Two flying greys shared the honours in the LeMieux London Horse Show puissance this evening, both clearing 2.15m.
The horses were at opposite ends of the experience scale, with Guy Williams’ class specialist Mr Blue Sky UK lining up alongside Joseph Trunkfield’s ride Cruze – who was in only his second puissance – to take the winners’ spoils.
Joseph , 27, was the joint winner of the puissance at Horse of the Year Show last year on Senators Rhondaigo. He defended his title this year on James Ingham’s 11-year-old Cruze, who finished equal sixth, experience which the rider said helped the horse tonight.
“The horses has heaps of jump – in the last round it was a case of over or through it coming down to it and he found it so easy,” said Joseph, who said this was a “massive” result for him as an up-and-coming rider.
“He’s quite a tense, nervy horse and obviously there’s a lot of atmosphere going on. He got a little bit excited in the warm-up tonight, so the last few rounds we decided just to leave it, just to go in [without warming up] and it seemed to pay off better that way.”
Caroline Phillips’ 13-year-old Mr Blue Sky UK has won every major puissance in Britain and this was his second year running winning here in the London Horse Show puissance after victory last year.
“He jumps the wall very well and actually his hardest rounds are the first couple as he’s a little bit spooky, but I think that’s what makes him jump it so well, because he’s so careful at it. We have more trouble at the triple bar than we do the wall, to be honest,” said Guy.
The Chacco-Blue son – who is kept fresh between puissance appearances by jumping young rider classes with Guy’s daughter 16-year-old Maisy – likes to be allowed to run freely to the big wall. The crowd had their hearts in their mouths as the horse appears to get very close to it, but he clearly knows what he’s doing.
“I think the last couple of times I’ve tried to ride him properly to it and actually he just likes to run and jump it,” said Guy. “He can jump anything when you’re just running and letting him jump.”
Guy Williams and Mr Blue Sky clear 2.15m at the 2022 London International Horse Show. Credit: Peter Nixon
Four made it through to the fourth round over 2.13m. Sebastian Hughes followed Guy in and seemed to have a miscommunication with the 10-year-old Colorado Volo on the approach to the wall and pulled him up in front of the fence to finish fourth.
William Whitaker’s ride Flamboyant III, who had shared third with Guy and Mr Blue Sky UK at Horse of the Year Show, tipped the top of the wall with his back legs on the way down for third.
There were two surprise exits earlier in the competition. Daniel Delsart and Granby were joint second here last year but had the first fence down in the first round this time, though they cleared the wall. And this year’s Horse of the Year Show winners, Ireland’s Geoff Curran and Bishops Quarter, dropped out of contention when the horse just touched the wall with his front legs in the third round.
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