The Badminton Horse Trials cross-country has got underway at the event, presented by Mars Equestrian, and the first few riders have had their chance to ride around Eric Winter’s course, which has attracted some controversy.
Oliver Townend took an early dressage lead from third draw on Friday with Swallow Springs, finishing in third at the end of the first phase behind Ros Canter and Kitty King. Setting off across country, Swallow Springs looked full of running early in the course, but straddled fence 19b, breaking a frangible device, and started getting visibly tired. At The Lake Oliver opted to take the long route, but scrambled again at the large corner in the water.
The pair were then pulled up by ground jury before fence 25, the Voltaire Design Huntsman’s Close, meaning the combination are eliminated.
“I thought he would get the trip,” said Oliver of his round on Swallow Springs later in the day.
“The vets were happy and he recovered very quickly. It was tough today with the ground. He’s not the biggest horse; he’s not got the scope of Ballaghmor Class, but he looks happy with himself in the stable.”
Wills Oakden was first out on the Badminton Horse Trials cross-country course with Oughterard Cooley, riding well as pathfinder to finish clear with 28 time-penalties for being 1min 10sec over the optimum time of 11min 35sec.
“Today was about using skills and horsemanship, thinking about the horse and getting them home as well as you can,” said Wills.
Fiona Kashel and WSF Carthago suffered a rider fall at fence 26, the Jubilee Clump Brush. The 13-year-old gelding was transported off the course, causing holds for Dan Jocelyn (Cooley One To Many) and Pippa Funnell (Majas Hope).
Pippa Funnell produced a fantastic clear round with Majas Hope – the first combination to successfully jump the straight route at The Lake. The 16-year-old gelding coped well with the challenge and still appeared full of running by the end, adding 24.8 time penalties.
Dan Jocelyn and Cooley One To Many added 51 – 11pen for breaking a frangible device and 40 time-penalties. Dan was thrilled with the horse’s performance, but revealed that he had considered “pulling up before being held on course.”
“The little horse tried his heart out. I was thrilled with how he was travelling. He was jumping, doing what I wanted, doing the lines, everything was working well. We jumped the Lightsource bp Pond and coming up that hill the horse changed underneath me and that’s when I realised it was proper endurance.
“I realised I had a tired horse. I was going to go straight at the water, and we had the [frangible device] but for me it was better to have that, and get it all over and done with, then I tried to nurse him round. I was almost ready to pull him up and then I saw the flag [to be held] and thought, ‘Oh this could be useful’ and it was and then he finished well.”
Update: Oliver was given an eventing recorded warning by the FEI in relation to his ride on Swallow Springs at Badminton, for “Dangerous riding/series of dangerous jumps”.
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