Harry Meade has claimed fourth place after the first day of Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage for the five-star class today (23 April).
“I was delighted with his way of going and his execution of every movement – he felt really polished, very accurate and had a nice, soft, uphill, open way of going,” said Harry after his test on his own and Mandy Gray’s Superstition, which scored 30.2.
Harry admitted he had hoped for better marks for his test, saying: “He’s an old-timer and I hoped he’d have scored better, but sometimes you’ve got to get good marks to get good marks. We’ve just got to make sure we leave no stone unturned for the rest of the competition now to make up for that.”
Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage: Harry Meade on unusual preparation
Superstition hasn’t run since finishing sixth at Badminton last year, but world number one Harry explained this unconventional preparation works for the 17-year-old, who has now been in the top 12 at five five-stars.
“He’s very fractious in his mind,” said Harry. “He gets very stressed at competitions. He did Burghley 2024 off the back of basically nothing and went really well and then he did nothing to Badminton the following year and was brilliant there.
“It’s not what I would choose for every horse. But for me, it was the balance of what, actually, do the prep runs do for him and does the benefit outweigh the tension? And I felt that it probably made him a less secure person in his own mind.
“So a lot of it’s just about keeping him feeling very comfortable, confident, happy and enjoying it and not under the spotlight, and then we bring him out to a big one. He’s a very well proven five-star horse and he’s been very well prepared at home. He feels very ready in all three phases.”
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Asked after his Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage whether Superstition had had an injury after Badminton last year, Harry Meade mentioned the horse has “a weakness on something”, but said the taxing mental effort of getting him prepared was the main element in him not doing an autumn three-day last year.
He explained: “After Badminton, I took a deep breath, and Mandy, his owner, had Et Hop Du Matz heading to Burghley and she said she was quite happy if he just did one three-day a year. He’s an older horse and I thought that actually suits him and it suits me.
“It’s hard to keep that level of intensity – it’s like someone doing a job like diffusing bombs or something – it takes quite a lot of mental, very quiet, considered control and it was quite nice to put him in the field and give him a bit of a break.
“And then I worked him through the autumn and kept him in work over the winter, and he’s come out feeling brilliant.”
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.
