Classic Eventing Nation

No longer a bridesmaid: Brookfield Inocent takes the Grantham Cup with Piggy March, giving his connections plenty to celebrate ahead of his Badminton debut. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The first CCI4*-S of the British season is always an excellent early indicator of form ahead of Badminton, and though this year’s fixture took place at a new venue – Nottinghamshire’s grand Thoresby Spring Carnival of Eventing, rather than the nearby Belton House that ran its last in 2019 – the competition felt like a  familiar jumping off point for a typically top-class field of athletes.

106 combinations came forward to deliver a first-phase performance over the last few days, representing a cross-section of some of Britain’s top horsepower and brightest up-and-coming talent, and 94 of those would opt to leave the start box in today’s action-packed finale. Like Belton before it, Thoresby’s season-opening four-star was built with five-star preparation in mind – but unlike Belton, the Thoresby estate has a much smaller swathe of land to work with. While Belton’s capacious grounds allowed for a run-and-jump pipe opener to get the season going, Thoresby delivered a tighter, more technical track, which required focus and control to get the best of. Time, too, was predictably tough, with just five combinations coming home inside the 6.29 optimum – a challenge, inarguably, for this early stage of the year, but one that provided a necessary wake-up call after a long winter off games.

For some riders with five-star entries looming, that wake-up call might feel bittersweet: Badminton-bound competitors such as Ireland’s Susie Berry and John the Bull, Clare Abbott and Jewelent, and the USA’s Matt Flynn and Wizzerd picked up frustrating jumping penalties on course, though with five weeks until cross-country day in the Cotswolds, the opportunity to fine-tune will no doubt be warmly welcomed. There were also some non-completions among the Badminton contingent: Sweden’s Sofia Sjoborg and DHI Mighty Dwight parted company in a harmless, but wholly uncharacteristic, moment of miscommunication at 15AB, an airy set of timber rails on a tight four or open three to an offset brush, while Simon Grieve opted to retire a very fresh Mr Fahrenheit III. Mishaps were kept to a minimum, though, with nearly 82% of competitors coming home sans jumping penalties – a very different story to the tough showjumping course, which yielded just a 51% clear rate.

Ultimately, the win would go to the combination that had led the way from day one. Piggy March and the excellent Brookfield Inocent, a thirteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse owned by John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn, added nothing to their first-phase score of 23.9 in today’s jumping phases, and their three polished performances felt, Piggy explains, like a significant step up in the horse’s development.

“He’s a cross-country horse above all, provided he’s not too spooky and fresh and we don’t do something stupid, so it’s the other two bits that were really cool here,” she says of her European Championships individual silver medallist, who won Blenheim CCI4*-L in 2019 and took second in his five-star debut at Pau in 2020. “We were so excited about the dressage, because I definitely felt it was the best test he’s done yet – and then the others [in the class] did really well, and he was still in front. His frame, his strength, everything has definitely gone up a notch.”

It might seem incongruous that a horse who has consistently scored in the low 20s at four- and five-star could be in need of any improvement – but while the difference might not be immediately apparent to the casual viewer, the major change has been in ‘Arthur’s’ newfound ability to relax into the work and focus, which allows Piggy to push for even more expressive steps. But, she says, she’s not about to get complacent.

“I know as well as anyone that keeping that or getting that again is not as easy as it sounds, and just because we’ve done it today doesn’t mean it’s going to happen [at Badminton]. But you know that it’s in there,” she muses. “He’s always been a very consistent horse, but it’s just great when you know there’s that extra bit in there, and he really gave me that the other day, so I’m really proud of him and where he’s come on in his character. He’s growing up, and I know he’s thirteen, but they’re all different – it wasn’t even a year ago that I was still trotting around and thinking, ‘don’t spook at the flowerpots! Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do whatever.’ So it’s nice to relax and feel that he’s showing himself off rather than still feeling like we could have had a silly mistake.”

Though their 2021 season ultimately ended with two medals at the European Championships, it wasn’t all easy – they were originally selected as travelling reserves for the Olympics, but withdrew after Arthur’s team of owners and Piggy decided not to put the horse under the strain of such significant international travel if an Olympic run wasn’t actually guaranteed. For Piggy, the disappointment was quickly shelved in favor of taking the opportunity to focus on what she could control.

“We never stop learning as riders and as partnerships. Every day you into the school, you figure out something different – it’s not alway the same shit every day, is it? There’s always something that you think, ‘oh, I think that was better — do I try that again?’ Or, ‘I think he’s got more core strength’, or ‘maybe I should ride him a bit more this way, or that way’,” she explains. “Last year was a very pressured year. He’s not a natural dressage horse; he’s more of a Thoroughbred horse, and he’s slightly downhill. He has really nice, balanced paces, but he’s not fancy, and his presence in his character is something you have to work on – so there’s a lot of things you need to squeeze the best out of him and get him to believe in it. After the Olympics didn’t happen I definitely wanted to take a bit of the pressure off myself and him, to not be unnatural with it and just get him to be a good, consistent horse.”

Now, as Arthur shelves his bridesmaid status to take his first win of the year, Piggy’s enjoying the extra confidence boost that comes with finding new depths to her horse’s ability.

“He’s been second so many times, and it’s fine – and now I’m just enjoying a nice horse that I’m getting ready for Badminton. And you know, I might not get this performance or that dressage feel for another six months, but the good thing is I know it’s there. I know our training is doing something, and that means it can come another time – and I’m going to try to keep getting it.”

Brookfield Quality gives Piggy a great feeling to finish just outside tenth place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Piggy also logged a great run on Brookfield Quality, who added 1.2 time penalties in showjumping and a further 5.2 on cross-country to his 25.7 dressage score to finish in 12th place – and though he might have lost out on a spot in the top ten, his bold, focused performance was considerably more exciting to his rider than a placing might have been.

“He was really great in all three bits – though I messed up in the jumping by adding the time penalties,” she laughs. “He doesn’t need 1.2 time in the showjumping, because I know I’m going to lose that on cross-country. I don’t find him as easy to be quick on as Arthur; he’s a very different kettle of fish, and I nearly gave him another OI run instead, as it usually takes him a few runs to not jump so up and down and get so high and waste a second and a half over every jump. But then it was like, does he actually need another run? With him, it’s all about the building blocks at the beginning of the year – and that was a lot of blocks built today.”

Those blocks, says Piggy, came as the result of clever course design, which offered a fair challenge for the first major run of the season – and minimised the need for further runs in the lead-up to this spring’s long-format events.

“There was enough questions, it rode twisty enough, and the time was tight enough to get – and there were different sorts of questions. There were real rider questions that made you think about whether you wanted to hold for your distances or go for your distances. It was a good enough test at this stage of the season that if my horse doesn’t run again before Badminton, he’s had enough to do. That’s all that matters, rather than thinking, ‘shit, I need to have another run, because that’s not given us enough of a wake up or enough to think about before we go.”

“It’s the stuff of dreams, really”: Bubby Upton takes second place with Cola III – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There’s no one who multitasks quite as impressively as 23-year-old Bubby Upton, who dismounted from her final ride of the day and immediately commenced a mad dash to Heathrow Airport. There, she got on a plane back to Edinburgh University, at which she’s in the final throes of her last year studying Sports Management. She’s spent the last few days writing essays in her lorry whenever she’s not riding, and today she had five horses to showjump and take cross-country across the Advanced and four-star sections – but her frenetic pace and hyperfocus paid off when she was crowned the leading rider of the event for having earned the most points across the weekend.

“What a weekend – it’s the stuff of dreams, really,” says Bubby, who also won the prestigious Polly Phillips Memorial Prize, given to the highest-placed British rider who hasn’t yet ridden on a senior championship team. “It’s been, and it still remains, a very stressful time with university, and it’s all pretty overwhelming, so it was great – and really, I’m quite proud of my team and I for the resilience and strength we showed this weekend with six horses and essays and dissertations and everything. Going back to the lorry was essay time; there was no time to relax, so I’m really proud of what we achieved.”

Her second-place finish in the Grantham Cup certainly contributed enormously to that honour. She and her Badminton entrant, Cola III, were the only pair other than the winners to finish on their dressage score, and their stylish, educated round saw them deliver a masterclass in tactical time management as they eked fractions of seconds out of their chosen lines.

“He really is an unbelievable horse,” she says. “He started off the year kind of acting like a four-year-old, and he was quite ridiculous in the showjumping at Lincoln Horse Trials, to be honest. But we kept the faith, and he was just fantastic this week, he really was.”

Part of the pair’s success this week can be contributed to a change of bit – after years of struggling with Cola’s tricky oral conformation, Bubby has found the sweet spot with a Bomber Happy Tongue bit for the first phase.

“He did a stunning test – we’ve really got to the bottom of [the bitting] issue, so he was lovely and light and soft, though I did mess up one of my changes,” she says.

Bubby, who made her five-star debut at Pau last autumn, has always been keen to put herself up against the highest standard of competition, and this weekend’s field provided a fitting challenge ahead of her first Badminton.

“It was a hell of a competitive section, and I do scroll through the results and think, ‘oh my god!’ for a second,” she laughs. “I know what [my horses] are capable of, but to put it all together and to beat some of those names is truly amazing. I think what massively played to my strengths today was the cross-country time; that’s his strength and it’s my strength, and he really shone in that phase, which was just fantastic.”

Bubby Upton’s Cannavaro takes sixth in early preparation for a trip tp Luhmühlen CCI5* in June. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Bubby also finished sixth on Cannavaro, with whom she scooped the national under-25 title at Bicton’s Bramham replacement feature last June. He added just 0.4 time penalties in showjumping to his first phase score of 29.5, proving his mettle early on ahead of his intended entry at Luhmühlen CCI5* in June.

“He’s a dude, and he’s the one that just keeps exceeding all our expectations,” she says. “I am kicking myself for that time fault, though – when you’re sat on a jumper like that, you just spend too much time in the air. I rang my showjumping trainer and was like, ‘I had a time fault’, and she said ‘Bubby — you idiot! You’re clearly just sitting and having far too nice a time!’ And that’s it! That is the issue – I just sit there and enjoy it so much. He’s such a privilege to jump; he’s just class, and I’ll probably never have a jumper like him again. And then I go and get a time fault!”

Cannavaro followed up that classy – if, okay, one second slow – showjumping round with a foot-perfect trip across Stuart Buntine’s cross-country course, romping home as one of the fastest of the day.

“He’s just coming on and on and on – you wouldn’t think it’s a time for them to be improving, at [the age of] fifteen, but he really is,” says Bubby, who also finished second and third in Advanced section K with Billy Liffy and Magic Roundabout. The sheer variety among her rides, which included two self-made horses, a prior Chris Burton ride, a Thoroughbred, and an inherited mount with a topsy-turvy record, meant that even her time away from her dissertation was something of an academic pursuit.

“It was really cool, because I had five go around the same track, and so it was so interesting comparing them. They all jumped everything so differently, and my minute markers went off at different times, and it was really interesting seeing where they all made up time or lost time.”

Though her pace isn’t set to slow down anytime soon — Bubby’s final university dissertation deadline is set for the Monday after Badminton, a fact she resignedly says “doesn’t bear thinking about” – she’s able to maintain her stride with the help of an excellent team, which includes head girl Katie Dumas and mum Rachel. Together, they even managed to find a solution when Bubby’s second groom for the weekend tested positive for COVID-19.

“That was pretty stressful but luckily it all got sorted – Katie’s friend, who’s a showjumping groom, ended up coming and being our knight in shining armour,” she says. “Katie’s just an absolute rock in my team, and I couldn’t do any of it without her. I’m so grateful to her, and my family, and my trainers and everyone, because to say it’s a team effort with what I put on my plate is an understatement. I couldn’t do it without any of them, and I’m just the lucky one that gets to pick up the prizes.”

Gold medallists Laura Collett and London 52 sail through the weekend on superb form for third place. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Olympic team gold medallists Laura Collett and London 52 have become the benchmark to which everyone compares themselves, and their excellent form continued on apace with a third place finish in this class. They earned a 24.8 in yesterday’s dressage and added just 2 time penalties across the country today, making light work of the course’s technical questions along the way.

“He felt amazing, really confident – he’s come out super from last year, and it was a good run before Badminton,” she says. “It’s been a very long time since he did an event, because he finished in August, so it’s just an absolute pleasure to have him back out. He’s a phenomenal horse to ride, and I just feel very honoured and lucky to ride a horse like him – so I try to enjoy every stride and every moment, because I know he’s so special.”

Like Piggy, Laura was pleased with the course’s level of technicality, which she felt offered sufficient preparation for next month’s five-star effort.

“It rode really nicely. It had good questions, and positive riding was rewarded, which I think is really good for the sport. I really enjoyed riding it – and now the goal is just to keep him in one piece,” she says with a laugh.

Laura also enjoyed a double feature on the leaderboard: she claimed fifth place with her Aachen runner-up Dacapo, who continued last year’s upward tick of mature performances across the phases.

Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir look ahead to a Kentucky debut after a successful season opener. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This weekend’s competition was something of a test run for last year’s Blenheim winners, 25-year-old Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir: if it went well, fulfilling their entry for this month’s Kentucky CCI5* would become a much more likely prospect. Their eventual fourth-place finish, in which they added just 3.2 time penalties to their first-phase score of 26.4, certainly makes them hot contenders for what will be the French-bred gelding’s first five-star.

“It’s the first international of the year, and you’ve got to come out of the box and go for it, really – and I’m so pleased with how he’s been in all three phases,” she says. “Obviously the dressage is always where you can gain marks, and with him being very able and lovely to look at, just trying to squeeze every mark out of him in the dressage is very important, because it’s all in there. And his jumping is usually very solid; he’s very consistent in that phase. On cross-country you put them in a situation to see how they’ll react, and today I had that: at the birch rails to the corner at 15AB I was a little bit off on the three, and he had an opportunity to run out, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he was going between the flags. Those moments give you a lot of confidence, and it’s nice to know that he’s feeling that way and wanting to go. There’s lots to take away from today.”

Though their placing was a welcome bonus, Yasmin’s aim wasn’t necessarily to chase down a lightning-fast round this week, but rather to use the run for some fine-tuning – and along the way, she was pleased to take stock of his impressive reserves: “The time was fairly tight, and I wasn’t going hell for leather everywhere, so there was definitely more in the tank, but I think for this run, it was more important to get the combinations right. It would have been nice to make the time, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it – at a long format there’s so much more galloping, and I think that suits him better anyway.”

Now, Yasmin hopes, the wheels are well in motion for Kentucky — administrative details notwithstanding.

“I think we’ve been very last minute with it, because the entries shut earlier on this week – so we had to get the entry in to have our Plan A. It was all a little bit riding on today to make sure he was in a good frame of mind and feeling well, and I think we’re pretty good to go, though there’s a lot of extra logistics to think about — it’s a long old trip over the ocean,” she laughs. Though fans of the pair may have been surprised to see them opt to go abroad rather than to Badminton, for Yasmin and her longtime owners, Sue and Jeanette Chinn, it’s a move that makes sense this year.

“It wasn’t a decision that we made overnight. We thought about both, and then decided that Badminton might be better for him next year. It hasn’t been on for two years, so it’s going to have anyone who’s anyone there and it’s going to be big and bold, as Badminton always is. Sue and Jeanette have had horses compete at Kentucky before, and it’s an event they’ve loved and enjoyed – so the Kentucky option was very appetising for them, and it’s a great opportunity for me and the horse at this stage to hopefully go and do well.”

European Champions Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin are on form for a top-ten finish. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Five-star entrants largely dominated the bottom half of the top ten, too: in seventh place, Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin looked on excellent form in their first international since they became European Champions, and Emily King and Valmy Biats climbed to eighth place after crossing the finish line just one second over the optimum time. Both pairs are aiming for Badminton next month.

Emily King’s Badminton entrant, the micro syndicate owned Valmy Biats, quietly steps onto the leaderboard after three professional phases. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

British-based Italian Giovanni Ugolotti propels his Swirly Temptress to something of a dark horse finish, taking ninth place out of 109 starters. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It was a welcome surprise to see Italy’s Giovanni Ugolotti step into the top ten with the ten-year-old Swirly Temptress, who took ninth place after adding 1.2 cross-country time penalties to her dressage score of 30.5. This is a best-ever four-star placing for the mare, who finished third in 2019’s seven-year-old national championship but has taken some time to get consistently competitive in all three phases.

“She’s getting there! I always thought that she was going to be a very good horse, and everything is slowly coming together,” says Gio, who is based in Gloucester with his wife, Canadian eventer Kathryn Robinson.

Today, the mare hit two major milestones: she delivered her quickest cross-country round at four-star, and her first clear showjumping round, too.

“Today she gave me a great feeling in both phases — for her, the showjumping is always the tricky phase, and today she probably jumped the best she ever has. On cross-country she’s always been very, very good; she’s not the quickest, because at the end of the day she’s dressage-bred, but today I wanted to see if she could gallop — and she did, so I was super pleased. The fences are never a question — for her, it’s about learning to stretch her lungs.”

Though a call-up for this September’s World Championships could be on the cards for the pair, Gio is largely focused on continuing to develop her with an eye on the future and a focus on her strengths – and she’s certainly keeping it interesting for him along the way.

“She’s quite a bit of a princess, and we do actually call her Princess at home,” he laughs. “But I broke her in; I’ve known her since we was three, and we know each other inside out. She’s a bit of a spicy mare, but when they come good, they are really good. And to finish in the top ten in a field like this? It’s very exciting.”

Pippa Funnell gives Kentucky-bound Maybach a confidence-giving ride to round out the top ten. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Finally, Kentucky-bound duo Pippa Funnell and Maybach rounded out the top ten after delivering a solid round across the country for 4.4 time penalties. Though the 12-year-old Swedish Warmblood has largely gone under the radar in Pippa’s impressive string, in part because he missed the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he’s now clocked up four top-ten finishes at four-star and comes forward as a dark horse contender for top spot at his five-star debut.

Tune in tomorrow for plenty more bonus content from this exciting inaugural British event — plus, we’ll be bringing you lots of analysis on the field’s five-star entrants in our upcoming Badminton and Kentucky form guides. Until next time: Go Eventing!

The final top ten in Thoresby’s inaugural CCI4*-S hints at a hugely exciting five-star double-feature to come.

Thoresby Spring Eventing Carnival: [Website] [Live Scoring] [EN’s Coverage] [EN’s Twitter] [EN’s Instagram]

Laura Collett and London 52 pose the greatest threat to day one dressage leaders Piggy March and Brookfield Inocent, who nonetheless remained unsurpassed at the culmination of the phase. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

When Piggy March and her European silver medallist Brookfield Inocent put a slick 23.9 on the board yesterday, there were just a few horses on today’s line-up that we could feasibly eye up with a view to overtaking them – and the frontrunner, Laura Collett‘s Tokyo team gold medallist London 52, certainly gave it a jolly good go. But though he certainly gave them the old razzle dazzle, as the theatre kids say, his 24.8 wasn’t quite enough to usurp them. And so, as we look towards tomorrow’s jumping phases in the CCI4*-S at Thoresby, we’re looking at a head-to-head between two of the hot favourites to go and win Badminton in a scant few weeks.

Or are we? After all, the first CCI4*-S of the season isn’t an end goal in and of itself, and because Thoresby is effectively a brand new event – it hosted the British Six- and Seven-Year-Old classes and associated CCI2*-L and CCI3*-L ordinarily held at Osberton in 2020, but the launch of its Spring Carnival has been put on hold throughout the pandemic – there’s a strong sense that many horses will be run conservatively. It’s not just because it’s a new event and, as such, an unknown quantity to riders, either – it’s also quite an intense track, certainly when compared to the former fixture at Belton House that it replaces. There, we saw a lot of open space and galloping fences to serve as a pipe-opener at the beginning of the year; here, we’re looking at a smaller event site, and that means that the track is tighter as a matter of necessity, with plenty of technical questions.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are certainly plenty of pros to a run-and-jump four-star track at this point of the year: for many horses, a pipe-opener takes the edge off and gets them going again after a long winter of training, while riders are able to glean feedback on fitness levels and weak points ahead of their major spring run. But a track that demands focus and accuracy knocks a different kind of rust off, and while it may mean that many riders opt to ride more deliberately (and thus slowly) to avoid risking a frustrating run-out, it does allow them to make sure the power steering is all working as it ought to. Exposing a weakness in the training now might feel frustrating – but with just over a month to go before Badminton, it does allow some modicum of time to do something about it.

But before we do too deep a dive into tomorrow’s challenge, let’s take about our top two, who are both horses with plenty of experience over tight, twisty tracks: Brookfield Inocent was second at Pau in 2020, the year that London 52 won it. Both horses were debutants at the level, too, and each has since gone on to claim a gold medal on a championship team. And though we’re used to seeing London 52’s work rewarded with low-20s scores, both look on superb form after a winter out of the spotlight.

“He’s been a bit frisky in his OI runs,” laughs Laura, “but luckily he does know that when it’s a big arena, he has to behave properly! I think he just gets a bit offended by a smaller ring. But he came out really professionally today, and the main thing is that he was with me and rideable – sometimes, he looks better than he feels, but today he felt really nice.”

This is a feeling that Laura hopes to further refine out on course, where the challenges come in droves and even her excellent gelding — who’s become something of a flag-seeking missile across the country — will need to pay attention to find his way through sans penalties.

“I think everything’s going to come up thick and fast. You’re not just jumping a combination — you’re doing a turn back to the next thing and it’s all coming up fast, so you just have to be on it from the beginning. It’s going to test their — and my — reactions, really.”

Laura also sits in provisional eighth place with Aachen runner-up Dacapo, who posted a 26.6, and 61st with the former Alex Bragg ride Hester, who scored a 35.6.

Harry Meade gives Little Fire an excellent ride under the watchful eye of William Fox-Pitt, for whom he’s deputising this week. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Harry Meade is a very busy boy indeed this week, with three horses of his own in this class – plus the last-minute addition of two bonus catch-rides, one of which partnered him to podium position at the tail end of the day. Little Fire is one of William Fox-Pitt‘s two intended rides at Badminton – the other is Oratorio II, who Harry rode yesterday to a rather spicy 35.4 – but after a tumble at Cirencester last weekend in a Novice class, William has been sidelined with a mandatory 21-day competition ban, which is delivered to any rider rendered unconscious in a fall. Harry deputised for William two days later, riding both horses around the Open Intermediate, and now will give the geldings their prep run here while William works on reaching five-star fitness independently.

Though Oratorio, who William has fondly described as an occasional ‘double handful’, tested the boundaries in some moments of yesterday’s test, Little Fire stepped up as the model pupil today with his regular rider casting a watchful eye from the sidelines. As a result, he was rewarded with a very promising 25.4, which puts him in third in this hot field of of 99.

Several withdrawals have shifted the landscape of the leaderboard even before the jumping phases begin. Izzy Taylor and Monkeying Around sat fourth at the end of the day on 25.4 but have since pulled out; so, too, has Oliver Townend, who was eleventh and equal fifteenth with Swallow Springs and Ballaghmor Class, respectively, at the end of the phase. This is par for the course for Oliver, who tends to use the first four-star of the season as test prep and runs his horses at Burnham Market instead, and we’ve seen Izzy follow suit previously, too.

Ros Canter and Allstar B deliver a very sweet test that’s surprisingly undermarked. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Izzy’s withdrawal allowed reigning World Champions Ros Canter and Allstar B to step into equal tenth place, which they share with Kentucky-bound Pippa Funnell and Maybach on a score of 27.5.

“Alby’s on really great form,” says Ros, who credits a change of routine over the winter with helping him to get back to his best. This comes after an uncharacteristic end to their 2021 season, in which they had issues on course at the European Championships at Avenches, a track that the big-striding horse struggled to find the rhythm of. Prior to that, the pair had travelled to Tokyo as reserves for the British Olympic team – a trip that cut out much of the productive running time of the summer season.

“Last year was a very long year for him, and obviously it didn’t go quite to plan in lots of ways, so I was very mindful that I didn’t want to come out with a horse that wasn’t up for the job this year,” she explains. “So he predominantly hacks nowadays; if he does do any schooling, he’ll school out on a hack, rather than doing lots of arena work – and he definitely feels happy.”

For Ros, as for so many of our five-star-bound competitors, this weekend is a question of tactics: riders have to know their horses well enough to make the call on whether they’ll benefit more from trying to catch the time or trying to refine the communication basics, which can often pick up some rust over the course of a long winter. In Alby’s case, the emphasis is set to be far more on the latter than on a fast, competitive run.

“Twisty and turny’s not Alby’s ideal, but I also wouldn’t necessarily ever try to make this a winning run pre-Badminton, so a bit of twisting and turning might just help his manners a bit, and then he’ll get to run at Badminton,” she says. “I think it’s a really interesting track; it’s lovely and open at the start, and then it’s twisty for quite a long time with a lot of questions. It’s definitely more than an OI run!”

Matt Flynn and Wizzerd put their early-season prep to the test in their first major pre-Badminton outing. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We were particularly excited to catch up with Matt Flynn, who swapped 90-degree Ocala heat for April snow flurries in pursuit of his Badminton goals. After a fruitful European trip last autumn, which saw them contest Boekelo CCI4*-L and then on to Italy for Montelibretti’s CCI4*-S and Pratoni’s CCI4*-L, Matt opted to leave Wizzerd to enjoy his winter holidays at Arville, the Belgian base of Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Kai Steffen Meier. In December, they trained for a month from there, and in mid-January, the pair relocated to Maizey Manor in Wiltshire – a long-standing hub for American eventers on tour – and began their preparations in earnest.

“It’s just ten minutes from Tim and Jonelle Price, who have been kind to enough to lend me a lot of guidance through this trip so far,” says Matt, who also has a seven-year-old and a four-year-old in the UK with him.

Today, he and Wizzerd delivered a sweet test – with one exuberant moment in the first flying change — for a respectable 34.1, which puts them into 42nd ahead of tomorrow’s jumping phases and well and truly kicks their season off.

“Wizzerd’s been great — and he’s excited to be out,” says Matt, who admits that the British season — which starts later than the Florida one, mostly because we were buried under mud and ice here until approximately yesterday, feels like a very short one in the run-up to a five-star.

“I was anxious to get going, to be honest, because it felt like everyone at home was up and going, and it’s a little bit of a different calendar – but it feels nice to have had the time and the training on the horses I have here. And this — well, it’s a beautiful setting, and it seems like it’s going to be a great run.”

Tomorrow takes us neatly into the culmination of Thoresby’s CCI4*-S, in which the prestigious Grantham Cup will be awarded – a prize that, since its inception at Belton in 2006, has been awarded to some of the top British-based combinations, including Sam Griffiths and Happy Times, Oliver Townend and Ashdale Cruise, Vittoria Panizzon and Borough Pennyz, and Ruth Edge and Two Thyme. Showjumping for the remaining 99 combinations will begin at 10:00 a.m. BST (5.00 a.m. EST), while cross-country will begin at 12.22 BST (7.22 a.m.). You can check out the cross-country course in its entirety here – and although we’re sorry to say there’s no live-stream available this year, we’ll be back tomorrow evening to bring you a full report and analysis, plus our views on what the day’s action means for our Kentucky- and Badminton-bound entrants.

Stay safe, kick on, and Go Eventing!

The top ten going into tomorrow’s jumping phases in the Thoresby CCI4*-S.

Thoresby Spring Eventing Carnival: [Website] [Live Scoring] [EN’s Coverage] [EN’s Twitter] [EN’s Instagram]

Piggy March cuts an imposing figure on the first day of 2022’s first British four-star, taking an easy one-two with two Brookfield-owned horses [pictured, Brookfield Quality]. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

2019 was a pretty good year, in hindsight, wasn’t it? We didn’t have a global pandemic to reckon with; energy prices hadn’t skyrocketed; we weren’t yet collectively suffering from some sort of generalised weirdness as a result of being inside for too long, alone with our house plants. Oh, and Piggy March won, like, everything.

Well, colour us well and truly deja vu-ed, because the first day of dressage in the CCI4*-S at the Thoresby Spring Carnival of Eventing – the replacement for Belton Horse Trials that’s been patiently waiting for its moment since 2020 — was all about March Madness, v2.0. Amidst a few unwelcome snow flurries and in the confines of Thoresby Hall’s fairytale walled garden, she delivered a double-handed attack on the class that’s left her in first and second place going into day two.

“This was definitely one of his best tests physically and mentally — all around, really, he felt very good and grown up,” says Piggy of Brookfield Inocent, with whom she took team gold and individual silver at last year’s European Championships and who will be one of her rides at Badminton next month. His 23.9 might not be the lowest score he’s ever delivered – that accolade goes to his 2020 Burgham CCI4*-S test, which earned him a 21.8 – but it was enough to give him a nearly two-point lead in the class. And now, enthuses Piggy, the thirteen-year-old gelding really feels like he’s ready to give his best stuff.

“He’s always been a slightly spooky horse; you don’t always see it, but he’s never been one you can always go in and trust not to find a monster in there,” she says. “But he feels like he’s grown up there, and in his self carriage — he’s a blood horse, and as much as he’s lovely and moves very well, it’s always been about finding that last bit of self carriage to be able to hold himself up to the high standard and the consistency.”

Sitting second on a 25.7 is stablemate Brookfield Quality – or Nervous Norris to his friends, because of his slightly anxious character. Getting to the bottom of him, and producing top quality work, has been about fine-tuning and compromising in the preparation, Piggy explains.

“He’s actually always been super consistent in his dressage,” she says. “He just always tries really hard! He’s been a bit of a slow burner to develop physically and mentally as well. Both of them are Irish horses, and as quality and as talented as they are, they’ve been slightly slow burners in various aspects. [Norris] is terrified of the warm-up with too many people in it, so I warmed him up at the top and then walked him down there and then picked him up to warm up around the test arena — any more than that and he can start to jump around a bit, but I know I can trust him to just pick him up right before the test.”

Bubby Upton and Badminton entrant Cola III get their prep under way in fine style. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It’s not just established British stalwarts that enjoyed their moment in the spotlight today – the young guns certainly had their time to shine too, helmed by under-25 National Champion Bubby Upton and her Badminton entrant Cola III. They sit in third place provisionally on a score of 26.1 – almost, though not quite, a personal best internationally.

“He was mega – I’m so pleased with him,” she beams, before chastising herself for a mistake in one flying change: “obviously, that was expensive, but hopefully it’ll be where it needs to be at Badminton!”

Though Cola has been an enormously consistent competitor with Bubby in the irons, maintaining his progress through the levels hasn’t always been straightforward – but the pair had a eureka moment over the winter when they finally found a bit that would suit his tricky oral conformation in the Bomber Bits Happy Tongue.

“He’s come on so much this winter. I don’t like to make excuses or anything, but we have really struggled with his mouth over the years – he’s been uncomfortable, and we’ve never been able to get a bit that fits him. He has a peculiarly shaped mouth and really fleshy lips, so we finally found a bit that doesn’t rub him – and he’s so happy, I can’t even tell you. It’s so nice knowing that he’s comfortable now.”

Bubby Upton’s Bicton under-25 CCI4*-L victor Cannavaro shows off a winter’s worth of dedicated training, which Bubby fits in around her studies. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Bubby’s second ride, her national title partner Cannavaro, also delivered an excellent test for 29.5, which sees them in 12th place at the halfway point.

“He’s come on a lot in the last couple of years, and that really shone through last year,” she says. “He always puts a big smile on my face because he makes me so proud; he keeps exceeding expectations. We never expected him to be at this level – not because he doesn’t have the ability, but because he’s not very blood. But he feels super; he’s fit and fresh and I was so pleased that he maintained it in there. I just fluffed up one change – the opposite to the one on the other horse! So I haven’t managed to nail a test yet [in this class]. But I’m delighted with him, as we’ve been working hard to consolidate the changes over the winter. He has one good one and the other one, because he was a show jumper, has just taken a while.”

Despite two errors on course, Pippa Funnell still manages a 26.4 with on-form Billy Walk On. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Spare a thought for poor Pippa Funnell, who accidentally played a blinder of an April Fool’s joke on herself by losing her way twice in her test with the leggy Billy Walk On, who’s looking arguably the best we’ve seen him in this phase. Though the navigational issues, which happened before the second flying change and in the extended trot diagonal, were expensive, such was the quality of the work produced in the test that the pair still went on to score a 26.4 and equal fourth overnight, which most of us still wouldn’t manage to get if we followed a SatNav and slipped the judge a tenner.

Billy Walk On — or Feale, as he’s known at home — has always been a remarkably elegant horse for his size, and competitive dressage tests are certainly not beyond the norm for him; he led the dressage at Bicton’s pop-up CCI5* last autumn on a 23.9, ultimately finishing second. Without access to the test sheet, it’s hard to gauge the context of today’s mark: though there were two errors of course, the bell was only run once – if Pippa has been penalised just for the second error, her score without it would have been a very good 24.4. But if both were penalised, her score without would have been a 20.4 – a significant all-time personal best for the gelding, who is set to make his return to Badminton next month.

We opted not to shove a recording device in Pippa’s face after her test for obvious reasons – Pippa, if you’re reading this, we’ll circle back on Sunday after you’ve almost certainly won a prize – but we do want to leave you with this little gem:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Pippa Funnell Official (@pippafunnell.official)

Never change, Pip.

Up-and-comer Yasmin Ingham pilots her Blenheim CCI4*-L winner Banzai du Loir to a respectable first-day placing. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

25-year-old Yasmin Ingham has a couple of things in common with Pippa, with whom she shares a score of 26.4 and overnight fourth place: they’re both among the elite group of leading British female riders, they’ve both got a collection of national titles under their belts, and they’re both, rather more immediately, planning a trip across the pond to contest the Kentucky CCI5*.

Yasmin’s ride for the week will be the exquisite debutant Banzai du Loir, who scooped the reallocated eight- and nine-year-old championship CCI4*-S in 2020 and then returned to its usual home to win the Blenheim CCI4*-L last year. Since Yasmin took the ride on Banzai over from France’s Axel Coutte in 2019, they’ve swiftly become one of Britain’s most exciting partnerships – no small feat in a country with such significant strength in depth. Now, they’re aiming for the horse’s five-star debut as one of Kentucky’s foremost rookie pairs – but as with any five-star entry, the lead-up is all about taking it one day, and one ride, at a time. And today’s? It certainly didn’t disappoint.

“I’m really happy with Banzai; he did a really lovely test with some really super work,” says Yasmin. “His highlights were definitely his flying changes; we’ve been trying to work on those over the winter and they were really spot on today, so I was happy with that. His extended trot was brilliant – again, we’re just trying to grab those extra marks for the accuracy, because I feel that’s where we drop a few. For example, he cantered before I asked him to in the walk-to-canter transition at A, which will have cost us a bit, but all in all, I’m delighted. He just keeps getting better, which is very exciting, and I feel like he’s really becoming developed at this level. He has a very busy brain, and keeping him on side mentally is the golden key.”

Nicola Wilson and Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S winner Coolparks Sarco close out the day with a test that shows off their winter homework. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Reigning European Champion Nicola Wilson rode through some warm-up ring theatrics with her 2021 Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old winner Coolpark Sarco, who returns for his ten-year-old season looking physically stronger, no doubt helped along by his solid end-of-season run at Boekelo last year. He was rewarded with a 27.1 – incidentally, the exact score he received in his first FEI run of 2021 – and then merrily shed all notions of civility as he merrily bucked his way back to the stables.

“I thought he did some lovely work and was really expressive,” says Nicola. “He rushed through the bridle in his two changes a little bit, but I was overall pleased with his test. He feels a lot stronger this year – and he’s very happy to be back out!”

Ballaghmor Class delivers a solid showing that doesn’t yet push the barriers of his capabilities in his first international of the year. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The man who started his career as eventing’s dark horse seems to be determined to continue his legacy of top-level successes with, well, white horses; today, Oliver Townend delivered two provisional top ten tests with excellent grey horses, taking ninth overnight with Burghley and Kentucky winner Ballaghmor Class and seventh with new ride, the former Andrew Nicholson five-star mount Swallow Springs, who produced a 27.6 to take an early lead in the class and demonstrated that the partnership, which came together in the latter part of the 2021 season and netted a tenth-place finish at Blenheim, has well and truly hit its stride.

Though Ballaghmor Class performed with his usual polished professionalism, it was a touch more conservative than many of his previous efforts at the level, and the resultant score of 28.9 felt a far cry from the 20.8 he scored at Badminton in 2018. But lest the naysayers take it as a sign that the World Number One’s iron horse is losing his touch, think again: we’ve seen Ballaghmor Class deliver a similar effort, at Belton in 2019 where he scored a 30.3, and then go on to put a 21.1 on the board at Badminton. And just as Oliver used to do with Belton, it would seem he’s got a solid plan for his top horses this weekend: get a test on the board, jump a round of show jumps, and then withdraw, saving the run for Burnham Market in a couple of weeks.

Full-time supermodel and part-time eventer Edie Campbell storms into the top ten with Fireball F. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The top ten after day one is full of household names of the British eventing scene, but sitting in provision eighth place on a respectable 27.9 is a rider who’s well-known for a rather different reason.

Supermodel Edie Campbell is at her most recognisable when gracing the pages of Vogue or traversing runways at fashion weeks the world over, but in her limited free time, it turns out she’s just as much of a weird horse girl as the rest of us – and producing her top horse, Fireball F, to the upper levels has been a labour of love for the multitasking rider over the past few seasons as she balances her jet-setting career with the nomadic life of an eventer.

“The system kind of works itself out – it’s tricky, because work can be super last minute, which means you can’t plan. But everyone’s pretty used to it by now and I’m quite zen about it,” she explains. “[Groom] Becca sorts the nags and I know precisely how long it’ll take me to get from the gallops to Heathrow Airport. Basically, it’s usually workable – but you have to be happy to be flexible and I accept that the perfect prep might not be possible.”

This afternoon, though, it all fell into place.

“Today was kind of wild – I have a lot of screenshots of my name quite far up the leaderboard, which is a novelty for me,” she says. Their test, which represents a personal best for the partnership at any level, has come as the result of a sea change in Edie’s system.

“There’s been a bit of a regime change at home this winter, which has meant, firstly, that all the ponies are in a bit of a new system in terms of their management, and that I’m training with new people, which seems to be working out. Izzy Taylor’s been helping me the last couple of weeks, and she warmed me up today – and I guess she knows what she’s doing!”

What has developed, Edie explains, is a horse that feels “a whole lot more rideable, and I’m riding better. Last year I felt like dressage was something that happened to me, and now I’m a bit more taking the wheel. [Izzy has] put me in a position where I can have a bit more of a say – plus, I have her old head groom, Becca Rossi, on my team now, and she’s equal parts fantastic and terrifying. I know I’ll get such an eye roll if I don’t ride well, so that kind of holds me accountable!”

With two influential jumping phases left to come on Sunday Edie is remaining pragmatic about the job ahead of her with the 12-year-old gelding, who she’s produced through the grades after purchasing him as a seven-year-old show jumper.

“He’s the cutest little spoilt brat,” she says fondly. “He’s super classy and knows it. But we’ve had some issues across country at four-star, so I’m gonna bask in his dressage score for the next 24 hours – and then I’ve got to step up and make the jumping happen.”

Ros Canter’s Paris prospect, the exciting Lordships Graffalo, takes a first-day top-ten position in the walled garden. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Finally, Ros Canter rounds out the top ten overnight on Lordships Graffalo, the ten-year-old British-bred heir apparent to her World Champion Allstar B, who will contest this class himself tomorrow. ‘Walter’, as the young horse is known, put a polished 29.4 on the board, not quite reaching the exceptional low scores of his 2021 season, in which he finished in the top two in four of his five FEI runs, but proving once again that he’s every bit as classy as Ros has hoped.

Tomorrow will bring us another jam-packed day of dressage, with highlights including tests from Laura Collett and London 52, Izzy Taylor and Monkeying Around, Ben Hobday and Shadow Man II, Emily King and Valmy Biats, European Champions Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin, and our own Matt Flynn and Wizzerd and Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. We’ll be back with a full report on how it all goes down, as well as a preview of what’s to come on Saturday.

Until then, folks: stay weird and Go Eventing.

The top ten is a showcase of British female talent (and, um, Oliver Townend) in the Grantham Cup CCI4*-S after day one of dressage.

Thoresby Spring Eventing Carnival: [Website] [Live Scoring] [EN’s Coverage] [EN’s Twitter] [EN’s Instagram]