Izzy, who won this class last year on Monkeying Around, was the only competitor to break the 30 barrier when she piloted Happy Days, owned by Alex Colquhoun, Caroline Wilson and Lavinia Taylor, to a mark of 29.9.
“I’m very pleased with him,” said Izzy after the 11-year-old’s performance. “He’s a very cool horse. He’s taken a while to come – no, that’s not really fair, he’s still quite young. But he’s grown in confidence. Usually he’s actually quite an introvert and this week he has been full of himself so far.
“He is happy, as his name would suggest, and he just stayed with me all the time today. Bramham is very different to say Badminton – it’s much closer to the crowd and we seem to be very close to the members’ marquee this year. So it’s much more of a close feeling atmosphere so I’m really pleased that he didn’t get over excited by that.
“He’s super laid back, but I think in a way, everyone expresses their worries differently. He’s super laid back and then he gets worried and he goes too laid back. But now he’s beginning to realise that he is alright, so he might show a few people a few things. But he’s very cool, very low maintenance in terms of he likes to be loved and fed. Food is key to Happy’s life!”
Bramham Horse Trials dressage: Piggy March holds second
Piggy March set the standard in the first session with a score of 30.8, riding Alison Swinburn and John and Chloe Perry’s 10-year-old Thoresby CCI4*-S winner Brookfield Cavalier Cruise. Probably to her own surprise – as she was a little disappointed with the score, which is considerably worse than for the horse’s other recent tests – she held onto a strong placing, second, at the end of the day.
Brookfield Cavalier Cruise has returned to Piggy this year, having been ridden by her for a season as a seven-year-old but since been successful with Sophie Callard and Tom McEwen. He also won with Harry Meade before Piggy’s first stint riding him.
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His previous two four-star tests with Piggy this year have netted marks in the mid 20s. At times today the horse’s head was a little in front of the vertical, which may have accounted for the lower marks.
Piggy said: “I’m very pleased with him – I’m just looking forward to watching it back because he felt like he did not a lot wrong and that’s definitely his worst mark for quite a while. So I’ll be interested to see and learn from that and try and pick the bits to be better next time, but he was pretty mistake free and showed himself off nicely.
“There’s still bits of his flatwork that could come more supple and be off the floor, but on the whole, his general attitude and way of going I thought was very nice, which is what matters.”
This is Brookfield Cavalier Cruise’s first CCI4*-L.
“He’s a big boy and just a lovely horse,” said Piggy. “This week is a big week for him. It’s a serious, serious cross-country track. So we’ll take each bit as it comes, but I’ve come here to be competitive and that mark for him, for what he’s been doing, seems quite off his pace. Hopefully, if the judges are grumpy, they stay grumpy for two days!”
Aaron Millar holds third in the CCI4*-L Bramham Horse Trials dressage with Heidi Bates’ KEC Deakon on a score of 32.4. They have re-routed to Bramham from Badminton, where Aaron fell off at fence 13. Canada’s Michael Winter sits fouth on El Mundo (33.3), his mount at last year’s eventing World Championships.
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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.
