Yasmin Ingham topped the Defender Bramham Horse Trials results in the CCI4*-S today, finishing on her dressage score of 27.9 with Gypsie Du Loir, who belongs to Janette Chinn and The Sue Davies Fund.
“She’s super brave and bold, so it’s a nice feeling when you’re sat on one that is always looking for the flags. You can tell her ears are always concentrating. She’s a lovely, exciting mare for the future,” said Yasmin.
Yasmin was third after dressage, but moved up to second when Piggy March and new ride MCS Maverick had the upright at fence three down in the showjumping for eventual eighth, just one spot ahead of Piggy’s other ride Cooley Goodwood.
France’s Sebastien Cavaillon led this class after both dressage and showjumping, but 1.6 time-faults across country dropped him and Elipso De La Vigne to third.
“I hoped to go inside the time, but my watch stopped at 4min 50sec, which I saw on the last loop,” said Sebastien. “I said, ‘Okay, let’s go’ but finished just four seconds over – two seconds less and we’d have been ok, so it’s a little bit of a shame, but the horse was very good in all three phases.”
Yasmin knew she could win when she set out – but she didn’t have even a second in hand.
She said: “I was on a mission. Sebastien very kindly left the door open for me, so I thought, ‘I’m not going to let this one slide’ so off we went. I meant business from the beginning and she’s super fast and a pleasure to ride cross-country.”
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Yasmin does some training with new Bramham course-designer Andrew Heffernan.
“Andy has done such a good job of the course, so it was really exciting to ride around one of his beautiful courses here at Bramham,” said Yasmin, for whom this was a first outright Bramham win, although she was national under-25 champion here in 2019, when Irishman Cathal Daniels won the under-25 class.
This was a third CCI4*-S for Gypsie Du Loir, who is nine years old and has won twice at three-star.
Yasmin said: “She definitely surprised me by winning. The showjumping is always a little bit her weak phase, so when she jumped a clear round, and then Sebastien just picked up a couple of seconds over, I just thought this could be an opportunity, and it would be rude not to give it a go. She deserved it.”
Sebastien’s compatriot Astier Nicolas stayed on his dressage score with Alertamalib’or to move up from third after showjumping to eventual second, just 0.1 of a penalty behind Yasmin.
US rider Tiana Coudray was fourth in the Bramham Horse Trials results for the Defender CCI4*-S on Coeur De L Esprit Z, with Caroline Harris fifth on last year’s Pau Horse Trials CCI5* winner, with both pairs finishing on their dressage scores.
Alexis Goury (Je’Vall) made it three French riders in the top six with sixth place. China’s Alex Hua Tian took seventh on Chicko.
Time was the major factor sorting out the final Bramham Horse Trials results during the cross-country for this Defender CCI4*-S. The fact the short format provides a more intense test, with fewer galloping stretches, meant beating the 6min 47sec optimum was a tougher ask in this class than achieving the 10min 3sec target in the CCI4*-L. Ten came home fault free.
The Rail, Ditch, Rail to Owl Hole at fence 11abcd – complete with a corner with a roof decorated as a bird as the final element – caused its fair share of problems, as did the Womble Bond Dickinson Pond at fence 15abcd.
This was the first (and only) time the horses got their feet wet on this track, whereas on the CCI4*-L course, they had already been in the water at the earlier Kidney Ponds, which may have been a contributor to some refusals at the big hanging log in.
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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.
