Eventing Nation guest writer Lindsay Pierce sent us this report from Badminton today. As you know Lindsay is a Canadian eventer who is working in England with Badminton rider Lucy Wiegersma, who sits in 19th after the dressage. Thanks Lindsay and thank you for reading.
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From Lindsay:
Although I have been lucky enough to attend Rolex many times as a groom and spectator, this year was my first time at Badminton! I went up today with a couple girls from Lucy’s yard to see the second day of dressage including Lucy’s test. The atmosphere there seems a bit more laid back than at Kentucky, as we strolled into the stabling area with no wristbands and no questioning. The stabling is all permanent and very quiet, with a few stalls in one aisle, five more in another, stalls here there and everywhere and not in big long aisles.
Lucy got a good score putting her in 19th heading into cross country. With around 30 scores in the 40s, everyone except the leader is very close. After the dressage we headed out to walk the cross country with Lucy, and also ended up joining up with William Fox-Pitt for a while. The course looks great, and the ground is good although they are expecting more rain.
XC: The hard questions start early with the Quarry as numbers 3 through 6. Jump, down, up, jump, sharp turn, down, jump, up, jump, I am tired already! Huntsmans Close has a massive corner on a difficult line followed by an angle that would be easy to run past. The riders were spending a lot of time walking back and forth, back and forth at both waters the Lake and the Pond. The Lake is a skinny in with a big drop to a short 4 or long 3 to a narrow, followed by a short distance to the out. It will be interesting to see how that rides, as many seemed a bit up in the air about what to do there, counting on having some to watch. The Pond has a big brush in with a nasty looking landing if you jump it where it would first seem most obvious to get to the very tough angle to the out.
The most treacherous part of the course it turns out is not tripping over the roping when walking! With a large group walking the rope would bounce back up all over the place and I found myself nervous every time we had to cross to get to the jumps.
The TV coverage of Badminton here is amazing with about 6 hours of coverage starting at 11. I will be glued to the TV whenever I’m not on a horse tomorrow cheering Lucy on! I can’t wait to see how some of these jumps ride now that I have had a chance to see them up close. Fingers crossed for a safe day for all.
