Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister. Photo courtesy of Nico Morgan Photography.
Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister were the fourth pair out this morning on the second day of dressage here at Badminton Horse Trials, and Finn definitely looked up but under control when she brought him into the stadium. He settled beautifully when they started the test, and the marks were coming in very high for the early movements — 8s and 9s. But he unfortunately got away from her after the walk pirouette just before the extended trot, and he broke to canter and then kept breaking until about halfway down the diagonal — a real shame since Tiana didn’t get to show off the horse’s lovely extended trot.
Tiana Coudray signs an autograph for a young fan. Follow EN on Instagram for more behind the scenes photos like this.
They recovered well from the mistake and still posted very good marks for the remainder of the test, scoring 43.7, which puts them in 7th place provisionally. It says a lot about how good this horse is when we’re all a bit disappointed with a 43.7, and this could have easily been in the 30s had it not been for that blip. Tiana was kicking herself after the test but definitely pleased with the performance overall, as you’ll see in the interview below. But this is definitely not going to be a dressage show, with riders predicting just a handful of cross-country trips inside the time tomorrow. Thankfully Finn is a good Irish horse who loves to go in the mud, so he’ll be in his element come tomorrow.
Radio Badminton interviews Tiana Coudray after her dressage test. Photo via EN Instagram.
I’ll be back with a full report on the morning’s rides at the lunch break. So far, no one has come close to besting Paul Tapner and Kilronan’s score of 36.0, but we have seen some really lovely tests this morning. In addition to Tiana and Finn’s test, Peter Flarup rode the stunning mare Calista E to a score of 41.8 for fifth place in the early going. Dani Evans and Raphael II also had a really nice performance for the home team with a score of 44.5 for ninth place. Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master are up next for the North Americans, and we’re crossing all our fingers and toes for a good score for Team Canada. Stay tuned for much more from Badminton.
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