Ros Canter has held her dressage lead at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials with a clear inside the time over the cross-country course today (Saturday, 9 May) on her defending champion Lordships Graffalo (Walter).
“I just feel incredibly grateful to him, to have a horse that allows me to come out at a level like this not maybe feeling at my best, but believing I can do it because of him,” said Ros, who had her second daughter, Seneh, in late January.
Ros said the challenge for her in riding Michele and Archie Saul’s Lordships Graffalo was more mental than physical.
“Physically I’m not up to where I was, but I was confident with him, because he makes my life quite easy, it wasn’t going to be a massive physical battle,” she said. “It’s more mental and about time – the time isn’t there, I’m feeding a baby – so the question was could I do it without having those moments to myself that I usually get?”
Badminton final scores
Ros added: “I feel very proud, not really just of myself but of the team I have around me. They’re the ones who have enabled me to do it. I didn’t sit on Walter until well into February and they put the fitness work into him when I wasn’t there – there’s a period just before and after having a baby when you just aren’t there.
“And my amazing mum, who’s been through a lot this year. She gets up earlier and earlier and works so hard to make my dreams come true.”
Dressage leader Ros Canter was held at the start of the Badminton Horse Trials cross-country because the rider before her, France’s Luc Chateau, fell when Viens Du Mont hit the second brush bucket coming out of the Equidry Huntsman’s Close (fence 6ab). The horse galloped away and Luc walked home after receiving medical attention.
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Once Ros and Lordships Graffalo got going, their partnership looked as superb as ever, with Ros riding with her customary longer reins and Walter putting his mealy nose forward to seek each fence.
They were copybook through the early combinations at the Equidry Huntsman’s Close (fence 6ab) and the Mars Lake (fences 9ab and 10ab), as well as through the Spillers Sustainability Bay (fence 20abcd), where Ros’s pupil Cassie Sanger fell earlier today.
Lordships Graffalo drifted slightly over the ditch at Mike Weaver’s Farm Yard (fence 22ab) and got a little close to the rail out, touching it, but the frangible device did not break.
They made the time easily, finishing 13 seconds inside the target without looking under any pressure, and will start tomorrow’s showjumping with a rail in hand.
Ros said of her brilliant partner: “He’s amazing – he pricks his ears and says, ‘I’ve got it’ but never tows me through it, never tows me onto a difficult spot. He’s always light in the gallop and enables me to get into a position where I believe I can be one of the fastest riders in the world.”
In the section immediately before Ros, Emma Thomas finished with 20 penalties at the Mars Lake (fence 9ab) with Icarus, plus six time-penalties, and fellow Brit Fiona Kashel jumped round clear on Creevagh Silver De Haar with 12 time-faults.
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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.
