‘This horse has taught me more than any other’: world number one shakes up Blenheim leaderboard

World number one Ros Canter and her multiple international-winning ride Izilot DHI delivered the best performance on the second day of dressage at Blenheim Horse Trials to sit second in the CCI4*-L results ahead of cross-country.

Their score of 21.6 leaves them 1.1 penalties adrift of Thursday’s leaders Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir, who have held onto their lead with their personal best score of 20.5.

Ros and Izilot DHI won Blair CCI4*-S in August, with the Scottish event serving as a prep run for the autumn three-days for several in the Lincolnshire-based rider’s string.

The pair divided judges’ opinions with a +11% difference in scoring between the highest and lowest scores among the three judges.

This 10-year-old Dutch warmblood, who Ros owns with Alex Moody, consistently fires out smart tests. His four-star personal best stands at 18, achieved at Chatsworth in May. While their recent average has been closer to the mid- to late-20s, Ros is continually learning new ways to unlock this talented gelding’s potential.

“I was a little bit braver today, in just working him a little bit quieter, doing a little bit less,” said Ros.

“Previously, I’ve had to do quite a lot of work to get his brain [in the right place], but he’s been feeling so good this week that I thought that I best reward him, be brave myself and trust him.

“We’re still scratching the surface, to be quite honest. There’s a huge amount more in there from him.”

Ros added she was delighted with the horse’s softness and his flexibility at the poll in his test today.

“This is a better time of year for him. He’s tricky in spring and bad weather, and it’s a nice day for him today. I’m learning all the time.

“This horse has taught me more than any other horse has ever taught me. I learn every day when I ride him, playing about and working things.

“I’ve had a little bit of a head tip in the last few events; today I didn’t get that – and that was a missing key I found yesterday, just through working by myself and playing away. He’s an absolute pleasure and he teaches me an awful lot.”

Blenheim Horse Trials dressage results: top 10 shake-up

Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno, owned by Chris Stone, who held second place in the Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L dressage results after the first day, are now provisional third (25.6).

Laura Collett and the 10-year-old German-bred Calahari produced the second highest-scoring test on Friday, nailing a 25.8 to hold fourth overnight. Laura is temporarily stepping in for injured regular rider Aoife Clark, and the new partnership topped the CCI3*-S at Cornbury as a stepping stone to Blenheim.

“He can get hot but he didn’t feel at all buzzy and he was really rideable,” said Laura, riding for the Ace of Spades Syndicate.

“I haven’t had him very long, he’s Aoife’s horse and I’m just standing in. At Lisgarvan and Cornbury it finally felt like we’re gelling as a partnership, so hopefully that’s happening just in time for a big one.

“He’s a really fun horse. He’s very different to my normal types. It’s taken a while to get the feeling and find the buttons, but hopefully I feel like we’ve found them, so fingers’ crossed for tomorrow.”

Last competitors of the day Tom McEwen and Brookfield Quality (“Norris”) gave the business end of the leaderboard a shake-up to slot into provisional fifth on 26.6.

“I’m still actually really getting to know him in many ways. So he might know exactly what he’s up to, but we’ve still got a bit of learning between each other,” said Tom, who rides the 14-year-old Irish gelding for Alison Swinburn and John and Chloe Perry.

“Norris was great. It’s probably not the best work that we’ve done, and not the best work we’ve done all week, so in that department, it was a little bit it’s a shame, but nothing more than that.

“He knows exactly what he’s doing and cracked on with it. We had a late change, which was again, a shame. But I was really delighted with him and he deserves the mark he is on.”

Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On, owned by Barbara Walkinshaw and Nicholas Walkinshaw, are now in provisional sixth (27.1). Kirsty Chabert holds seventh with her father John Johnston, Caroline Caines, Caroline Rees and Carole Somers’s Opposition Loire (27.9).

New Zealand’s Samantha Lissington is the highest-placed international competitor in the CCI4*-L at this stage in provisional eighth aboard her own and Sharon Honiss’ Lord Seekonig.

The 10-year-old Lord Fauntleroy son was produced to CCI3*-L by Ireland’s Alex Power, before joining Samantha’s string a year ago.

“He was awesome. I felt like I could really ask for all the movements,” said Samantha. “We just had one little confusion at the end where he thought I was asking for a flying change, but then we figured that out. He’s a lovely horse to ride on a flat.”

Last year’s Blenheim Horse Trials young horse CCI4*-S winners Halo and Piggy March head into cross-country in provisional ninth on a dressage score of 28.7. While this is still a competitive score, Piggy was a little disappointed as she knows what Jayne McGivern’s bonny 10-year-old stallion is capable of achieving.

“He is a lovely horse, he has it all there, but that’s not what he should be doing or has been doing – he actually went a bit into himself and just drew back behind me, and he is not that sort of a horse,” said Piggy.

“Whether it’s just a long day with the heat… I haven’t overworked him, I don’t know. That’s horses. He’s had so much more lovely work and he’s so consistent and rideable, then he just came into himself. Tomorrow’s another day, it’s a learning thing for him.

“He’s capable of six marks off that [score] quite comfortably. You just think, what should I have done differently? So it’s a learning thing for me.”

Olympic champion Julia Krajewski completes the top 10 in this bumper 93-strong class with Professor Bernd Heicke’s Ero De Cantraie, with whom she won the German national championships at Luhmühlen in June, on 29.6.

The Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-L cross-country starts at 11.30am tomorrow morning (16 September), with Tom Grant and Penhills Optimax the first of the combination to tackle David Evans’ course.

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