Jonathan Makes his Mark

The Welcome to Yorkshire Bramham International Horse Trials has its first major competition winner in the form of Jonathan Paget from New Zealand.  Riding Lucy Allison and Frances Stead’s Clifton Lush, Jonathan won with a fantastic cross country clear inside the time.  A dressage of 45.4 left the combination in fourth and they had a show jump down this morning which actually put them down the order.  Jonathan took the ride over in February from compatriot Joe Meyer and they’ve quickly formed a sound partnership.  “I’m surprised!  He’s a really gentleman and he may not be the best moving horse but he’s genuine.  He’s certainly my hope for London 2012,” said Jonathan.

Second went to our reigning Young Rider European Champion, Emily Parker with the exciting prospect, Treefers.  A dressage of 48.8 put her in good stead, as did a clear in this morning’s show jumping.  They lost a bit of time out on cross country to add two time penalties – a clear would have given them victory but the young rider from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire was ecstatic with her runner’s up position.
Bramham-regular Andrew Nicholson was third with the Spanish-bred Armada, owned by Paul Ridgeon on 52.8

In the CCI*** section, Germany holds the top spot by just 0.8 penalties.  It’s Kai Rueder with Saaten Unions Charly Weld in the lead after a majestic clear inside the time promoted them up from fourth after dressage.  Four Britons are close behind with Polly Stockton leading the chasing pack in second.  Riding Anne Henson’s Regulus, Polly added just 0.4 of a time penalty to her dressage.  Crowd-pleaser Oliver Townend was clear inside the time to rise to third from seventh. Sarah Cohen and Clea Phillipps, riding Treason and Lead the Way respectively, also were faultless across the country to creep up the leaderboard.  It’s all to play for tomorrow as there’s less than a show jump covering the top five.

Some of the best riding of the day was on display in the Bishop Burton College U25 CCI*** and Ireland’s star Camilla Speirs still holds her slim lead after going clear inside the time.  In fact, the top five are the same – only fifth placed Paul Sims added anything (just 0.8) to his score.    British Duo Helen Dunning (Keep Your Options Open) and Ben Hobday (Uptons Who) will put the pressure on with clears over Di Boddy’s show jumping course in the West Arena.

It’s another early start for us tomorrow with Under 25s trot up at 08.00 and they start Showjumping at 09.00.

Full results – click here

Audio interviews – click here