Australia’s Sam Griffiths leads the field at lunchtime on the first day of dressage at The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.
Sam posted a score of 40.2 with Steve and Dinah Posford, Juliet Donald and his own Happy Times, a seasoned campaigner at this level. “I knew he could go in and do a beautiful test and he came up with the goods,” said Sam, who had a quick turn around after competing at WEG last week. “Luckily he’s an established horse, so it was easy to do. It was less easy to get all my washing done!” he joked.
Piggy French currently holds second spot on a score of 45.8 with Westwood Mariner, who is owned by her mother Kate French, James Midgely, Susie Wood and Susan Wrighton.
“Dressage would be this horse’s weakest phase, so I was thrilled with his test,” said Piggy, who divided the judges’ opinion. The judge at E, Christian Landolt gave her 20 marks more than the judge at M, Ernst Topp. “[The horse] is a bit like Marmite; some judges like him and some don’t. He can be quite short in his neck because of his conformation, which can affect the marks.”
The first combination into the arena this morning, Sarah Bullimore and Kew Jumping Syndicate’s Valentino V, posted the only other sub-50 mark of the morning. Their 49.5 currently has them in third. An exciting event lies ahead, for Horse Scout Team!
