the stable] and he’ll probably have a sleep now.
“He’s pretty hot in this phase now, so it’s just a case of going in and just trying to enjoy him. And especially with his age, we don’t know how many more big runs we’ll get, so I just try and enjoy each one as they come.”
Alex Hua Tian and Chicko. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Also rerouting from Badminton is third-placed Alex Hua Tian and Chicko, who put a 30.1 on the board. Their Badminton campaign ended early for slightly different reasons: an awkward jump over the triple bar on course dislocated Alex’s shoulder and threw him onto the gelding’s neck, where he began a long, slow, grim campaign to get himself back into the saddle and attempt to manhandle the joint back into place.
“I have quite unstable shoulders, and I’ve had the right one operated on [over the winter],” he says. “He had a relatively good rub on the rail going into the Hollow, and then just basically hit the roof over the big open oxer and just paddled a bit and twisted a bit to the back rail. My left shoulder popped out. As the shoulder pops out, your core just switches off like a light switch. So then I did a bit of clinging on, and we ended up in the ditch with me sitting in front of the saddle. But then I couldn’t push myself back into the saddle from there, and it was only as he climbed out of the ditch, that I ended up back in the saddle.”
“So,” he continues, “we jumped a couple more, with my shoulder still popped out at the time. It wasn’t sore, but then turning left to the table it was getting weaker, and turning left to the corner, I was like, ‘I’m not sure I’m up for this anymore’.”
Now, he says, he’ll run here this weekend and then Alex will decide with owner Kate Willis whether to aim for a trip to the Nations Cup finale at Boekelo in October, or a return to Pau’s CCI5* that month, where they finished fourth last year. Most of all, though, he confesses, “my hope is to go back to Badminton again. I don’t know whether Kate can cope or not! But I felt he was having a great ride around. I learned a lot about him at Badminton. Four stars are so in his comfort zone, and so is a five star — he just needs a little bit extra positivity and poke to get across those big, wide ones, and he just needs me to be a bit behind him. I think we would have had a great ride, so I’m quite keen to get back again.”
Tomorrow will see both classes conclude their first phase — and we’ll be bringing you all the news you need to know at the end of the day. Keep it locked on EN, and Go Eventing.
The top ten after day one in Bramham’s CCI4*-S.
Defender Bramham links: Website | Ride Times and Scores | Cross-Country Course | Live-Stream | EN’s Coverage
