Ground is some of the best that we’ve seen as action gets underway at Barbury

The Barbury Castle Estate looked glorious in the sunshine today, with the ground as good as it has ever been, as we enjoyed a busy schedule of International Dressage and Novice classes.

In the 4* competition New Zealand have taken an early lead after dressage, with Tim Price on 25.6 with Vitali and Andrew Nicholson and Shallow Springs just behind on 27.7. Laura Schroter and her ride Willem Van WUP complete the top three for Great Britain, with a score of 28.4.

Tim feels performing in the dressage arena here at Barbury has been the ideal preparation for Vitali ready for the weeks ahead.

“I’m very pleased with Vitali,” said Tim this evening. “He feels very on track. He has the Tokyo Olympics in his sights, so I’m using the 4* here at Barbury as a prelude to that.

“In its own way, the arena for the dressage in this class has a lot of atmosphere – the way it drops off on one side and carries horses into looking at what’s going on down there. So, he did feel like he was ready to bubble over, but he stayed with me and I was very pleased. He’s got a lot of natural exuberance and it’s just a matter of showing that off and not letting it be in the way of what you’re trying to do.

“I’m looking forward to the show jumping tomorrow. One of my favourite show jumping arenas is the Barbury jumping arena and I think that will be the best prep to see him off to Tokyo.”

Another strong performance (24.8.), this time with Chio 20, put Tim Price at the top of 3* Section B at the end of the Dressage phase. William-Fox-Pitt lies second with Under Oath (26) and Alexandra Farrar-fry third, on a score of 27.7 with Grey Finnsky.

“Chio is a young pretender,” said Tim. “He’s 7-years-old and I’m very happy with his performance. He’s a bit of a cheeky chappy, he likes to have a lot of opinion about life in general. He’s feeling really good and I’m looking forward to the milage that the three phases will give him here.”

There is still another day of dressage to come in Section C of the 3*, but as it stands Gemma Tattersall and Johan-Some currently holding the lead with a score of 26.7. Marcio Carvalho Jorge and Castle Howard Casanova lie second for Brazil (27.1) and Fred Powell third with Grafiba (28.2).

Our class winners today were:

Novice Section D – Amy Barlow and Iwan (28.9)

Novice Section E – Andrew Nicholson and Erin (22.5)

Novice Section F – Sammi Birch and Jutopia (25)

Open Novice Section G – Lucy Wisher and Garrybritt Coole Park (34.8)

Open Novice Section H – Daisy Berkeley and NPS Devon (22)

Novice Section I – David Doel and Synchronised (29.2)

Intermediate Novice Section K – Bella Innes Ker and DHI Trend Setter (29.8)

Intermediate Novice Section L –  Poppy Wallis and Torboy Abbey (30)

We have a busy day tomorrow, packed full of 3* and 4* cross country action – plus plenty more, including the conclusion of the Pony Trial and the first running of British Eventing’s new Novice Masters competition.

Don’t forget you can watch live on Horse & Country TV over the weekend. H&C+ members can watch it via their app or website on BE TV: https://app.horseandcountry.tv/betv.