Belsay International (2) Horse Trials Cross Country Videos
Izzy Taylor is on a roll at Belsay International (2) Horse Trials holding first, third and fourth places in the Hambro Sport Horses CCI3*-S after the first day of dressage, Junior and Pony competitors have completed dressage with Lucy Standish and Annabel Ridgway heading up the Championship classes and India’s Shashank Kanamuri ‘blows away’ the competition in the CCI2*-L.
It has been a speedy turnaround at Belsay Castle, following the Belsay (1) International just two weeks ago, but the available space and hard work by organiser Laura de Wesselow and her team mean that combinations at Belsay Castle this week are competing on completely fresh ground.
“The Womble Dickinson Main Arena looks fantastic, as do all the cross-country courses, which will provide a very different test for horses and riders to those at Belsay (1)” says Laura.
While Belsay (1) featured their inaugural CCI4*-S, this week the venue features international classes at CCI3*-S, CCI2*-S, CCI2*-L and CCI1*, Britain’s most exciting up-and-coming stars will fight it out in the Junior and Pony National Championships and there are also British Eventing national classes from Open Intermediate level to BE90.
The long format competitors kicked off the busy week with first horse inspections on Wednesday and combinations in the British Junior Championships, sponsored by Lycetts and Project Pony British Pony Championships have now completed their dressage.
Lucy Standish leads British Junior Championships
The British Junior Champion at Bishop Burton in 2024, Lucy Standish leads the British Junior Championships at Belsay after dressage on Global H, a horse who has some serious dressage trainers behind him (think Carl Hester!) on a score of 25.9. In second place currently is Ella Howard riding Marchwood (27.8) and Oscar Fitzgerald in third (28) on Vittoria Panizzon’s past Tokyo 2020 ride, Super Cillious.
Annabel Ridgway tops the Project Pony British Pony Championships after scoring 24.6 on Akim De L’Arquerie, ahead of Maisie Greening riding Kilnaspic Lily (28.1) and Chloe Chan riding Blennerville Rua (28.3).
The two Championships continue on cross country on Friday and wrap up with showjumping on Saturday.
Izzy Taylor leads the CCI3*-S
In the lead of the Hambro Sport Horses CCI3*-S with a score of 26.2 is the former racehorse Bayaanaat, a nine-year-old by the Derby winner New Approach owned by Izzy, Lavinia Taylor and Caroline Goodwin. Izzy also has two other horses in the top four with Dassett Showman third with 28.2 penalties, and Barrington Boy fourth on 28.6.
“All three horses tried incredibly hard in tricky windy conditions,” said Izzy. “Bayaanaat is a massive trier who did me proud today. He’s really learning that he’s a good horse and is getting confident in himself. Dassett Showman is a relatively new ride and I was delighted with how his brain stayed with me throughout. Barrington Boy is a young horse and there were some great highlights of his test day, but he struggled the most of the three in the conditions.”
Scotland’s Wills Oakden slotted into second with 28.1 on Geoff and Elspeth Adam’s Mile Beach.
Shashank Kanamuri leads CCI2*-S
Indian rider Shashank Kanamuri, who originally based with Wills Oakden on arriving in the UK and is now based at Somerfield Park in Cheshire, delivered a cool performance in windy weather that meant the letters surrounding the dressage arena were blowing down as he rode his test.
The 20-year-old, a second-year economics student at Loughborough University who is aiming to compete at this year’s FEI Asian Championships in Thailand, scored 29 on Wellfields Casino Royale to lead the NIS Group Ltd/Encon CCI2*-S.
“This is only my third-ever ride on him - he’s very new to me - and I’m still getting used to him,” said Shashank. “He’s really scopey, and I think there is a lot of potential for us as a partnership.
“I was going across the diagonal in long-rein walk and some of the letters flipped down and we had to pick our way through them, but he was really focused. He’s got a super-positive mentality, and he just gets on with whatever he is asked to do.”
Shashank has only 0.3 of a penalty in hand over Japan’s Yuya Segawa, second on Vegas De L’Elfe JRA (30.2) at their first international competition together, and the in-form Katie Magee riding Springfield Jupiter is also dangerously close behind in third (30.5) and returning to Belsay after winning a Novice section here at Belsay (1).
North Yorkshire-based Lucinda Atkinson is in pole position in the Barbour CCI2*-L on PRF Made In England with a mark of 27.4, ahead of Eliza Bell riding Macgyver (29.6) and India Wishart riding BP Quinnton in third (30.9).
