Practice Makes Perfect
Four of the five British squad members
selected for the World Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro in two
weeks time performed the dressage test they will face there at the
end of Thursday’s dressage session at Defender Burghley Horse Trials.
The packed stands offered both the horses and riders the perfect opportunity to get some ‘match practice’ in front of a crowd and in an atmosphere similar to that which they will face in Italy, something which they very much appreciated:
“You always want to ride into a dressage arena and do your utmost to get a 10 so it’s definitely really exciting to have the opportunity to do the dressage here in the main arena at Burghley,” said Yasmin Ingham, who was selected with Sue Davies and Janette Chinn’s Banzai Du Loir. “It’s all part of the preparation, so big thanks to everyone at Burghley for making this possible for us.”
Tokyo Olympics team Gold medallist Laura Collett said that London 52 (AKA Dan), who is owned by Keith Scott, Karen Bartlett and Laura, hasn’t been in an atmosphere like this since Badminton and commented that it was: “brilliant to get a feel for where we’re at two weeks out from the World Championships and know what fine tuning we need to do.”
Tom McEwen, another member of Team GB’s Olympic Gold medal team and individual silver medallist with his Pratoni partner, Fred and Penny Barker, Jane Inns and Ali McEwen’s Toledo De Kerser concurred:
“The whole day has been great. To have the horses in this atmosphere so close to the championship really gives the riders a chance to feel how the horses are going to react and deal with it.”
Reigning World Champion Ros Canter will be taking Michele Saul’s Lordships Graffalo to his Championships debut:
“I think the last thing he did in a big atmosphere was prize giving at Badminton, which he thoroughly enjoyed and he thought he was coming just for that. He’s only a 10-year-old and there’s so much more to come from him – bits and bobs to work on over the next couple weeks, but I’m pleased with how level he was today.”
The fifth squad members, Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class, owned by Val Ryan, Karyn Shuter and Angela Hislop did not run, having used the CCI4*-S at Blair Castle Horse Trials last weekend as their final preparation.