The weather forecast for Wednesday’s jog had looked a little gloomy but the sun came out and it was actually a beautiful afternoon. Tim gained permission from the ground jury to jog Vitali first and, as at Badminton, not to stop by the ground jury. Vitali isn’t much of a fan of the jog strip although with it being in the main arena at Burghley it is not quite so intimidating as going through the archway at Badminton from the stable yard. He baulked a bit, went down the strip, decided he wasn’t going to be hugely cooperative on the turn and then came back to his mate Viscount Viktor without knocking Tim sideways which is definitely an improvement.
Viktor had his eyes on stalks at his first Burghley which only made him look even more striking and he coped magnificently. Jonelle and Grappa Nera (Grape) also cut an eye-catching pairing with Grape’s gleaming black coat and Jonelle resplendent in a purple Me+Em dress.
Thursday dawned cool, grey and really windy which is never conducive to a relaxed dressage performance. Viktor is a pretty complicated character who can pull surprise moves out of the bag when you least expect them. Tim had commented that his attention span is actually very short so he had adopted the preparation method of “little and often” for his test and he didn’t have him up in the main collecting ring too early as part of that process. Viktor has tests at Pau and Luhmuhlen 5 stars under his belt but they have both been on surfaces and due to that riders can ride inside the arena as part of arena familiarisation. Burghley is on grass so its just walking around the edge of the arena in the familiarisation which is quite a different matter.
All credit to Victor as he really did pull a great test out of the bag. He was actually really listening to Tim and gave him his 98% attention whereas in the past his mind has tended to wander as he looks around the arena. Two very small errors in that the first change on the serpentine was a little muddled and the final halt was perhaps one movement too many! The changes out of the canter half pass were super and that is really important as those changes score double marks. An end score of 29.5 left Tim a very happy man and Viktor headed back to the stables whilst Tim chatted to the media and an all important top 8 placing at the end of the first day. That is quite the start to the 2024 Burghley for team Price on just a 10 year old so hopefully a sign that it is going to be a good one!
