The judges had yet to be set alight on day one of the Mars Badminton Horse Trials dressage phase when Tom McEwen woke them up with a glorious display late on Thursday afternoon. He steered his Paris Olympic partner JL Dublin into a massive lead on 22.4.
“He pulled together a super, super test, and got a mark he deserved,” said Tom of the 14-year-old, owned by James and Jo Lambert, and Deirdre Johnston.
They wowed from the outset, earning the judges’ first nine for their initial halt and several more as the test went on. They scored straight nines for the final halt, and their cadence and sparkle throughout set them apart.
It wasn’t perfect. Tom rode boldly in the extended trot, and Dublin lost his balance slightly, breaking into canter for a string of threes. It was the only blip in a delightfully soft yet flamboyant performance.
Badminton final scores
“Shame that our highlight piece, the extended trot was broken, but he was absolutely awesome,” said Tom. “He was relaxed, and showed all that power and rhythm yet still came out with that extended walk from the pirouettes.”
Tom explained how he’s kept the horse fresh, after a post-Olympic holiday with field-mate Toledo De Kerser.
“We know he’s unbelievably talented, but we’ve really saved him so he’s wanting to come out,” Tom said. “We’ve teased him by taking him to jumping and dressage, and he’s like, ‘this isn’t the real deal!’.
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“Now he’s here, he’s been on it all week, he’s ecstatic to perform.”
Tom was grateful for his late start time towards the end of the afternoon on day one, as the horse thrives on atmosphere.
“The worst thing is if the stands are empty,” he said. “He’s a showman, and if it had been really busy he’d go up another level again.”
Debutant enjoys “electric atmosphere” of Badminton Horse Trials dressage
Next in was Yasmin Ingham, who had the hard act of following Tom and Dublin in full flow.
Yas was making her Badminton debut with Rehy DJ, who already has two podium results at five-star. In the shadow of his world champion stablemate Banzai Du Loir, this gelding is sometimes overlooked. But he produced a correct and confident test to score 29 and sit in fourth place overnight.
“He’s not naturally the biggest mover, but when he’s accurate and does things correctly he’s rewarded with the marks,” said Yasmin of the 15-year-old.
“It’s my first time at Badminton and it’s an electric atmosphere so I’m delighted with how he coped. He does react to noise and going in behind Tom was probably not ideal for me, but I was really pleased.”
Emily King moves into second spot
Emily King was another title favourite featuring on Thursday afternoon, riding Valmy Biats, who is owned by Emily, her father David, and Paula and David Evans.
Their test was accurate and smooth, with some lovely moments particularly in the canter work, but Dublin had set an unattainable standard with his flair and cadence. Emily’s score of 27.3 secured second at the end of day one.
“He held his breath a bit, so I was trying to get him to chill out,” Emily said. “He felt amazing [in the warm-up] and then just went a little tight when he went in, so I had to adapt to how he was in certain places in the arena. But the fact he tensed up and then stayed with me in the crunch movements made me so proud of him.”
Emily explained how she’s worked on Valmy Biats’ tension.
“I do a lot of test riding with him, not necessarily in the same order, but the set pieces, in different atmospheres,” she said. “He’s not scatty, but he tries so hard and holds his breath.
“So I’ve taken him to places this spring to try get him to imitate that [feeling], so I can pat him and tell him ‘don’t worry!’ He’s so sensitive and full of power, it’s been about trying to get him so I can put my leg on without going nought to 60.
“Today he trotted in and saw the cross-country fence, and I was like, ‘Val, come on, you know you don’t start with that!’ But I could feel his heart rate going up. So I turned him away from it and gave him a pat, to say ‘you’re not going out the start box now’.”
Badminton Horse Trials dressage leaderboard
The top six at the end of day one of the Badminton dressage are:
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
