Find out how a dramatic morning of showjumping has unfolded at Bicton today (12 June)
The super-hot CCI4*-S section at Bicton Horse Trials, supported by Chedington, has been action packed in the showjumping phase after the first half of competitors have jumped.
Overnight leaders Laura Collett and London 52 jumped a beautiful round, but tipped a brick out of the wall at the second to last fence. This drops them down to 11th at this stage, adding four faults to their 21 dressage.
Second placed Alex Hua Tian and Jilsonne Van Bareelhof are yet to jump, but the best of the combinations to have jumped so far are Tom McEwen and Toledo De Kerser, who are currently in second after a super-slick clear, with scope to move up if Alex incurs more than 1.6 penalties, which is what he has in hand over Tom.
“He jumped awesome,” Tom said afterwards. “I thought the track was really good — they made great use of the arena with lots of lines and switchbacks but it flowed.”
The course has caused plenty of problems, with just 11 jumping clear inside the tight time allowed from a total of 62 combinations that have jumped so far.
“I think the course has been causing problems because it’s a bigger course than what most of us have been jumping recently and I think the technicality is up there with every fence being quite related. I’m really pleased that the time allowed is tight because it rewards the good jumpers, which obviously suits my horse,” explained Tom.
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Ros Canter is in provisional third with her great campaigner Allstar B after jumping a great clear.
“I’m really happy with him — he’s quite excited today which is nice,” said Ros. “With Badminton not running this year, we didn’t have to get him quite so fit and it’s just showed a little bit in his enthusiasm that he’s just starting to build his fitness — he whipped round before we went in today when he heard all the clapping. He grew and that’s what you need to feel.
“It’s a tight enough track in there — there’s lots of turns but the time is quite tight so you get tempted to change how you ride, but then you can’t afford to change.”
Kitty King is in provisional fourth on Vendredi Biats. They were another to jump an impressive clear to stay on their 23.1 dressage.
“It’s a real jumpers’ track with quite a lot of tight tight turnbacks, and to be honest, when I walked the course, I hoped that would suit both my horses this morning [Ceylor LAN also jumped a clear with Kitty] as that’s what we do a lot of time training at home, so it’s the kind of track I like, so it was ideal really.
“It’s a tough cross-country track tomorrow — I’ve obviously got Ceylor LAN first so it will be nice to get a feel of the course. There’s lots of questions and there’s no let up up fence — it’s combination after combination so it’s going to be an interesting day.”
Oliver Townend jumped an immaculate round on Cooley Master Class, recording another clear in the time, to sit in sixth provisionally on their 24 dressage.
Read the full report from Bicton in the 17 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine and keep checking back to horseandhound.co.uk for further updates and insight
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Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
