Day two of dressage at Badminton and we had the full on coats on/coats off day as it was lovely when the sun came out and freezing when it clouded over. Tim had a plan for Falco and that meant he popped a few fences this morning, had a pre ride in a dressage saddle a couple of hours later and then a leisurely hack up to the top before his test at 2.40.
There had been plenty of horses as always that showed some tension in the arena at Badminton as is the norm and Tim was relying on Falco’s age and experience to rise above that. But it is Falco’s first Badminton and he can throw in a spook as he did at the camera at Paris in the dressage and today he did some special trot work with a tiny loss of rhythm in the extended which Tim explained afterwards as “there was a little bump in the grass and he is so aware of his footwork that he took care to avoid stepping on it before powering on across the diagonal”. The first change was muddled as he looked at a camera just before it and missed Tim’s aid and the walk preceding it was a little tense to be fair but here were enough 8’s across the board to keep them in the sub thirty bracket which was, if not the aim, good enough to sit in 10th spot at the end of the day. Tim was slightly disappointed not to be closer to Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo on their 23.7 but as he said ” I’m happy and he’s such a cool horse” which is a lovely sentiment. To be fair, apart from Ros, the next 2 til 10th spots are covered from 28.1 to Tim’s 29.9. It might be fast ground tomorrow but those time penalties change the order so rapidly it could well be a very different scoreboard this time tomorrow.
It’s a pretty good effort considering Falco hasn’t been in a proper international arena since April last year…North Holland was hardly a comparison with Kentucky or Badminton! Plenty to look forward to tomorrow with both Tim and Jonelle happy with the ground and the track, a few nervous owners around and Rosie and Louella absolutely on it.
Results, livestream and updates on https://www.badminton-horse.co.uk
