The final horse into the arena in the under-25 class at Bicton this afternoon put in a beautiful performance to go straight to the top of the leaderboard ahead of cross-country day tomorrow...
Twenty-four-year-old Yasmin Ingham and the supremely elegant Banzai Du Loir (pictured) put in an almost faultless dressage test at Bicton Horse Trials, supported by Chedington. They were the last combination to go in the CCI4*-L under-25 section and went straight to the top of the leaderboard on a score of 26.9.
“He was really good even though we’re still not 100% glued together yet,” said Yasmin of Sue Davies and Janette Chinn’s exciting 10-year-old, who you can hear Yasmin talk about on the latest episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast. “But there’s so much exciting work that he can do and he’s got so much potential and presence when he goes into the ring with the ‘look at me’ factor.
“I just need to really nail those few little areas that need a bit of work, like the final centre line where I just lost him on the outside and he put in a flying change — it’s funny because he wants to do the changes, but not in the right place at the moment.”
Bubby Upton also did a smart test this afternoon on her second ride in this class, Cola III. The 11-year-old, owned by Rachael Upton, scored 27.7, edging him just in front of Bubby’s other rider, and long-time leader Cannavaro, who is in third on 28.3.
“I was really pleased with him — he tried really hard was and was really focused,” Bubby said after her test. “He’s got this enormous canter so I’ve been working on compressing it in order to get his flying-changes. It’s a work in progress but he’s come a long way in a short space of time so I’m so excited for where he’ll be this time next year.”
Heidi Coy is fourth with Russal Z, while French rider Barbara Sayous is fifth with Opposition Filmstar.
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Read the full report from Bicton in 17 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine and keep checking back to horseandhound.co.uk for further updates and insight
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