Piggy March holds the lead in the CCI4*-L after the first day of Defender Bramham Horse Trials dressage, riding MCS Maverick, who won this class in 2023 with Pippa Funnell.
“I was worried about the umbrellas and he definitely wasn’t quite what he was outside in there. He’s bright – but he was very rideable and – apart from the walk, which is cautious, and I don’t know if my pirouettes were active enough – he was good,” said Piggy.
The pair were eighth in the CCI4*-S at Bramham last year, when “Eric” was a very new ride for Piggy. They then went to Defender Burghley Horse Trials, where they had a couple of issues across country and ended up being eliminated.
“I want to go back to Burghley, because Burghley was terrible. I just rode him badly. I didn’t know him, I didn’t have a plan when I walked the course, I just wasn’t with him,” said Piggy.
“Badminton comes so quick, especially if you have a wet spring and you don’t get the runs, so I thought I want to do what’s right for me and the horse as a partnership – but I would really like to go back to Burghley.
“He’s a real galloping horse and it could suit him. He’s got all the quality there, it’s just finding the key, and there’s not a lot of places you can go and practise for Burghley, but Bramham definitely is one.
“It’s just cementing a partnership, actually having a plan of how to ride him. I’m still figuring that out and I’ve managed to get four or five runs in this year. I’m not there yet, but I feel like I’m getting to know him.
“If I go everywhere at third gear, he’s beautiful and I have a lovely time. But we’ve got to get up to speed and it’s a work in progress.
“I’m in my own little bubble and I’m just interested in where I’m at with him – whether that means I go zooming around and trying to get the time, or I’m just still putting bits together, I don’t know. Every day is a learning day with him.”
Piggy March on her Bramham Horse Trials dressage preparation
Having had quite a difficult preparation for the first phase here last year, Piggy alternated short periods of work with giving MCS Maverick breaks with his head down this time.
“He likes to put his head low – he stretches his back, he really breathes,” she said. “It’s just switching him on, switching him off, switching him on, switching him off, so he gets a bit bored of me. I’d like him to be bored of me. He’s still a weak horse so you can overwork his body.”
Selina Milnes led at lunchtime and held second at the end of the day on the Ruckers’ Cooley Snapchat, who was the 2023 CCI4*-S winner here.
“He was really good – he was actually so rideable, I could probably have done with a little bit more energy in the trot work,” said Selina, who scored 27.9 to Piggy and Eric’s 26.4.
The 12-year-old has had an interrupted spring as Selina fell off and broke two ribs just before the start of the season. This meant the horse missed some work so she withdrew from Mars Badminton Horse Trials.
“Then he went really well at Thoresby, he won the advanced at Cirencester and he was due to go to Belsay, and then I managed to fall off a youngster and do my ribs again,” she said.
“So these guys [my team] have literally kept him ticking over and he hasn’t really done a lot. I had a real course last week – I had a dressage lesson and went jumping and had a cross-country school, but he knows what he’s doing, doesn’t he?”
Badminton re-route for Berkeley
Daisy Berkeley holds third on her own, her mother Caroline Dick and Camilla Case’s Diese Du Figuier, who has been re-routed here after she pulled up at Mars Badminton Horse Trials.
“Obviously, Badminton was disappointing, but I’d agreed with the owners beforehand that if we had an early 20, we were not going to carry on, because once you’re out of the running, it’s a pretty hideous course to be riding around when you’ve lost your competitive spirit.
“So we always were going to re-route here if that was an issue, because we all love Bramham so much and it would have been a bit gutting not to be here,” said Daisy, adding that you arrive at Bramham and feel like you’re at the best event in the world.
“I did initially enter for the short, just because I thought that was just the easy, lazy option. I suddenly thought, ‘Come on, it would fit in better with my plan for the rest of the year if I went long here’. Then we’ll do another long again in the autumn, hopefully.”
The pair scored 29.5 today.
“I like riding in the rain, so, actually, I was very happy that we had this day of drizzle. It just makes life a bit easier. It keeps everyone’s heads down and moisturises my ancient dry eyes,” said Daisy.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with him in there. He was really obedient, got both his changes. He ‘fell over’ in the last halt, but he halted square, at least, so that was good. To be in the 20s is always nice.
“I know there’s going to be some very good ones, but I don’t care about what everyone else is doing, as long as we can do the best performance, me and him, that we can do, and see what happens in the end.”
Ibble Watson rounds out the sub-30 tests in fourth on Aristoteles S Z, and Alex Bragg is fifth on Jaeger Master.
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