The honours at the first World Cup qualifier of the new season in Oslo (11-14 October) stayed in Scandinavia courtesy of Sweden’s Helena Lundback on Maddick.
Tim Stockdale (pictured) on Fresh Direct Corlato, and William Funnell with his home-bred Billy Birr represented Britain in this class.
Things did not go right for William’s inexperienced ride, while Tim was left ruing a fence down that kept him out of the jump-off. However, his time was good enough for 11th place and he picked up precious points towards an appearance at the final in Gothenburg next April.
Italy’s Juan Carlos Garcia held the lead with a brilliant round on the 12-year-old French-bred Hamiltonm De Perhet. But Helena’s Swedish-bred mare took almost 0.5sec off the time to give her rider a first World Cup victory.
See this Thursday’s Horse & Hound to find out how Tim and William got on in other classes at the show and to read reports from top show jumping shows around Britain. Horse & Hound is on sale Thursday 25 October.
