Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Rebecca Howard turns 35 today, and she celebrated her birthday by scoring a 48.7 in her dressage test with Riddle Master at Badminton Horse Trials, improving on her score of 51.3 from last year. It’s been a very blustery day so far, with the wind rattling the stands in the main stadium causing them to bang around loudly, making for a very distracting atmosphere for the horses. Rupert was very aware of his surroundings during the test, which definitely affected some of their marks when the horse showed tension. But Rebecca handled him incredibly well, riding him extremely careful to keep the lid on.
Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master. Photo courtesy of Nico Morgan Photography.
After working diligently on her dressage with Isobel Wessels here in England, it’s exciting to see Rebecca’s hard work pay off with Rupert, and she said she was very happy with him after the test. Of course, there’s only so much you can do when Mother Nature doesn’t hand you ideal conditions, and considering how wound up Rupert really was — he bounced away after the final halt with his nose in the air — Rebecca did an excellent job for Team Canada. Like the other riders, she agrees Giuseppe Della Chiesa’s course is big but doable, more so after the announcement came this morning that fence 18b, the skinny log after the new mound, has been removed from the course.
Team Canada after Rebecca’s test. Photo by Jenni Autry.
We’re on the lunch break now here at Badminton, and that report is coming up next. No one has bested Peter Flarup and Calista E’s score of 41.8 from this morning, and Paul Tapner and Kilronan still hold the lead on their score of 36.0. But we still have many more big names to come in the afternoon group, including Oliver Townend and Armada, Chris Burton and TS Jamaimo, Mark Todd and Leonidas II, William Fox-Pitt and Parklane Hawk, Andrew Nicholson and Nereo, and our very own Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen. The sun has finally come out here in South Gloucestershire! Stay tuned for much more from Badminton.
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