Burghley Horse Trials Dressage

Mary King | A little too relaxed in the Burghley Dressage

I almost forgot about Burghley this year, with all the noise around the World Equestrian Games, and whilst the dressage hasn't really produced any shocks, apart from the two senior GBR Team members (Mary & William) getting additional penalty points, due to lack of concentration! Let's hope they're a little more switched on at the WEG.

Ruth Edge leads after the dressage, which is not that surprising, and all credit to her as I think she's made a good choice to concentrate on pure dressage when she can. At Badminton this year she had a very unlucky elimination which could possibly have been avoided but that might be a little harsh, but if she can find a good rhythm cross country at Burghley, Ruth will have a good chance of maintaining her lead and picking up a top prize in championship year, something she's very good at doing.

Caroline Powell & Lenamore | There's No Stopping These Two

It's great to see Lenamore (Caroline Powell) right up there in the top 3 after dressage. This horse is an absolute dream cross country, incredibly smooth, jumping out of a stride usually, and fabulously consistent show jumping. Caroline is one of those riders that you hear very little about considering she has a number of team appearances under her belt, but nowhere near the fire power some of her NZL Team mates have, living in Scotland probably doesn't help. Caroline is off to WEG this month with Mac MacDonald, and I personally think the New Zealanders probably have a better chance of a team medal than many others do. I give them more of a chance than the Australians.

The current top ten contains nine riders based here in the UK, six of them British, and four riders off to WEG in a few weeks time, the youngest rider in the competition, and not forgetting last year's winner, Oliver Townend. That should be plenty for the equestrian media to whitter on about.

The 2010 Course in my opinion is going to be more influential with regards to time and tiredness, than it will over jumping difficulty, and an extra long climbing gallop will mean riding the course without interrupting the horse's stride is more important than ever before. You can see the cross country fences on Nico Morgan's Website.

These championship years are sometimes the best years to go and watch the cross country, as you can often see some very competitive riding from riders who haven't made teams trying to capitalise on the reduced competition. Apart from the top ten, the 'Young Riders' will be the ones to watch  cross country (Laura Collett, Emily Llewellyn, Christoffer Forsberg).

Possibly the most intriguing aspect of this year's Burghley field is in the rest of the field, there are 3 WEG reserves (Twinkle Bee, The Jump Jet, Tubber Rebel), plus one WEG bound horse (Kilpatrick River). Now are these Prep Runs, Schooling in Public, or True Competitive Runs ignoring WEG Reservation? mmmmmm..........

Sadly, I'll be following Burghley from home this year, heading off Blenheim instead, but more on Burghley over the weekend no doubt.

Burghley Results