Tom Jackson rounded off his senior squad debut with a beautiful clear round in the European Eventing Championships showjumping this morning (13 August).
The 30-year-old British individual rider will finish 30th or better with Capels Hollow Drift, owned by Patricia Davenport, Milly Simmie and Sarah Webb.
“He recovered really well from yesterday and he’s getting quite good at jumping clear – he’s probably only had a pole once in the last three years so he’s a pretty impressive horse in that phase,” said Tom.
Reflecting on his 20 jumping penalties yesterday and his whole week, Tom added: “Obviously I’m still a little disappointed with the result yesterday, but I’m over the moon with the horse. He’s not put a foot wrong.
“Every day’s a school day and every time you come and do something like this you learn something. You can take it away and hopefully next time we can be where we want to be.
“He’ll have a nice well-deserved break now – that’ll be him done for the end of the year – then I guess we’ll start the preparation for Badminton again. Hopefully we can capitalise on the fifth place this year and see if we can go a few places better next year.”
Tom said his first senior championship had been “a really good experience”.
He said: “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a team environment – we don’t get to experience it that often and young riders was a little while ago now. But it’s been really good – everyone is so supportive and we have a really great team behind us. Thank you to British Equestrian and UK Sport for being able to send as many people as they do – it really helps us out.”
This morning’s showjumping session of 12 competitors yielded two clears in the time, from Tom and Sweden’s Amanda Staam, who completed yesterday’s cross-country despite her martingale breaking on course.
The Belgian squad have now completed their team score and have secured qualification for the Paris Olympics. The Netherlands are set to seize the other Paris 2024 ticket when their final rider, Janneke Boonzaaijer, jumps this afternoon.
The European Eventing Championships showjumping track has been designed by Quentin Perney and Jean-Pierre Meneau and there are 15 jumping efforts across 12 numbered fences.
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