William Fox-Pitt retains the individual bronze position at the close of the first day of eventing dressage at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, while fellow Brit Pippa Funnell is in equal eighth.
William’s test put the British team fourth, just behind Australia and Sweden in silver and bronze positions, with Germany holding a slightly larger margin at the top of the leader board.
Pippa Funnell — back on the British squad for the first time since 2005 — rode as an individual at the very end of the day on nine-year-old Redesigned. She scored 45.5 to take equal eighth position, her only major mistake being some tension in the first flying change, but admitted to some disappointment afterwards.
Pippa said: “I’m gutted — I set my expectations quite high because he’s been doing some fantastic work here, so I was getting quite excited, but you have to take into account that he hasn’t been in an arena like this and there’s a lot to take in. That said, he coped well the the atmosphere.
“But he has got a lot of maturing to do and he’s only just started performing this four-star test in the past two or three months so he’s had a lot to learn quickly. It wasn’t a disaster, but I am quietly disappointed and cross with myself because somewhere along the line I missed a few things.”
Britain’s other individual Piggy French (Jakata) does her test at 8.50am tomorrow (1.50pm British time), while the other team members are Tina Cook (Miners Frolic) at 9.22pm (2.22pm British) and Mary King (Imperial Cavalier) at 14.22pm (7.22pm British).
More on William’s test and the team standings
Log back on for more updates on the eventing, full report in H&H out 7 October.
