Clayton Fredericks (pictured) leads after the final dressage session at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.
Clayton scored 39 for his fluid, flowing test on the McAuleys’ Nullabor, putting him 0.6 of a penalty ahead of Thursday’s leader Andrew Nicholson on Lord Killinghurst.
“He’s still a young horse [10 years old] and there’s so much more to come,” said Clayton. “I’m pleased he didn’t spook at the end of the arena and mess up the changes, as he did at Badminton. I took him for a canter this morning — I thought that would take the sting out of him and it did.”
The best two British tests this afternoon came from horses of totally different types, with riders at opposite ends of the experience scale.
During the last batch of tests William Fox-Pitt scored 44.8 on the 2005 Burghley winner Ballincoola, who lost marks for resistance in his rein-back and for one of his flying changes.
Ballincoola was followed into the arena by the chunky 15.1hh skewbald Patris Filius, who tried his heart out for 23-year-old Olivia Haddow. They equalled William’s score to share seventh place with him and Lucy Wiegersma overnight.
“Dressage is his strongest phase and he loves the atmosphere and the crowd,” said Olivia, a team gold medallist at the 2005 young rider European Championships with Patris Filius. “I’m planning to just kick on across country, but we won’t be the fastest because it’s a first four-star for both of us.”
Log back on for more updates tomorrow, and don’t forget to buy Horse & Hound next Thursday (6th September) for a full report from Burghley.
RESULTS AT THE END OF DRESSAGE
1. Nullabor (Clayton Fredericks, AUS) 39
2. Lord Killinghurst (Andrew Nicholson, NZL) 39.6
3. Parkmore Ed (William Fox-Pitt, GB) 41.4
4. Lenamore (Caroline Powell, NZL) 42.2
5. Tom Quigley (Polly Stockton, GB) 42.8
6. Master Monarch (Andrew Hoy, AUS) 43.2
7=. Ballincoola (William Fox-Pitt, GB) 44.8
7=. Shaabrak (Lucy Wiegersma, GB) 44.8
7=. Patris Filius (Olivia Haddow, GB) 44.8
10. Bonza Katoomba (Matt Ryan, AUS) 45.8
Click here for full updated results.
Click here to read H&H editor Lucy Higginson’s blog from today at Burghley.
