Beautiful sunshine at Burghley today in complete contrast to yesterday’s weather and Grappa Nera ( Grape) simply sparkled when she came into the arena around 11.30 for her test. Grape isn’t an easy princess to ride on the flat but she has been more rideable here at Burghley this week than she was at Badminton and she does love nice weather so it was a really disappointing start for Jonelle when Grape rested a hind leg in the first halt and then broke into canter in the extended trot. She did start to score better though and picked up a couple of 8’s for her trot half pass and halt and Jonelle managed the walk so well as Grape would dearly love to jog across the arena! A brave extended canter and some good half passes but it was the changes that were really expensive. The first one out of the half pass was ok but the next three were on the wild side and they really dragged the marks downhill which was such a shame. Jonelle was fully aware that she would be unlikely to be pleasantly surprised by Grape’s test but it is always so disappointing to look at the score board and see 37.6 for your efforts at 5 star when Grape has scored 30.1 at Pau and 34.4 at Badminton this spring.
Not the easiest of preparations this year though with Grape having to be ready to step into Hairdo’s (Jools) shoes should she need to back in the middle of July for Paris so maybe that had a part to play. Jonelle will not be thinking about that now though, she will be firmly in cross country mode and thinking about how she is going to get through the Leaf Pit as fast as possible which will certainly suit Grape!
Tim and Vitali were the last combination down the centre line this afternoon and the sun was still shining brightly. Vitali was super relaxed and gave Tim a lovely ride showing balance, rhythm and suppleness. Carl Hester was commentating and he was full of praise for both Tim’s riding and Vitali’s execution of the test and it was a well deserved 22.3 for third place. Ros Canter pipped him into second with Lordships Graffalo so she makes history by lying first and second after dressage with Izalot DHI heading affairs on 19.9 Just 18 horses scored over 70% and how cool is it that that Tim also has Viscount Viktor in 16th.
