Sam Watson: A Legend Leads The Pack

Mark Todd |Leading After Cross Country

Mark Todd, what a legend!! If you want to know what the riders of Badminton 2011 are thinking right now, that’s it. If anything was going to hold Land Vision back this week then it was probably going to be time penalties. But ‘Sir Mark Todd to be’ got every last inch out of his horse using his extraordinary feel and his palpable determination.

Despite all that, he hasn’t exactly got much breathing room – there are no less than eleven riders within a single show jump of our current leader. It will be a strange atmosphere in the lorry park because usually there aren’t so many combinations with so much to play for going into the final phase. There are still the inevitable casualties of a cross country course of this magnitude and again, heartfelt commiserations will be offered to the riders concerned. The camaraderie amongst competitors after the cross country is similar to that of the battle field, delight and pride for those who have defeated the common enemy and the deepest respect for the wounded.

The Money On Todd & My Heart On Archie

Mary King & 'Archie'

We rose very early this morning to beat the queues and yes we managed it! With the offer of Breakfast in the Horse Trials Support Group marquee we declined the amazing catering from our hotel The Meuthen Arms in Corsham just 20 minutes away from the event. Which is incidently is run by an Eventing family - The Stills and has been completely revamped this year, it’s such a small world this horse world!

It felt like the first day of the sales fighting our way through the crowds when we arrived and it was still only 8.00am in the morning, are we mad?....YES we couldn’t miss a moment. I had coffee with the owners of Imperial Cavalier mid morning in front of the scoreboard which was heaving and although he’s such a well established horse it’s still a nerve wracking experience for them to go through and the thoughts of yesterdays dressage marks had been forgotten....as I always say it’s not just a dressage competition and it’s not over till it’s over. It was also here I was wondering why the Badminton world was looking a little blurry, I thought it was perhaps the wine from the previous evening but no I’d just put my contact lenses in the wrong eyes in my haste to get to Badminton!!

Badminton 2011 | Riders Thoughts Post Cross Country Part2

Badminton 2011 | Riders Thoughts Post Cross Country Part1

What the riders thought of the course

We caught up with some of the competitors at the end of today’s cross-country to find out how they felt about their rounds.

Badminton 2011 | Hugh Thomas - Cross Country Morning

Badminton 2011 | It's Cross Country Day

VISITOR INFORMATION

THE STARS COME OUT AT BADMINTON FOR CHARITY OF THE YEAR

Walk The Course With Badminton 2010 Winner Paul Tapner

Two of Britain’s top riders will lead course walks during this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.

Wiltshire-based Paul Tapner - last year’s Badminton winner on Inonothing- and Dorset-based William Fox-Pitt - one of Britain’s most successful event riders of all time - are hoping to raise thousands of pounds for Cancer Research UK along the way.

Volunteers are encouraged to raise £100 in sponsorship to take part in the walks which will give them a unique insight into one of the world’s most prestigious equestrian events.

Paul heads the first walk on Friday 22nd April at 5:30pm, followed by William on Saturday 23rd April at 11am.

Sub Zero Course Designing At Badminton

Badminton | Picturesque even in sub zero temperatures

Badminton is so picturesque in the depths of the winter snow, or just a deep frost, and whilst most sensible people are sat by fires clasping a warming drink, we do get the occasional 'dedicated' set of professionals making use of the park to 'build fences' even in sub zero temperatures and low visibility!

In December Badminton played host to a British Eventing Course Designers Day, concentrating on the BE90 and BE100 levels, for which of course Badminton hosts the Mitsubishi Motors Grassroots Championships.

Progress In Safety Initiatives Continues To Gather Pace

Frangible Fences| Further Innovation

Badminton has always been pleased to help the industry and sport of eventing with any new initiatives, particularly those related to the safety of horse and rider, and has implemented frangible pin technology for many years now, on numerous cross country fences.

As technology and innovation in this area gathers pace, Hugh Thomas and many other course designers have played a wider role in helping the industry improve it's overall understanding of the issues related to this aspect of safety on the cross country course and the challenges it brings to the sport.

In this short video, Hugh discusses the recent international seminar on these types of 'deformable' fence, where the industry is making some headway in standardisation, and what some of this means for the sport.

Badminton Horse Trials 2010 Winner, Paul Tapner: "This win means so much"

Paul Tapner has won his first Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. He went into the showjumping arena with a fence in hand, but his ride, Inonothing, never looked like touching a fence.

Andreas Dibowski and Euroridings Butts Leon kept their clean sheet in the final phase to move up to second, while Daisy Berkeley and Spring Along enjoyed their best Badminton result to date to take third.

“As soon as I first started eventing, Badminton has been my aim. It doesn’t get much better than this,” he said.

Paul, who grew up in Sydney but who has been permanently based in the UK since 2003, admitted that Inonothing failed to impress him as a youngster.

“He had some very special behavioural problems back then – in fact his nickname is ‘Spinhead’. After I rode him in his first novice competition in 2003, it went so disastrously wrong that I almost phoned up his owner, Jenny Waaler, and told that I didn’t want to ride him anymore. But something held me back from making that phone call. And now look where we are.”

Mary King’s one rail down on Imperial Cavalier dropped her from second to fourth and allowed Germany’s Andreas Dibowski and Euroridings Butts Leon to rise up into second place.

This is a third consecutive runners-up position for this combination, who occupied the same spot in Luhmühlen and Pau last year.

“Normally if someone told me I would be second in a competition like this I would be very happy, but I think someday I would like to win a four-star,” said Andreas.

Daisy Berkeley (née Dick) and the irrepressible Spring Along jumped an immaculate clear to rise from sixth to third.

“He’s like fine wine – he gets better with age,” said Daisy of the 17-year-old.

Caroline Powell and Lenamore finished fifth with a double jumping clear, while vet James Robinson rolled just one pole to drop from fourth to sixth.

AUDIO INTERVIEW: PAUL TAPNER

FULL RESULTS

BIOGRAPHY: PAUL  TAPNER

Watch Paul Tapner's Winning Show Jumping Round.

Watch Paul Tapner's Cross Country Round (on Stormhill Michael)

Looking back at yesterday's cross-country

Yesterday's cross-country test certainly provided the thrills and spills that the crowd came for.

Of the 81 starters that set off round Hugh Thomas's cross-country course at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, there were 57 finishers. Of these, 42 combinations jumped clear and four came home inside the time.

The final 20 have just started showjumping. There is less than a fence in hand between the top four, and just 8.4 penalties separating the top 10.

So near, yet so far

Sian Wynne Morris was only a hair’s breadth from enjoying a Badminton debut most riders can only dream of. She was one of only four riders to finish inside the time yesterday around a cross-country course that caused problems for even seasoned Badminton campaigners – like Andrew Nicholson, who had walked the course with Sian and advised her which lines she should take.


“Andrew told me to stick to my plan and ride positively, so that’s what I did,” said Sian, who has previously completed Burghley on two occasions and Pau CCI**** once before with the 14-year-old Just Appeal.

Nevertheless Sian admitted to being surprised at finishing inside the optimum.

“I set out hoping I’d be near it and he’s got a good gallop, but as I went round I kept looking down at my watch and thinking: ‘Wow, I’m well up there with my minute markers,’” she said.

Sadly, Just Appeal sustained an overreach yesterday that prevented him from showjumping.

“But we’ll be back for Burghley,” said Sian, who has just finished setting up her own yard in North Wales.

Seven horses withdrawn overnight, but leading contenders all pass horse inspection

The leading contenders all passed this morning’s final trot-up leaving Paul Tapner, Mary King and Simone Deitermann at the top of the leaderboard going into this afternoon’s final showjumping phase at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.

Seven horses have been withdrawn overnight.


Sian Wynne Morris’s Just Appeal (31st), Sacha Pemble’s I’ve Been Dun (32nd), Geoff Curran’s Balladeer Alfred(pictured) (49th) and Selina Bodiliy (44th) were not presented, while Annabel Wigley’s Black Drum (18th), Sara Burdess’s Shiver St George (42nd) and Nicola Malcolm’s McFly (54th) were held and then withdrawn from the holding box.

Showjumping starts at 11am for the lower placed riders, followed by a parade of competitors at 1.45pm. Showjumping for the top 20 will begin at 2pm.

From the horse’s mouth – what did the riders think?

We caught up with the movers and shakers after their cross-country rounds:

Paul Tapner, the current leader with Inonothing: “I knew he was fit enough and experienced enough to come here and jump a clear round inside the time, but as I landed from the second-last fence and I kicked on, he said: ‘Actually Dad, I’m a little bit tired,’, so I just let him cruise on up the hill to the finish.”

Mary King, lying second on Imperial Cavalier: “He felt so much stronger than he did when he last came here in 2008. I should have won then, but we fell at the second last."
On Kings Mistress, who retired at the HS1 Corners [fence 15ab]: “We had a bad jump at the Countryside Complex [fence 14abcd] and knowing that the corners were so influential I should have taken the long route, but my competitive spirit got the better of me. That was the first cross-country fault she’s ever had.”

Simone Deitermann, third on Free Easy NRW: “The first 10 fences were not so good as he gets quite strong, but after that she settled down and jumped really well. I was very pleased.”

Andrew Nicholson, lying 15th on Nereo: “He’s a young horse doing his first four-star. I deliberately didn’t set out too fast as I wanted some petrol left in the tank at the end. I thought the course rode really well and the wet ground didn’t bother me.”

Carolyne Ryan-Bell, lying ninth on Rathmoyle King: “I didn’t like all the 90-degree turns into fences and I never want to jump an open corner with a short back rail again [like the HS1 Farmyard at 15], but he was great. After we jumped though the Lake I felt him turn into a real four-star horse.”

Annabel Wigley, who is lying 18th with Black Drum: “The course rode a lot tougher than I originally thought it would when I first walked it, but my horse was fantastic and he was so straight everywhere. He’s come back better after the winter.”

Tony Warr, currently 45th, whose horse Coolgrange Merger won many admirers with his accurate jumping: “I watched a couple of riders before I went, but wished I hadn’t because none of them completed. ‘Precious’ always locks on to his fences, but a couple of times he wasn’t sure where he was going, like at the Countryside Complex [14abcd], where he jumped the third element and couldn’t understand why I was pulling him left. Then he spotted the final part and locked on. ”

Sam Watson, lying eighth on Horseware Bushman: “The ground was exactly how I wanted it; I prayed for rain and nature helped me out. I think the leader board would have been very different without the overnight rain.”

Alex Hua-Tian, who fell on his first horse, Jeans, but later jumped clear with Magenta: “After the disappointment of this morning, Maggie [Magenta] absolutely tried her heart out and I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Old and new faces overnight in the Badminton top 10

Carolyne Ryan-Bell, currently lying ninth, is no stranger to Badminton, but this is something of a comeback for her. She won an Armada dish for completing Badminton five times in the Nineties and her old campainger, Hooray Henry was a Badminton stalwart in his day.  But today it was Rathmoyle King who made his mark and really rose to the challenge.

"I felt that the course was harder than last year," said Carolyne. "But he [Rathmoyle King] really turned into a four-star horse out there, especially on the second part of the course."

The pair added just 6 time penalties to a dressage score of 47.0.

A new face in the top 10 at Badminton is Sam Watson. He is currently the highest placed Irish rider on the leaderboard and also the youngest. He will go into the final phase tomorrow lying in eighth place, having had a fantastic ride across the country on Horseware Bushman. This is his second time at Badminton and he has risen from 42nd place after the dressage.

"The ground was exactly how I wanted it," said 24-year-old Sam, who is based in Worcestershire. "My horse prefers wetter going, so I was praying for rain."

Sam made his debut on the Irish team at the European Championships last year. "The World Games in Kentucky is my main aim now, but I'd like to start with a clear round here tomorrow first," added Sam, who thought that today's track was a "typical Badminton course".

Paul Tapner leads after a dramatic cross-country day

What a day of ups and downs – European medallists on the floor, first-timers in the top three. Not a minute went by without a surprise of some sort lurking around the corner.


Paul Tapner, who has been on scintillating form on the one-day circuit this spring, but who was largely overlooked by pundits for this competition, now heads the field on Inonothing after a brilliant cross-country performance that left him with just 0.4 of a time penalty.

Paul, who had already been round the course once on Stormhill Michael, admitted that he didn’t watch anyone ride the course in between.

“I knew that it was causing carnage, but I slept a bit and tried to keep away as much as possible,” he said.

Mary King and Imperial Cavalier are lying second, less than a showjump behind Paul, on 47.2.

Mary, who was held up on course when Alex Hua Tian’s first ride, Jeans, demolished the second of the corners at the HS1 Farmyard at 15, admitted that it took a while for her to get back into her stride following the hold-up.

“I was talking to the crowd while I was waiting and got a bit distracted. I rode the next fence – the

Countryside Complex [fence 14abcd] – pretty poorly and that shook me up a bit,” she said.

Badminton first-timer Simone Deitermann celebrated her birthday in fine style with a superb round that elevated her into third place with the flamboyant Free Easy NRW.

“I was surprised to do so well as although he is a very good jumper he sometimes goes a little too much forward.”

Pre-event favourites and current European Champions Tina Cook and Miners Frolic endured a dunking in the Lake when the gelding left a leg over the narrow first element, while silver medallist Piggy French’s day was no better – she fell from Some Day Soon when he screwed awkwardly over the first part of the Countryside Complex at 14abcd.

PAUL TAPNER AUDIO INTERVIEW

Toddy enjoys dream comeback ride

It has been 10 years since Mark Todd last competed at Badminton, but the Kiwi maestro returned in fine style with NZB Grass Valley, making up for a mediocre dressage score of 55.8 with an exhibition round across the country that left him with 8.8 time penalties.


“He’s not a speed machine, but he keeps up a good gallop and I couldn’t be more delighted with him,” said Mark, whose broad grin when he crossed the line said it all. “He would be the least experienced horse I have ever ridden here, but each time I asked him to go on and pick up, he responded.”

Grass Valley looked to relish the softer ground and Mark is confident that the experience will have brought the 10-year-old on enormously.

“He’s capable of a dressage mark in the 40s, but he felt a little stiff yesterday and perhaps didn’t do his best test,” said Mark, who has nevertheless earmarked the gelding for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

View his Video Diary following Cross Country

Weather brightening up - but cross-country day may favour the mud larks

Riders with an early draw may be thanking their lucky stars as the predicted heavy rain that arrived at Badminton yesterday has continued to fall throughout the night and into this morning. Cross-country day should certainly favour proven mud larks as the wet weather shows little sign of relenting with just an hour to go before the first combination is due to leave the start box.


The last paricularly wet cross-country day at Badminton was in 2004, where experienced combinations came to the fore. That year, William Fox-Pitt secured his first Badminton win with Tamarillo.

Andrew Nicholson, who is bidding to add his name to the Mitsubishi Motors trophy for the first time, sets off at 11.24am on the first of his two rides, Nereo, who won at Bramham last year. Andrew admitted yesterday that we would look favourably on a wet cross-country day.

He said: “It should work in my favour if it rains all night.”

The damp conditions certainly don’t seem to have deterred the crowds. There were already queues forming as early as 7.45am to get into the car parks.

Pack your wellies, but with the rain easing off and a forecast of Sunny spells for the start of cross country, get set for a great day and a rollercoaster ride.

Looking forward to Badminton Horse Trials Cross Country Day

We have been catching up with first-timers in the collecting ring after their dressage performances, finding out how they fared and how they are feeling about the cross-country test tomorrow.

Duarte Seabra, the first Portugese rider ever to compete at Badminton Horse Trials was very pleased with Brave Heart’s dressage score of 52.0.
“This is not his best phase, so it was a good mark for him,” said Duarte, who is currently based in Lambourn with Kate Honey. This is a first four-star for this combination.
“For me, the cross-country course is very big, I cannot afford to make any mistakes,” said Duarte, who is lying in 41st position overnight. “Coming to Badminton is a dream for riders. This is a big thing for me, especially coming from Portugal,” he added.
Another foreign rider who will be looking for a good ride around tomorrow’s cross-country course is the Italian Gianluca Gardini.
When asked about future plans for this horse, he said, “I would first like to go clear tomorrow.” He has produced Lion Dancer, who is owned by his wife, from the beginning and felt that everything came together in the dressage. “The horse usually loses concentration half way through,” said Gianluca, who was ninth at Pau and 12th at Luhmuhlen last year.
This is also a first Badminton attempt for British rider Daniel Sibley and Tarmac Adam.
“I was hoping for a dressage score in the 50s, so I just got there with 59,” said Devon-based Daniel, who believes that the horse is improving all the time in this phase. “The course is quite straight, which I am hoping will suit us.” Daniel, who has produced Tarmac Adam from BE100 level, finished 7th in the CCI*** at Bramham last year.
We are keeping everything crossed that the heavy rain currently soaking Badminton is going to move elsewhere overnight, leaving us with sunshine and showers tomorrow (preferably more sunshine).

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All Horses Pass The First Vets' Inspection at Badminton 2010

You might be forgiven for thinking this (the Vets' Inspection) is a catwalk parade for horses and riders, but the serious side of this beauty parade is to ensure that horses entered for the event are considered 'sound' and fit to take part in, what is probably, the most physically demanding of the equestrian sports.

It's also the perfect excuse for many of the riders to show off that new outfit (and not just the ladies!), or as Matt Ryan did last year, show your new loyalties!

Horses are paraded (trotted) in front of the Ground Jury & Vets, who scruntinise them to pick up on any minor lameness, and as any rider will tell you its a great relief to hear the "PASS" called, signaling the all clear.

There were a few nervous riders today, as three or four horses were 'held' temporarily for a closer look, but happily all horses were eventually passed fit to compete for the greatest equestrian sporting accolade, The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Trophy.

Only one horse was not presented (The Cointreau Challenge, Charlotte Castle) and subsequently withdrawn.

Most riders were out walking the course this afternoon, getting their first feel for what lies ahead on Sunday for the cross country, and you can see what Mark Todd and Clayton Fredericks had to say about the course in their Thursday Video Diaries.

Save for the early starters in the Dressage tomorrow morning, the lorry park will no doubt be buzzing 'til late into the night as the riders continue to burn off their nervous energy.

More on all of that later......in the meantime browse the image galleries from today.