Cross country day for the British Open horses and jog and showjumping for the 3*L horses so a fairly slow start as the 3*L jog wasn’t until around 11am which is unusual! Both Faerie Good Golly and Gloire de Marchenval (Louis) sailed through their jog and got to hang out whilst the grown ups tackled the Open course which was the toughest of the 8 tracks laid out by Eric Winter and built by Jump1. It really is a mammoth undertaking and despite soaring temps today the footing was as good as it could possibly be on all of them.
It was a mixed bag of luck for the Open horses but to be fair no dramatic surprises. It was a small but classy field and it was dominated by Kiwi riders with some 7 horses of the 15 starters cross country flying the flag. Tim’s first ride was Happy Boy and he had mentioned earlier that despite two very good OI runs he had been pretty naughty cross country schooling at Rosamund Green a couple of days ago. Happy ran out to his preferred left early on but then jumped the fence which was a great sign and he looked on good form up by the house, down the hill and across the bottom of the valley, jumped the second water boldly and then ran out right late on in the course which is not normally his go to. On his second attempt Happy simply stopped which is again not his usual form of protest but the one thing Happy can do is count and he knew that was three and he walked home with his ears pricked. He is such an enigma of a horse and so unpredictable…I don’t recall a horse that has accrued so many walk homes yet also won Blenheim, Boekelo, Haras du Pin and Le Lion d’Angers to name a few of the big ones. Not Tim’s start to the afternoon he was hoping for.
Jonelle and Grappa Nera were up next and Grape looked simply fabulous as she ate up the course and had her ears firmly fixed forward as she did her favourite phase of all with aplomb. She looked magical across the bottom of the valley and Jonelle was really happy with the way she came home adding 11.2 time for 11th spot.
Jonelle then piloted Chill’s Midnight Star (Ollie) around with the hope that another new bit may be working better than those already discarded. Ollie started off great but then got strong coming home and ended up with two run outs for 40 jumping. He’s not naughty like Happy, he just gets strong and long in the combinations and as Jonelle says, she’s used up all her pulls by fence 15 and he starts to ignore her and then they lose the pinpoint control you need at this level to run a line on 5 curving strides. Jonelle wasn’t disappointed with Ollie, she was just gutted that she cant seem to find the control with him she needs at the top level to be competitive.
Tim and Vitali headed out last with the aim being to hold the British Open title for the third time in a row. There is a pitiful amount of prize money as it is not sponsored by NAF like the FEI classes but it was a matter of pride to Tim and Joe and Alex Giannamore to retain it. They had some leeway as they were sitting on their flashy dressage score of 23.3 and Tim sped around the course with Vitali looking like a weapon with all of his and Tim’s experience coming to the fore. They added 7.6 time which we all thought was within the boundaries of winning but not at the expense of burning Vitali out but it transpired that Katie Magee had zipped around the course on Treworra and ended up 1.2 ahead of Tim to take the prize pot and win the British Open. Tim was absolutely gutted and so disappointed not to win and it took us all by surprise. A quick dig into Treworra’s history shows he was 23rd in this class last year but has since been 13th at Pau and 11th at Badminton so definitely a star in the making at just 11 years old. The combination sure sneaked up on us and I can vouch for the fact that a hot and sweaty Tim got changed for the 3*L showjumping in a proper strop!
Down at the three star warm up Golly was waiting patiently for her rider and as soon as Jonelle jumped on Golly had her work head on. Its such fun to go the ‘big’ ones but its also so delightful to see the 7 year olds at their second ever long format when the exertions of the day before have taken absolutely nothing out of them. Golly bounced around the warm up, went in and jumped a beautiful clear round and started climbing up the ranks again. Molly would be so proud of her daughter’s work ethic as it is just like hers….impeccable. They rose to 5th place in a huge class and Golly sure deserves a little holiday before heading back to Le Lion d’Angers.
Tim was still pretty dark but Louis warmed up with his usual Perfect Pete attitude and put a smile on Tim’s face as he jumped another Perfect Pete round to put the pressure on Alex Hua Tian who didn’t have a fence in hand. Alex jumped clear, Louis finished second and Tim commented “I’ve got seconditis”. I pointed out there were worst “itises” to have but I don’t think Tim agreed!
So to sum up Jonelle’s Mum Lesley spent an inordinate amount of time at the kids playground with Otis and Abel which meant she barely saw a horse this afternoon, it was hot and sunny and there were allot of wasps. The Team Price owners group co-ordinated a huge amount of chairs at the top of the hill to watch the cross country and set themselves out as a group to be reckoned with as they fought off successive attempts to break up the line and German tourists at a resort sprang to mind. It is a huge part of Team Price and such fun to be a part of as they all root for everyone else’s horses well as their own.
So today was bit like the curates egg…good in parts. Hey ho, it’s only August, we still have some fabulous weather ahead and all the ponies head home safe and sound. Tim heads out to Arville this week so the roller coaster continues!
