Spence kicks off with a win
Experienced horses come out to play as the season gets started after the previous weekend’s cancellations, with winning riders ranging from a 20-year-old up to the 56-year-old reigning Badminton champion
Noisy Associates Tweseldown (1), Hants
GEORGIE SPENCE kicked off her build-up to Badminton in fine style by jumping double clears on both her open intermediate (OI) horses and winning section F on Halltown Harley.
The 12-year-old son of Harlequin Du Carel, who belongs to his rider and Suzanne Doggett, won the CIC3* at Wiener Neustadt, Austria, last year and will make his four-star debut at Badminton. Here, he added just six time-faults across country to a competitive dressage of 29.8.
Georgie credited Halltown Harley’s first-phase mark to help from Chris Bartle and Laura Tomlinson through the winter.
“All my horses tend to jump well, so it’s a case of getting my dressage as good as I can to make me more competitive,” said the three-time junior and young rider medallist.
“Chris and Laura tell me to use my seat — if the horse pulls, it’s natural to pull back, but they’ve been telling me to lean back and feel I’m pushing the hindquarters down so the front comes up.
“This has worked wonders with Halltown Harley — he isn’t the biggest mover and is a bit on his forehand, but he always gives his best.”
Georgie ran Wii Limbo, who was 12th at Burghley in 2015, slowly for 15th in section E. The Highline son had all of 2016 off and only started competing again in July last year.
“He was one-tenth lame and he was X-rayed, scanned and MRI-ed from his ears to his tail, but we never found anything,” said Georgie. “He had six months of investigations and then I put him out for a year.
“A lot of people say you don’t get a horse to advanced without them having an injury. I bought him as a three-year-old and because he’s so wild, he never really had a holiday. Maybe 10 years in work caught up with him — he had an ache through his whole body and needed a rest.”
Lydia Hannon was second in section F by 0.3 of a penalty, riding her aunt Linda Wallis’ home-bred Tierro. Lydia’s fourstar mare My Royal Touch also had a successful first outing of the year for 10th in section D.
NICHOLSON’S ONE-TWO
ANDREW NICHOLSON dominated in the advanced intermediate (AI), taking first on the Ridgeons’ Swallow Springs and second on Deborah Sellar’s 2017 Badminton winner Nereo.
There were only two clears in the showjumping in this section — which ran at the end of the day, so had the worst of the ground (see box, right) — and Swallow Springs’ penalty-free second phase elevated him from third after dressage. Described by Andrew as “classy”, the grey 10-year-old will be aimed at Bramham CCI3*.
Nereo, who is now 18, led the dressage on 24.6, but had the first showjump down and a time-fault in that phase. He will return to Badminton to defend his title.
“He felt very good — he just didn’t quite realise how deep the ground was at the first showjump,” said Andrew.
The AI ran over a slightly different course to the OI and intermediate, with extra or more difficult fences at some combinations, including the Tweseldown V at fence nine, a Vicarage Vee-style hanging skinny over a ditch. However, none of these experienced horses were caught out and all 12 crosscountry starters jumped clear.
EVANS’ SMART DRESSAGE
GREY four-star horses took the top two spots in OI section E. Dani Evans won on Luana Edge’s Smart Time, the 14-year-old who has been with her since young rider days.
“I have mostly been hunting this winter, so I don’t know where my good dressage has come from — I haven’t been near a dressage arena or instructor,” said Dani, who scored 25.2 on Smart Time and 16.3 on her BE100 winner Hollywood Dancer on the same day.
Thomas Hawke, 18, finished second with Mr Cruise Control, who won Luhmühlen CCI4* with Andrew Nicholson before joining the teenager in September 2015.
Thomas’ dressage score was only 0.4 behind section leader Pippa Funnell’s 23 — Pippa ran MGH Grafton Street steadily across country and wound up third with 16 time-penalties — and he attributed his six-mark improvement on his previous personal best to being based with Austin O’Connor over the winter. The 17-year-old Mr Cruise Control was keen in the showjumping and knocked two downhill fences, which put paid to a win.
“We take every event as it comes, but he doesn’t feel like an old horse,” said Thomas, who will aim at three-star this year. “I haven’t done that level before, so I want to enjoy it while I have this horse.”
Youth was to the fore in OI section D as well, with top honours going to 20-year-old Charlotte East.
Her ride was her own 16-yearold King Albert, who was bred by Mary King, by Mayhill out of Kings Gem, who went on to