Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville scored a five-star personal best of 28.6 to go third in the first ride after lunch on the second day of dressage at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials (Friday 8 May).
“If you do a personal best at Badminton, that’s the right place to do it,” Lara said. “She felt fantastic in there – she knows she’s at Badminton. She has been quite a lot to handle since we arrived, but my groom did a fantastic job. I think I made everyone proud.”
The 13-year-old mare arrived at Badminton fresh and unsettled, and Lara’s team have been keeping her calm with hours of in-hand grazing.
“Grazing, grazing – not letting her think too much about it,” said Lara. “She hasn’t eaten too much yet, and I think she’s lost some weight, so the challenge is being the good athlete, the good rider, and taking a lot of time out without the work. She’s 13, and she has nothing to learn now. It’s just about keeping her happy.”
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Lara’s preparation had been disrupted by a fall, after which Hooney d’Arville was kept in her stable for 10 days while the team feared a fracture.
“It ended up not being anything, but I wasn’t sure I was going to come here,” she said. “Now I’m here, and it’s such an accomplishment for her to be here – just riding in there, with nothing to lose really.
“I’m just finally enjoying my time at Badminton and not being so stressed – don’t speak to me about that before cross-country tomorrow. But it all happened the way I would have dreamt of.”
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Looking ahead to Saturday, Lara felt the Badminton cross-country course challenge is about cumulative pressure rather than any one fence.
“I like the flow,” she said. “I’d think more about the accumulation factor than one fence in particular. The Vicarage Vee is quite intense, so you want to be on time there, but you shouldn’t try to catch up. There’s a lot to jump.”
“Somehow we always get it done”: Felix Vogg fourth at Badminton
Felix Vogg followed Lara into the main arena and posted 28.7 with the experienced five-star campaigner Cartania to go fourth, making it two continental European riders muscling their way into the top four in a single afternoon session.
“It was a disaster the last few days,” Felix revealed. “She got nervous and everything, but somehow we always get it done in the test. The atmosphere here, the dogs barking – she’s not so used to all that stuff.”
The Swiss rider has walked the cross-country course twice and likes it, but is hoping for the ground to ride a touch slower than last year.
“I have to still walk it two or three more times,” he said. “I hope the ground’s not too fast – I said the same thing last year, and she got quite strong. Hopefully, this way around it’s better for me.”
Heading into the final group of riders, Lara and Felix sit third and fourth behind leader Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, who took over at the top with a dominant 23.7 earlier in the day, with Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl second on 28.1. Brazil’s Marcio Carvalho Jorge rounds out the top five on 29.2 with Royal Encounter.
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).
