Blenheim Thursday roundup

Between the drama, tears, squeals, heartbreak and beaming smiles in the Eventer challenge arena I managed to fit in some Day One dressage for the CCI 3*, OK, I admit, I saw three tests. I had to see Lucinda Green go, she is, after all, the Mary Berry of eventing and I wanted to see if she had lost any of the sparkle I remembered from my childhood. What struck me first as she entered the arena was that her horse, Cry Freedom, is more of an old style eventer stamp than a lot of the obvious WB horses here today. With his TB breeding he was never going to have the flicky toed pizazz of a *I have dressage lines* WB, but I admit that I was left wanting more. Lucinda is, in my humble opinion, one of our great ambassadors for eventing, and she used every minute of her experience to keep Cry Freedom onside. Certainly resistant, at times only giving her 50% attention at best, Lucinda’s old style riding technique came to the fore and she cajoled her mount through the test – and raised a smile on every spectator’s face when she put her hand in her pocket and then leant forward and rewarded him with a mint before exiting the arena. The elegance and poise that seeps from Lucinda is something that everyone should try and emulate, and she certainly wowed the judges who awarded her with a solid 56.3. In the collecting ring after her ride Lucinda was overheard commenting that she was very happy with that result.

Next in was Michael Jackson on the beautifully glossy Kangasong – and here is where I fall out of love with eventing (well, dressage) somewhat. I thought his test was really good, Kangasong looked like a dressage horse, which was what I expected of the son of Donnersong, who was ridden by Britain’s God of dressage Carl Hester. The judges disagreed and scored him marginally ahead of Lucinda so, rolling my eyes, I left the dressage arena and signed myself up for a ride on Fidelity’s mechanical XC machine…not only fun but one is in with a chance of winning Ariat goodies too! The Fidelity horse has had an upgrade this year and has two very different modes – novice and advanced, and my e-venting.co.uk companion Katie was brave enough to try out the advanced programme, which has an *out of control* gallop gear and a jumping kick back action that would throw many riders out of the plate. Katie finished the course with style and was in with a shout for the quickest time, so I decided not to emulate her (chicken, moi?!) and went for the novice programme. Whilst I filed my nails, updated my Facebook and wrote my shopping list I cantered around the course…and finished up 3 seconds behind the then leader – damn! This attraction is really worth having a go on, but get your name down early as demand is high!

You cannot attend a stately home event without shopping, and so in the name of journalism it was with a heavy heart that I had a look around the trade stands (my husband is now choking on his supper). It has to be said that the shopping at Blenheim is not as extensive as at the other B events, namely Badminton and Burghley, but it holds it own, especially if you are redesigning your interior decor, jewellery box or wardrobe. If you fancy an orthopedic bed, a new sofa, some bespoke earrings, tweed, over-priced leather boots or snazzy socks then the shopping village is for you. For equine interests the stalwarts of the event circuit are en situ – Townfields, Ayr, Sederholm, Classic Collection, etc. To ensure your eventing uniform is up to date Joules, Timothy Foxx, Rydale and Musto amongst others have some great sales rails and extensive new stock on show so that you won’t go scruffy during the winter. Tomorrow is day two of the dressage for both the CIC and CCI, and I will be course walking with Sam Griffiths, so I look forward to telling you how many fences I could happily jump and how many would induce vomit filled nightmares tomorrow!

 

Going into Friday the current top 5 standings in the dressage for those keeping track are:

CCI***

No	Horse	Rider	Pen	Pl
38	LOUGHAN GLEN	Clark Montgomery	42.7	1
41	MATELOT DU GRAND VAL	Jean Teulere	43.1	2
33	OUT OF AFRICA TWO	Charlotte Agnew	44.2	3
3	GRYFFINDOR	Kai Ruder	46.9	=4
8	HAPPY GO LUCKY	Rodney Powell	46.9	=4

CIC***

No	Horse	Rider	Pen	Pl
214	BELCAM BEAR	Emma Dougall	35.4	1
220	ZARON	Andrew Nicholson	35.8	2
204	FREDDIE MAC	William Fox-Pitt	37.9	3
231	AMAZING VIII	Flora Harris	39.8	4
239	LEONIDAS II	Mark Todd	40.0	5