Equestrian - Price Handy After Dressage at Burghley
Equestrian - Price Handy After Dressage at Burghley
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy sit in
fifth equal place at the end of the dressage at the Land
Rover Burghley International Horse Trials in the UK.
The
combination scored 38.7 penalty points, to sit just behind
joint leaders William Fox-Pitt (GBR) on Fernhill Pimms and
Michael Jung (GER) on Fischerrocana FST 34.2. It is probably
fitting that the two sharing the top spot are the number one
and two ranked riders in the world today.
Sir Mark Todd
and Leonadis II are the next best placed Kiwis, with their
41.7 effort putting them into 12th spot, while Jonelle Price
and Classic Moet scored 44.9 to sit in =19th and Jock Paget
aboard Shady Grey 48.3 for 34th.
Tim Price was very happy
with Sky Boy’s test.
“He is not a dressage horse by
any stretch but he has been so trainable since I have had
him,” he said. “He is an established horse at this level
now.”
Rather than chase events in the lead up to the
prestigious four star trials, Price said it was more about
ensuring the horse was feeling well, fit, happy and his body
feeling good.
He felt the Captain Mark Phillips-designed
course, which is running in the opposite direction to
previous years, was going to be tough on everyone.
“No
matter how good a horse you are sitting on, a course like
this is so demanding that you need to be good and they need
to be on form on that day to deliver. I am hoping we can do
that tomorrow.”
He was one of many riders who loved the
“magic” of Burghley.
“There is something different
about this place . . . the terrain, course design and
heritage all combine to make it a very special
event.”
But once you walked the course, things suddenly
get “very serious and real”.
Todd was a little
frustrated with Leonadis’ dressage test but still
happy.
“At this level you just can’t afford to make
any mistakes and there were a couple in the changes,” he
said. “For me it is frustrating because he is really good
at changes. We always hope we can do better, and there is
still a long way to go in the competition.”
Todd, a five time winner of Burghley, feels tonight’s cross country course will be “quite influential”.
“Time is going to be difficult to get and then you have to showjump on Sunday, so there is a long way to go. This (cross country) is a proper four star track. Burghley is Burghley – you go up, you go down and there are lots of questions on the way.”
Paget says he will be guiding his “inexperienced” horse carefully around the horse.
“I will take my time and not stress him too much,” he said. “It is about experience here for him. But he is a very fast horse and a tough horse, so where we can be quick, we will.”
The New Zealand riders, horses and owners are – Jonelle Price on Classic Moet (owned by Trisha Rickards), Sir Mark Todd on Leonidas II (owned by Diane Brunsden, Peter Cattell and Todd), Tim Price on Ringwood Sky Boy (owned by Varenna Allen, Robert Taylor, selwood.com and Price), Jock Paget on Shady Grey (owned by Lucy Allison, Olivia Berry and Paget).
Ends