After plenty of sudden showers on Thursday today dawned bright and clear and the sun shone on a glorious Friday at Burghley. Vitali likes nothing more than good weather and Jess had him sparkling as he went into the main arena.
Plenty of pressure for Tim as he and Vitali hold the current record score at Burghley and Vitali rose to the occasion with another stunning test. The medium and extended trots were a highlight as always and it was a mystery for us that they were not awarded 9’s at the very least. The judges certainly havn’t been over generous this week but the 9’s for harmony of horse and rider finally went up from judges at C and E whilst the American judge at E rather miserably awarded a 7.5 which was faintly insulting!
Tim was delighted with his little black pocket rocket and said the only tiny blip came when Vitali thought he might halt in the shoulder in but it was barely detectable. It’s a brilliant start to this year’s Burghley and his score of 23.1 ends the day in third spot with Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) on 22.4 and Ollie Townend (Cooley Rosalind) on 22. Just a few seconds across country split them and it is going to be a brilliant day of competition tomorrow. Shout out to Sam Lissington who sits in 4th just behind Tim with Lord Seekonig (Charlie) on a 24 which means two Kiwis in the top 4 which is really positive. Caroline Powell did a super test on High Time (Henry), Lauren Innes did a great job with the tricky Global Vision M (Flipper) and Sam’s second ride, Billy Alberto broke the 40 barrier which was her aim for the dressage.
And a great day for Jesse Campbell as well. Jonelle helped him in the final warm up, which Jesse deliberately kept short and sweet. Cooley Lafitte (Henry) is a beautiful horse with more mental health issues than half of Broadmoor possess and he has had arena meltdowns at Badminton this spring and Burghley last year. Today he stayed with Jesse and did some beautiful work with fluent lateral work, expressive extensions and great changes. He doesn’t really show any immobility in the halts and the walk was very tense but the good bits were great and a score of 34.6 which was by far and away a PB at the level. Most importantly Henry had a good time in the arena and Burghley are great at asking the packed stands to please not applaud in advance for the sensitive horses which does really help horses like Henry cope. Kiwis working together as always and so good to be a part of.
