Georgie Spence’s ride Birthday Night and Rodney Powell’s ride Zinzan II were both eliminated at the first horse inspection at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials this afternoon.
Both horses were sent to the holding box and ruled out when they were re-presented.
Georgie (pictured) — the youngest rider at this year’s Burghley at 20 years old — still has Running Brook II in the competition.
Two other horses, Gros Bonnet (ridden by France’s Sidney Dufresne) and Manny (ridden by Canada’s Diana Burnett), went to the holding box, but passed on re-inspection.
Eighty-two horses were presented to the ground jury of David Lee, Roeli Bril and Sue Baxter, so 80 will start the competition tomorrow.
The dressage guinea pig is Sharon Hunt on Tankers Town, who has been withdrawn from the competition because the horse missed some work after suffering a boot rub.
The weather during the trot-up was quite blustery, but the rain held off. It is raining again now (5.45pm) though, following some showers earlier in the day.
Follow the competition live with H&H online’s up-to-the-minute written commentary, starting tomorrow morning at approximately 9am. Visit www.horseandhound.co.uk/burghleylive to set an email reminder and join in.
Keep up with all H&H’s online Burghley coverage at www.horseandhound.co.uk/burghley2009 and don’t forget to buy H&H next week (10 September) for our 10-page Burghley special report.
