NEWS
William and Ballincoola Finish 3rd at Badminton
Jackie arrived at Badminton at about 5 on Tuesday and settled the horses in to the stables. They are stabled in the usual stables in the Farm Yard. Both horses settled in well and then had a hand graze in front of Badminton house.
Wednesday dawned grey and miserly. I rode Tam in the morning and then went to the briefing. I later rode Max (Ballincoola) and then Tam (Tamarillo) in the main arena to acclimatise them to the arena and all that goes on.
Both horses looked splendid at the trot up and passed.
Although I did not ride it last year the course looks a little more difficult this time and requires a brave horse but real discipline as there are many fences on tight left hand curves. Huntsman Close and the Lake are serious questions the real tests starts at the Roundtops at Fence 12. From then until Fence 19 things come very thick and fast, providing plenty of opportunity for error. The going is holding up well and the effort that has been made to preserve the ground is very obvious and will really help if it does get wet.
Dressage
Max did his dressage this morning and I was thrilled with him - he was very calm and relaxed and scored 44.1. He warmed up very well but you never dare hope it might last for the whole test. He has done some good tests in the past and it is great to know that he can still pull one off. There will probably be several more that go better than him on Friday but he is as close as I could have expected at this stage which is exciting.
I was pleased with Tam – he did actually the best test he has done at Badminton – he made no mistakes so I was happy with that but we are a little way off the pace in 11th so we have a little bit of catching up to do. You never know what will happen on the cross country. We need to get qualified for Hong Kong so I am hoping he goes as well as he usually does. The ground is drying up all the time so I think there will be a few inside the time.
Cross Country
Overall it has been a pretty eventful day! Max went cross country this morning and flew round and added just 4 time penalties to his dressage. He gave me a brilliant ride and showed his class. I am hoping he will jump well tomorrow as it is very close at the top. There is not a lot I can say about Tam. He was brilliant all the way round but I did not have the best line to the 2nd house and he was getting a bit tired. It was very frustrating as he would have been really close to the time.
Show Jumping
Ballincoola jumped a great round today and had one rail down to finish 3rd – what a fantastic result!
He jumped one of his best rounds ever and was really unlucky to have his pole down. He has felt particularly good all week so to put in such a solid all round performance was very satisfying – he is unbelievably consistent and perhaps the dressage is finally coming............
It has been quite a week with ifs and buts – none more so than for Tam – he did get his qualification just not in the way I would have liked. I was pleased with his dressage and he was a class act until his blip – I can forgive him his rails today.
It is the first time I have completed Badminton with 2 horses so it is great to have achieved that!
2008 was a great Badminton; it was certainly a demanding course both for horse and rider mentally and physically – and that very much showed in the results.
Who knows what the selectors will decide – there were a lot of good performances and some surprise casualties and I think we will be waiting till the end of May to decide who to put on the short list for the Olympics.
All the efforts made on the ground were very much appreciated – they certainly made a big difference in this wet year.
Now on to Aston le Walls and Chatsworth.
