Young British rider Tom Woodward and Low Moor Lucky head the under-25 national championship after the first day of Defender Bramham Horse Trials dressage on a mark of 28.1, holding overall second place in the CCI4*-S class.
“I didn’t even do the arena familiarisation last night,” said Tom, explaining that he had hoped going into the ring for the first time for his test would lift the horse. “He knows his job now; he does the bare minimum, because he’s so within himself. He knows what he needs to do, he goes in, he does it, and he goes home and he’ll probably have a sleep now and a pick of grass.”
Tom, 23, hit the headlines when he was sixth after dressage at Badminton Horse Trials last month with the same horse, but his dream debut came to an end with an early run-out across country, after which he pulled up.
“Obviously it was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s great to be exposed to that sort of atmosphere and get a little bit more recognition, maybe from people that didn’t know who we were,” said Tom.
“It was also great to get that reassurance that you can do it under the pressure, because until you go and do it, it’s a bit unknown as to how you’ll feel. Actually, I felt really relaxed all week at Badminton.
“I’ve thought about the cross-country day over and over for the last three weeks and possibly next time I’d try and rev myself up a bit more. It was just a really big learning curve about how you might do things differently.
“We’ve learned a lot about the horse as well. We’ve had him for seven years, and he’s 18 now, but we’re still learning about him every time we come out.”
Tom added that when Lucky came out of Badminton fit and well, they decided to have a crack at the under-25 championship here at Bramham.
“We got him checked out after Badminton and he obviously got the thumbs-up to come here, so we thought we’d give it a go,” said Tom Woodward after his Bramham Horse Trials dressage test.
French rider heads CCI4*-S
Frenchman Sebastien Cavaillon heads the Bramham Horse Trials dressage in the Defender CCI4*-S, riding the syndicate-owned Elipso De La Vigne to a mark of 26.9.
Sebastien said it is expensive and involves a lot of paperwork to travel to Britain since Brexit, but French chef d’equipe Jean Luc Force encouraged the trip to prepare for the European Championships at Blenheim Horse Trials in September.
“This horse has run many times in the long format, so he doesn’t need that, but just to do the short, to work on the English terrain and cross-country style – although this time it’s not actually English!” joked Sebastien, referring to the fact Cheshire-based Dutch rider Andrew Heffernan is designing the Bramham cross-country track for the first time this year.
Sebastien has started at Bramham twice before but not finished, so hopes for better luck this time.
Another pair re-routing from Badminton, Alex Hua Tian and Kate Willis’s Chicko, sit third on 30.1, having set the standard early on today.
“I felt it was some of the nicest work he’s ever done – it felt really connected but relaxed, and that’s always been a balance I’ve found quite tricky with him,” said Alex. “He felt great today, except that he was insistent that he wanted to halt everywhere, and I was like, ‘No, no, keep going!’”
Alex has “quite unstable shoulders” and his cross-country round at Badminton came unstuck when his left shoulder “popped out” when Chicko “hit the roof over the big open oxer and just paddled and twisted a bit for the back rail”.
The pair went into the ditch alongside the bridge they were meant to use to cross the gap, Alex sitting in front of the saddle and unable to push himself back.
“As he climbed out of the ditch, I ended up back in the saddle, so I jumped a couple more – my shoulder was still out at the time, but it wasn’t sore – and then turning left to the table I was getting weaker and turning left to the corner, I thought, ‘I’m not sure I’m up for this any more.’”
Alex said he is keen to take Chicko back to Badminton next year.
“I learned a lot about him – four-star is so in his comfort zone and so easy. At five-star, he just needs a little bit of extra positivity to get across those big, wide fences,” he said.
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