The inexperienced MHS Seventeen, ridden by Ros Canter, heads up the Defender CCI4*-S after the first day of Bramham Horse Trials dressage today (8 June).
“I took him over just under a year ago from Nicola Wilson, who’d actually only had him for about six months herself,” said Ros. “We’ve just been bumbling along really. He won the three-star long at Osberton last year and that was only my third event on him so we’re still getting to know each other.
“This was always my aim, but with the spring we’ve had, we’ve come here very inexperienced now. He’s done one advanced at Cirencester, which didn’t have a water in because it was flooded. He did the dressage only at Chatsworth. So it’s kind of a feeling weekend really.”
Ros scored 32.6 with Lady Milnes Coates and Deirdre Johnston’s horse today.
She said: “He went quite spooky in the top corner, but Chris Bartle was saying that lots of horses that done that today. So he changed leg at the end of his extended canter, which was a shame because that was something he doesn’t normally.
“The rest of it was just a bit green. I’m surprised I’m in the lead at the end of today with a test that was a bit green, but on the other hand, his way of going in the last week has changed. It’s starting to feel proper, where he was a bit pony-like before.”
The 2018 world champion added that she will have to be on her guard across country with MHS Seventeen.
“He’s a lovely model of horse. He’s beautiful and a very careful jumper, but he would be spooky,” she said. “We’ve been so short of runs he did an intermediate last weekend and he ran out of the third last, which was a white house painted with black stripes, having absolutely bombed around the rest of it. So that has been a really good wake-up call for me that I’ve got to be on it right till the last fence. But he is really cool, he’s good fun – and he’s the right size for me!”
New faces hold second in Bramham Horse Trials dressage
Rising stars Stephen Heal and Quidam De Lux sit second. Wiltshire-based Stephen, 29, piloted his own and The Super Mario Syndicate’s Quidam De Lux to win the national seven-year-old championship in 2021 and today the pair stepped into the spotlight again with a test which scored 33.1.
“It was definitely an improvement in his work from Chatsworth – we got both of our flying changes today, which we didn’t quite manage at Chatsworth. He felt like he really listened in there. He was desperate to look at the crowd and then he was like, ‘Okay, I’ll listen’,” said Stephen.
“He’s got a lovely character – everyone loves him on the yard because he’s just really chatty. He’s a super jumper and a lovely mover.”
Zara Tindall holds third on 34.4 with another nine-year-old, her own and Judith Luff’s grey Classicals Euro Star. She bought the horse as a five-year-old from Sarah Kellard.
She said: “We’ve gone slowly with him. He’s just a bit of a lad – he’s a fun little guy, but he can just be a bit of a trickster on the cross-country. He looks at everything and everyone and you think you’re on a good distance and then he spots something and spooks and you kind of end up in the wrong place. But I think he’s going to be good at this level.”
You might also be interested in:
Izzy Taylor leads Bramham four-star long on Happy Days: ‘He’s an introvert who likes to be loved and fed!’
Four horses held at Bramham Horse Trials first trot-up
A bounce into water and a leap of faith: see the fences Ros Canter and Pippa Funnell tackle at Bramham this week
How to watch Bramham Horse Trials
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