Clean sheet at Badminton Horse Trials’ first horse inspection
It was a swift first horse inspection at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials this afternoon. The ground jury accepted all 83 horses, with no horses being represented.
Riders from 15 nations came forward, with competitors from Australia and New Zealand to Sweden and the USA.
Italy’s Vittoria Panizzon — one of the favourites for this year’s competition — withdrew Borough Pennyz prior to the trot-up after finding the mare had a bruised foot this morning.
Wind and rain put a stop to any overly extravagant displays of fashion from the riders — a warm jacket was the order of the day.
Badminton final scores
But America’s Tiana Coudray braved a floaty summer skirt, while New Zealand’s Megan Heath donned a glamorous all-black ensemble with heels.
Viktoria Carlerback from Sweden and Tim Lips from the Netherlands brightened up the grey skies with some electric pink and orange trousers respectively.
Dressage kicks off tomorrow morning at 9am and you can follow all the action using our H&H Live interactive written commentary service.
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.