David O'Connor gives Liz Halliday-Sharp some final coaching before her test with Fernhill By Night. Photo used with permission from Saumur Facebook page.
With the second day of dressage at Saumur almost complete, both Doug Payne and Liz Halliday-Sharp are sitting in the top 10 in the CCI3*. Liz and Fernhill By Night went very early this morning, scoring 46.6, his personal best score in a CCI3* and a a big jump over their score of 51.8 at Boekelo last fall. I’m sure she’s thrilled with Blackie, and that score puts them in seventh place provisionally with about 10 horses left to go in the big 72-horse field.
Doug Payne and Crown Talisman went at 8:05 a.m. EST, so I was able to catch their test on the live stream. Though the camera is parked really far from the arena, I could make out that Tali looked relaxed and focused. Both halts looked beautiful; both changes looked perfect. And the score rewarded Doug and Tali for a beautiful test — 43.4, which puts them in fourth place provisionally.
Team USA! Photo used with permission from Saumur Facebook page.
Both Doug and Liz will be blogging about their tests for EN — and hopefully video will surface at some point today — so keep checking back today for much more from Saumur. Be sure to check out Uptown Eventing’s Facebook page for photos, as well as Saumur’s Facebook page. I contacted Saumur about photos of our Americans yesterday, and they were kind enough to post photos of Team USA today, so go “like” the page and show them some love. Go Saumur!
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