Clark Montgomery and Universe Score 50.8 at Badminton

Clark Montgomery and Universe. Photo courtesy of Nico Morgan Photography.

Clark Montgomery and Universe achieved their lowest score yet in a CCI4* this morning at Badminton, posting 50.8, which bests their scores from Badminton last year of 54.3 and 52.0 at Pau. Buzz has been a bouncy ball since arriving on the grounds Tuesday, looking very fresh yesterday in the jog and prancing around in his flat schools, and Jess posted a plea on Facebook for everyone to send zen vibes his way before his test this morning.

While Buzz was still struggling to relax in the test, the horse is slowly but surely improving in this phase. And no rearing French horses were on hand to sabotage the start of Buzz’s test this year, thankfully. Last year, the horse that went right before Clark and Buzz absolutely melted down exiting the arena, which whipped an already excited Buzz into a frenzy.

Clark Montgomery and Universe. Photo courtesy of Nico Morgan Photography.

David O’Connor was in England last week but went back to the States to help riders prepare for Jersey Fresh, which we’ll also be covering this weekend here on EN. He arrived back in England this morning and came straight to the grounds just in time to warm up Clark and Buzz. We didn’t get a chance to chat after the test, as Clark and Jess wanted to get Buzz straight back to stabling to get him settled, so I’ll try to catch up with Team Montgomery later today.

The forecast we dreaded earlier this week continues to bring windy, cold and wet conditions. All things considered, I thought Buzz handled the atmosphere well. Francis Whittington leads in the early going with Easy Target on a score of 36.2. I’ll be back with a full report on the morning’s rides at the lunch break.

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