Well the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials is over for another year. The new courses designed by Eric Winter certainly proved challenging. Only 49 out of the 81 starters, finished the cross country; 10 of these were Irish combinations, with three finishing in the Top 20. The only Irish rider not to finish was Camilla Speirs who decided to retire Portersize Just A Jiff as she felt that he was not on form on the day.
In the dressage on Friday afternoon, Jonty Evans set a national record at 4* level with 37.2 penalties. A refusal on the cross country dropped them from a possible podium position, however a clear show jumping left them finishing in 25th position.
Joseph Murphy and Sportsfield Othello won the Glentrool Trophy for the combination who made the greatest improvement on their dressage placing. They climbed 62 places from having been 75th after dressage to take 13th place overall after jumping clear cross country and show jumping.
Clare Abbott and Euro Prince stormed around the cross country, making it look easy. They finished just outside the optimum time. They were in 11th position after the cross country, but 8 faults show jumping left them in 14th place. Austin O’Connor and Kilpatrick Knight also went clear with 33.2 T/P.
Badminton first-timers: Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua did not start well with their dressage test, however bounced back in the cross country to produce one of the only 20 clear rounds over the challenging course. The other first timers Ciaran Glynn and November Night also achieved a clear whilst Dominic Furnell and Ballycahane Flower Power also put up an excellent show cross country but unfortunately picked up 11 penalties for breaking the frangible into the PHEV Corral on an otherwise clear round .
Sarah Ennis and Horseware Stellor Rebound and Michael Ryan and Dunlough Striker both had one stop on the cross country. Jim Newsam and Magennis had one stop and 11 penalties for taking out a frangible pin.
Here is a photo reminder of the week
