Ros Canter and Lordship’s Graffalo. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
No one has been able to surpass day one frontrunners, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, on the MARS Badminton Horse Trials leaderboard so far, and at this sunny midpoint of the Friday’s dressage, their 22.4 remains the benchmark for the competition. Closest to the mark so far, though, is 2023 Badminton champions Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, who sit a reasonably snug second on 25.3.
In many ways, the thirteen-year-old British-bred gelding is looking the best he’s ever had – his early trot work earned nearly unanimous 8s and the odd 9, and he received another 9 for his mid-test halt prior to the reinback. We saw a 10 hit the board, too, from Xavier le Sauce at C for the right-handed trot half-pass, and the trending scores looked well set to surpass Tom and ‘Dubs’ – until the flying changes.
In this test, the slightly bitty CCI5* Test C, the first and final of the four flying changes are double-weighted in the scoring – and in the first, Ros and ‘Walter’ scored expensive fours across the board for a rather hoppy change, and in the last, they scored the same again for a slightly stilted effort. Redemptively – or, perhaps more accurately, frustratingly – the middle two changes on the serpentine (the ones, notably, without double-weighting) were much smoother, earning, at the low end, a 6.5, and at the high end, a pair of 8s.
“The changes have always been something he’s struggled with a bit, and I probably just didn’t help him quite enough in those moments,” says Ros. “I thought he was a bit more established than he was — so that’s my fault, and my hands in the air for that one. But he was amazing, overall.”
Ros Canter and Lordship’s Graffalo. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Ros, though, has never been one to cry over spilt milk or slightly skewiff changes, and she was as taken with Walter’s good work as all of us watching him had been.
“I was really pleased with it, actually. I thought his work reflected what he’s doing at home — he’s getting stronger all the time, and I was delighted. I got a little bit distracted at the beginning when he started sneezing, which isn’t always a good sign! But he settled quickly and was great.”
While some horses go into Badminton’s atmospheric ring and shrink, ‘Walter’ has never been a horse to shy away from the spotlight. The small issues with his changes, then, weren’t the result of tension – rather, says Ros, it’s a symptom of trying not to school them too much beforehand.
“I think the changes are just a hard movement for me to practice with him,” she explains. “Once he knows they’re coming, he almost drops the contact, and I can’t ride him up into it properly. So maybe that’s just something I need to manage better.”
Ros Canter and Lordship’s Graffalo. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
After his Burghley win of last season, Ros has given Walter the same routine that we’ve seen her use often with her experienced horses – she’s dialled his workload right back and let him have maximum ‘horse’ time.
“He had a proper holiday, and quite a long time off to get fluffy and enjoy himself,” she smiles. “He came back into work at the end of December and had a good month of just hacking and taking it easy. He didn’t start doing anything too exciting until February. [Then,] I try not to overtrain — my natural instinct is to be the enemy and train too much — but I’ve worked to keep things balanced and give him the time he needs. He knows his job now; he’s a total professional. There was a very hairy picture of him on social media at one point where he looked pretty chubby! But it’s amazing — once he knows Badminton is on the cards, he strips himself up. He knows how to get himself ready.”
Georgie Goss and Feloupe. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Ros’s test puts yesterday’s runners-up, Emily King and Valmy Biats, into provisional third place on their 27.3, while debutant pair Tom Woodward and Low Moore Lucky now sit in fourth on their 27.9. In fact, you have to skim down to eighth place to find our next new entrant to the top ten – and that’s the British-based Irish representative pair of Georgie Goss and Feloupe. They posted a 29.6, one mark better than their test here last year on the mare’s five-star debut.
“I’m absolutely delighted – she was amazing,” says Georgie. “I just made one error in the third change, which was so frustrating, because the changes are usually one of her good bits. But I’m over the moon — she was so good. To still score in the sub-30s, even with that mistake, is fab, isn’t it? I’m really pleased.”
That their score is exactly one mark better this year feels, in a funny sort of way, slightly redemptive: “Last year she got a 30.6, but I entered the arena one second too late and got an error of course. I would have been in the 20s then, so I really wanted to get into the 20s this year,” explains Georgie.
Georgie has had the ride on the now-fifteen year old for five years, and though they had a slow start together, she’s always been excited about the potential she felt in her.
“When I got her, she’d done a short four-star but hadn’t had a great experience — I think she’d lost her confidence,” she says. “So our first year together was mostly at Novice, just rebuilding her. She’s one of those inward worriers — she’s very placid and quiet, and anyone can handle her — but she’s also incredibly sensitive, and she really wants to please. She’s always like, ‘Well, Mum, did I get it right?’”
“I love her,” she continues with a grin. “She’s very elegant, and she tries so hard. She’s not built brilliantly — she’s quite downhill, and with her big paces, she can hang on the forehand a bit. But she really tried in there today. I’ve been working with Ian [Woodhead], and he’s the master — so I was really pleased.”
Felix Vogg and Cartania. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Just a hair’s breadth behind Georgie and ‘Lulu’ is Swiss Olympian and five-star winner Felix Vogg and the fourteen-year-old Cartania, who posted a 29.7 for provisional ninth place ahead of Kylie Roddie and SRS Kan Do (tenth on 30.1).
“I think it was pretty good for her,” says Felix, who was a rare rider to come out of the ring pleasantly surprised at the number on the board – one that represents the mare’s second-best test at this level.
“I wasn’t super happy with how it felt in the ring — at times it seemed like she wasn’t really going forward enough. But they told me it didn’t look like that from the outside, which is good! It always feels different than it looks on the scoreboard, doesn’t it? But yeah, I’ll take that.”
Cartania has finished in the top fifteen here in each of the last two renewals of Badminton – but those were both years notable for their boggy, tough conditions, and this weekend’s challenge is a much faster, top-of-the-ground sort of affair. That, says Felix, is something that he’s been quietly mulling over.
“She’s okay on [firmer ground], but it’s not so easy to get her back in front of the jumps on quicker ground,” says Felix. “It’s easier for her to get going, but maybe that makes it harder for me! We’ll see. She’s very good at cross country, but on this kind of going, she can maybe run a bit too fast. I know that sounds a bit like a stupid complainer kind of thing — a bit of a worry — but that’s the only thing I can think of that might challenge us tomorrow.”
This year’s course is also widely regarded as being much more flowing than the last few years’ tracks have been – which, in conjunction with the quicker ground, could potentially see the cross-country hold less overall influence in the final results.
“I hope it’s difficult enough. I like when the courses are more challenging. I think that’s good for the sport. Most people seem to think the same,” he muses.
The US saw its second representative in the ring this morning in British-born and -raised Grace Taylor, the daughter of US Olympian Ann Sutton and British team selector Nigel Taylor. She and Game Changer trended well throughout almost the entirety of their test and looked set to replicate the impressive 28.9 they posted at Burghley in 2023 – but a late mistake cost them dearly, and they walked away with a 35.4 and provisional 35th place.
That mistake? A beautifully performed but strides-early final flying change, which earned them double-weighted 1s across the board and also impacted their previous movement, the canter half-pass into counter-canter, for which they received 4s for not showing any strides of counter-canter.
Nevertheless, says Grace, “I’m really pleased with him. He tried really hard—he was a very good boy!”
The flying changes were a highlight of Grace’s test, despite that final premature delivery, and that’s something that she’s been hard at work on behind the scenes.
“We’ve been working on everything, but definitely just making sure the changes are mine and not when he decides to throw them in,” she says. “That last change was definitely his change. We did it well, but it was just a little early. Overall, we’ve just been focusing on making the work more secure and consistent — so that the Burghley result two years ago wasn’t a one-off. We want that level of performance to be something we can deliver consistently.”
We’re heading back to the boards now for the latter half of today’s competition, and with some heavy-hitters to come, there’s much that could yet change. Follow along with all the action on Cheg’s live updates or via the livestream on ClipMyHorse.TV, and join us back here after the close of competition for a full report on the key stories of the day. Go Eventing.
The top ten at the Friday lunch break at Badminton.
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