Isabelle Cook excelled as Britain’s three “Rising Lions” had mixed fortunes on the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country course today (25 April).
The new Rising Lions programme has given Isabelle, Elizabeth Barratt and Finn Healy the opportunity to ride in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S at the premier US event.
Isabelle Cook put in a superb Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country performance today, coming home with just 3.2 time-faults with her mother Tina and Jim Chromiak’s Cymoon “F” Z. This was the second-fastest round of the day, beaten only by overnight leader Tamie Smith, who had 1.6 time-faults on Lillet 3.
“He was really on it. He’s a very fast cross-country horse. He’s always locking on, he’s always moving away from his fences, and he makes the job feel enjoyable,” said Isabelle.
The 12-year-old horse was initially “very difficult” and was produced by Isabelle’s mother, multi-medalled rider Tina Cook, learning to trust her and love his job, before her daughter took over at the middle of 2024.
Isabelle continued: “The crowds were amazing – you could really hear them cheering. Even though you’re supposed to be concentrating and probably not meant to hear it, you really could hear them encouraging you and I was like, ‘Come on then, right, let’s go.’
“It was a lovely course to ride, everything was so beautifully dressed that actually you could really ride it properly and ride positively.”
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Isabelle’s compatriot Finn Healy had a fall at fence 4b, the corner out of the Mars Sustainability Bay.
“I did, unfortunately, know what happened to Finn, because I was just warming up in the sand arena basically right by the fence, but I didn’t actually see it, luckily,” said Isabelle.
“But Mum was just like, ‘Right, he’s all right, just wipe out of your mind. You ride the line how you think.’ I didn’t see what happened to him, so I don’t know how he rode it, or anything, so I just had to clear my head and focus on what I was doing.”
Isabelle said the line here actually rode as more of a blind bend than she expected, but apart from that you had to respect the combinations but they rode well.
In terms of the time Isabelle said: “I thought the time would be very quick, so I actually didn’t look at my watch that much, because I just thought I had to stay in a rhythm and go as quick as I felt comfortable going. I didn’t know other people’s times as I was focusing on what I was doing leading up to my round.”
Isabelle has moved up from equal 36th after dressage to eighth ahead of tomorrow’s showjumping.
Finn Healy’s fall
Finn and Greannanstown Monbeg Joe took a tumble over fence 4b, the corner at the first combination, the Mars Sustainability Bay.
“I’ve only fallen off him once as a four-year-old so it was all a bit of a shock to the system, especially so early on,” Finn told H&H.
“He gave me a great ride over the first four. I just turned to the corner and maybe let him fall in a little bit and was on a closer shot. He’s a little fighter and he wasn’t quite listening to me and so ran a smidge closer than wanted. Whether the crowds behind took his eye, I don’t know, and he just left his right knee.
“It’s gutting because he’s an incredible horse and but luckily, we both seem like we’re healthy, and that’s the main thing.
“We’re both young and the whole week’s been an amazing experience, from a learning point of view. Obviously it’s not gone as planned. However, that’s horses, everyone knows that.
“There’s a lot to learn from the whole sequence of events. I might need to get him to listen to me a little bit more, but then I also might need to be able to be a bit more patient on my lines.”
She put in a good round today with one run-out, when she ended up too far left at the right-handed corner off a left-hand turn out of the Defender Sunken Road (fence 10abc), and 33.6 time-faults.
“He was absolutely phenomenal, he felt the best he’s ever felt and it’s the biggest track I’ve done by miles,” said Elizabeth.
“I made a small mistake at the sunken road – I just turned a bit quick. So he picked up 20 penalties, but he didn’t even see the fence. I came around and re-presented and carried on as if nothing happened. So that was my mistake, but he felt amazing.
“It’s really exciting for the future that he’s come out and jumped around such a big track with an inexperienced jockey on board, and made it feel pretty easy.”
Asked what she had learnt, Elizabeth said: “The importance of really good, proper course walking. We’ve had Tina Cook walking with us and I walked with Grant Wilson too, and I had a really good plan.
“When things didn’t go quite as I’d expected, I knew what to do, where to go, and what strides I should be picking up on, which really helped.”
Elizabeth now lies 30th and she and Isabelle will trot-up their horses and then showjump tomorrow morning.
Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
