Nicola Wilson and Bulana strut their stuff at Barbury William Carey Photography
Nicola Wilson and Bulana, who won team gold and individual bronze for Britain at the 2017 European Eventing Championships, hold the top spot after dressage in the CIC3* class at the St James’s Place Barbury Horse Trials in Wiltshire.
Nicola, riding James and Jo Lambert’s 12-year-old mare, scored 25.2 on Thursday, the first day of dressage and no one was able to overtake her on day two although China’s Alex Hua Tian got very close with Don Geniro, scoring 25.3 to take second by a hair’s breadth. Alex is also in the lead in CIC2* section E with DHI Jet Set.
Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro William Carey Photography
Yorkshire-based rider Nicola, who would be one of the hot contenders for selection for the British WEG squad, says that ‘Bulana just gets stronger and stronger. She did some really super work in there and her way of going was probably the best it has been’ while Angela Tucker, president of the CIC3* Ground Jury who judged the test, thought that the ‘attractive Bulana’ produced an ‘accurate and expressive test’
Last year’s Barbury CIC3* winner William Fox-Pitt is in third place in the CIC3* with a score of 26.4 aboard Fernhill Pimms but very few marks separate the top 10 in the 70-strong class.
There are several to keep an eye on during the coming show jumping and cross country phases including a few Antipodeans that are on good form. Sammi Birch and Hunter Valley II are currently in fourth place with a very good score of 26.9 while Jesse Campbell and Cleveland are currently fifth (27.9) and the King of Barbury himself, Andrew Nicholson, riding one of his talented young Spanish-bred horses Yacabo BK, is in seventh place (28.1) behind Britain’s Richard Coney
Chris Burton is currently in 11th place on Cooley Lands, winner of the 8/9YO CIC3* at Blenheim last year. Like last year his owner Kate Walls has been campaigning Cooley Lands for the start of the season, including starts at Belton, Chatsworth and Bramham but Chris is now back in the saddle so look out everyone as this man is already on winning form here
Chris provided the stand-out performance of Friday to win the Novice Section F with Sue Lawson, Carolyn and Anthony Townsend’s Lawtown Girl on a stunningly good score of 14.5 with the marks awarded in the dressage test including a perfect 10 for his riding. This pair also won a Novice class here in 2017 with a score of 14.8 so he has gone 0.3 better this year!
Chris also took Section I with the young stallion, Caliber Royale, that is starting to make his mark, both on the competition scene and in breeding circles. This is another to one watch in the future
An Australian rider having his first UK start in several years is Rob Palm, competing in the CIC3* with Koko Story and currently in 38th place on a score of 38. Rob will probably not be pushing too hard here as he is headed to Aachen as part of the Australian team but the cross country machine Koko Story should love the dry going here this weekend, something we talked about with Rob in our interview before he headed overseas
In the remaining CIC2* classes, Chris Buton’s good friend and Rio team mate Sam Griffiths leads the Section C with a mark of 25.4 on board Billy Liffy while Japan’s Toshiyuki Tanaka and Talma D’Allou are in first place of the CIC2* Section D with 22.7. Christine Bates and Adelaide Hill, who recently arrived from Australia after a very successful start to the year Down Under, and are also heading to Aachen to compete for Australia in the Nations Cup, are currently in 21st place in this class with a score of 30.5. Again, Christine is not likely to push Adelaide Hill here but should enjoy a pleasant spin around the Marlborough Downs, close to where she is staying with Andrew Nicholson
Britain’s Piggy French took the Novice Section G with her partner Tom March’s Sportsfield Top Notch. Swedish rider Ludwig Svennerstal, who is based locally in Wiltshire, won the Novice Section H with his own Calvadoz and another Wiltshire-based foreign rider, Brazil’s Rafael Losano, finished first in the Open Novice Section G on Fuiloda G.
Harry Meade won Intermediate Novice Section K with Brookfield Quality, the Intermediate Novice Section L went to Wiltshire-based Swiss rider Christina Wiederkehr on DG Canta. The Pony Open Novice was won by Connie Gill and Movie Star II.
On Saturday the CIC2* sections show jump and go cross-country, while the CIC3* Event Rider Masters (ERM) competitors perform their dressage tests in Barbury’s main arena
Chris Burton is in with a very good chance in this class too, riding Polystar I he could make it a back to back ERM win with a victory this weekend; the only other pair to achieve this was Oliver Townend on Cillnabradden Evo who won Gatcombe and Blair in 2016
Chris and Polystar I won the ERM at Arville (above) and also won the CIC3* here at Barbury in 2016
Photo courtesy Event Rider Masters/Ben Clark
