Pippa Funnell won the CIC*** at the St. James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials on Billy Landretti, ahead of Piggy French riding Jakata, with Laura Collett on Rayef in third.
Laura had led the dressage and show jumping phases, but picked up six time penalties on the cross-country course, allowing Pippa to lift the £4,000 first prize.
“I wasn’t going to go for it, but Piggy wound me up,” explained Pippa, who was enjoying her first Barbury win. “She said she wasn’t going to touch her horse’s mouth over the last four fences, so it spurred me on to do the same.
“I realised he was going well like that, so perhaps I don’t need to work at balancing him so much in future.”
It was a fantastic return to form for the homebred nine-year-old by Vechta, following a fall at Bramham.
“Billy Landretti felt as if he’d lost a bit of confidence after our fall, despite winning at Salperton last weekend, but after a cross-country schooling session with Yogi [Briesner], he was perfect,” said Pippa.
Earlier in the day five riders suffered a fall in the Hippo Water (fence 17), and after discussions between the ground jury and riders, the fence was removed from the course.
Nick Burton, president of the ground jury, explained: “It was not riding well at the start of the class. Although this fence has been here at Barbury for at least three years, with minimal problems, the ground jury decided in the interest of the image of the sport to remove elements b and c.”
Read H&H’s full report from Barbury, including reaction to the falls on course, in this Thursday’s magazine, on sale 14 July
