It must have been a record attendance at Badminton today as we were queueing to get in from the A46 at 7.45 am which is a long way off the cross country start time of 11.30. It was sunny and warm and the riders hacked their horses early and the atmosphere began to build. Luckily for the Kiwi crew Ginny Loisel runs an excellent hospitality tent which is catered by Kiwi legend Beanie Davidson and her team so it was easy to while away the time til countdown with breakfast and Volcano coffee.
It is without doubt the most unique atmosphere at Badminton and it is always an honour to be the right side of the string. Having said that it never ceases to amaze me how the UK public dress when the sun makes an appearance and suddenly everyone is in Ibeza mode. Alongside expanses of winter white flesh there are very inappropriate boob tubes and all sorts of random apparel. Plus for some reason they all have to bring their dogs and I cannot imagine a dog in the world that actually enjoys being dragged through the trade stands having its paws trodden on repeatedly then being subjected to a nice hot afternoon in the sun alongside 200,000 other humans in the Park.
Tim was the first Kiwi out with Viscount Viktor and he was a most excellent pathfinder for the Kiwi contingent. Viktor is a complicated personality in that one moment he is dealing with imposter syndrome and the next he thinks he is superman and there is very little in between. As Tim said afterwards, “if he would only realise how great he is life would be much easier for him”. He was so cool for so much of the track and did some truly fancy footwork in places but he was fighting Tim a bit which meant that the stride pattern didn’t work at the C of the coffin for a 20. After that he settled then as Tim jumped the first of the Project Pony Brush Buckets right in front of Badminton House he said Viktor turned into Superman and locked onto the massive decorative Gazebo that was completely unjumable and Tim had to yank him off that and onto the B element which was another brush bucket that actually was very jumpable! Tim was an actually delighted with him and thought it a really classy performance.
Tim barely had time to get into the tent after some relaying information to Jonelle before she was off on Grappa Nera (Grape). They hunted down the early part of the track and Grape is nothing if not a brave bird since she exited Burghley very early and then when her suspected significant injury turned out to be a very insignificant blip was hurriedly re routed here. Grape had 2 OI’s back to back followed by Thoresby yet she went out there today and gave it her all. She fights for her place at 5 star with utter integrity and it’s not her fault she lacks a little blood to be the fastest. Jonelle said that she had a cunning plan at the Mars Equestrian Sustainability Bay ((otherwise known as the second water) but when the 5 didn’t come up and she ended up at the base of the fence for 6 with no distance she had all but given up when Grape decided to simply climb through the brush leg by leg. Admirable stuff from Grape. Tim, watching, who had had a different plan, happily crowed “well that fancy plan didn’t come off” which was pretty funny but she was still clear and she remained so all the way home. Grape sits in 20th with a clean scorecard and just 11.6 time to add.
A long old wait until the end of the day when Tim headed out last of all with Vitali. They simply nailed the classiest round at 5 star that is possible with such a huge partnership where they were simply always on the same page at every single fence. It was like poetry in motion and they jumped every single fence like an old married couple. Vitali is extraordinary in that he isn’t the biggest, he isn’t the scopiest but he has always been the bravest and the trust that he and Tim have in each other is incredible. They came home clear but with 3.6 time to sit in 9th overnight and yet another 5 star cross country under their belt.
Tomorrow is another day and we shall see what they brings but today was a good day and we will take that for sure.
