Badminton 2013: In The Shadows Of The 3 Kings Of Cool

$350,000 Rolex Grand Slam Contenders Andrew Nicholson & William Fox-Pitt

The sport of eventing is made up of three 'tests' covering three very different disciplines, and requires a horse and rider to perform in perfect harmony in order to win at this level, and as we all know where horses are concerned there are no guarantees, so can we really dismiss 90% of the field going forward for the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials Trophy?

Michael Jung - Grand Slam Spoiler?

There is no doubt the "three kings" (Andrew Nicholson, William Fox-Pitt & Michael Jung) are in the very best form of their careers. They've all won medals at the last World & Olympic Games, They've all won 4 star events in the last 2 years. All three are the coolest characters under pressure and nothing short of Murhpy's Law could possibly predict an alternative outcome other than one of these three lifting the trophy in a week's time. But we've seen major upset and the unexpected at championships & 4 star level before - The Germans at WEG 2010, The Brits at the Europeans, and Andrew Nicholson has had 32 attempts at Badminton without luck before. Pippa Funnell, currently, the only winner of the Rolex Grand Slam seemed invincible and then saw her hopes dashed of a follow up win at Badminton one year, falling from both her entries. So anything that can happen, could happen.

Badminton 2013: Can You Afford To Miss It?

The Official Mitsubishi Vehicles Lined Up For Press Day At Badminton

Michael Jung: Olympic, European & World Champion

One year on and the course may not have changed much from last year's ill-fated event, but there are a few changes, albeit perhaps not as many as Hugh Thomas would have liked. The competitive landscape of entries has changed enormously though. "Eventmeister", Michael Jung is set to run his best two horses at his first ever Badminton, to realise a boyhood dream of competing on the hallowed turf in a bid to seal his name amongst the legends of the sport by winning the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials trophy.

William Fox-Pitt is likely to have two shots at winning the elusive Rolex Grand Slam from his current line up of 5 entries, in order to complete his scrap book of wins outside of the championships. There is every possibility, however slim, that he could be joined by Andrew Nicholson as a challenger for the Grand Slam if Andrew were to win at Rolex Kentucky in a few weeks time.

Tweseldown - The Start, The Stars & The Silver Lining

Tweseldown Racecourse - Eventing Continues Whilst Point-To-Point Racing Is No More

Tweseldown's sad demise as a Point-To-Point course last year due to financial pressures did have a silver lining in the form of an improved course for the Open Intermediate classes. With no racing, much more of the turf course has been made available for eventing, including a new start, which I for one think is a godsend. The old start box was a messy affair stuck in the middle of site with sandy tracks leading off in all directions.

Noble Bestman Gets The OI Classes Started In The Mist

It's never been a favourite course of mine personally, but it does usually provide an assured first run in the south for those heading to Badminton, and whilst I can't identify any of them, quite a few of the entries we have for Badminton were out in the OI classes today. Laura Collett has already mentioned on twitter that she has entered both Noble Bestman and Rayef for Badminton so I won't be spoiling anything by mentioning she had both her Badminton bound horses here at Tweseldown, although she only ran Noble Bestman cross country as the ground was very deep and sticky in places thanks to a good dump of rain early in the morning and it stayed grey all day.

2012: Wet And Wonderful

The Wonderful - History In The Making - The Unassailable Michael Jung Adds "Olympic Champion" To His CV

The Wet - A Common Sight All Year Despite An Official Drought

The 2012 Eventing season was ushered in with so much anticipation, and with a resoundingly great start in March, it was hard to imagine anything could slow the momentum,  prior to what would ultimately become the biggest and best Olympics the sport had ever seen. Weather patterns across the northern hemisphere caused havoc and unleashed extreme climate conditions. Whilst the US went from high, dry temperatures in the summer adversely affecting crop yields, to the flooding and devastating hurricanes along the eastern seaboard that left millions of lives in tatters or lost as far north as New York City, here in the UK mother nature threw everything she could at us as we experienced our wettest draught on record, forcing cancellation of the vast majority of events in the British calendar.

In spite of all this we built the greatest show on earth and the world's eventing nations sent their elite riders to challenge each other for the most coveted prizes in the sport - Olympic Medals.

The Many Faces Of Cross Country

Happy & Relaxed On Cross Country

As any eventing fanatic can tell you cross country is the phase that stirs the endorphins, gets the adrenaline pumping, and brings out all sorts of emotions depending on how your cross country ride goes. Searching through my photos recently for a winter project, I came across a number of photos of riders with the full range of  facial expressions captured, many of which you expect but several of which are quite surprising, and sometimes unintentionally comical.

Pippa Funnel - Expressive Rider

I've alway found Pippa Funnel one of the best to watch on cross country, not only because of her experience, but she is also a very expressive rider, which illustrates the talent needed to tackle some of these courses. At the other end of scale watch Andrew Nicholson or Andrew Hoy, and they barely use any of the 52 muscles in their face out on cross country, they're just fixed and focused from start box to finish line. In between you'll find a full compliment of emotional displays from frustration to elation.

Still photos capture a mere fraction in time of these emotions, but allow you to study those in more detail and I always find are more dramatic, more so than watching video (eg. watch the sequence of William Fox-Pitt at the 2011 European Championships) This can often leave you thinking "I wonder how that felt?" or "I wonder what was going through their mind at that point"

Here are a few photos to illustrate my point (I'll leave you to think up your own captions):

Blenheim 2012 | Spectacular Sunshine & Competition Once More

Fidelity Blenheim Horse Trials | Cross Country Day

This year's Fidelity Blenheim International Horse Trials, was as good as any I've been too over the last 10 years - the weather was the best we've seen at a horse trials in the UK all year, and bumper entries for both the CIC & CCI classes, including a few new international faces we've not seen on these shores, provided all the thrills & spills you could want from a three star competition. Sadly I only managed to attend on Saturday for the CCI cross country.

Paul Tapner | Classic XC Position

Australian man in form, Chris Burton, had led the dressage on the Hanoverian, UnderDiscussion, that he brought with him from Australia, and won Aachen with in the run up to the Olympics. When I saw him about half way round the cross country at the big drop fence they were travelling well, but uncharacteristically for both horse and rider they picked up 20 penalties further on the course, ruling out any chance of holding their lead. Still, with only 8 time penalties, a good dressage score, and a clear show jumping round they managed to stay in the top 20 - pretty unusual in a competitive 3 star.

His countryman, and good friend, Paul Tapner, had a mixed weekend with his two horses. Setting out on his first horse, the stallion Wickstead Didgeridoo, Paul had a sticky moment at the huge ditch early on course, and had an unfortunate fall at the big drop half way round. He followed this up with a masterclass of competitive cross country in his second round on Kilronan, finishing the weekend off with a clear showjumping round to end up 5th. I've loved this little grey horse every since seeing them at Gatcombe CIC** & Pau CIC** last year. He possibly heads to Badminton next year now.

London 2012 | The Greatest Eventing Show On Earth

Mark Todd | One Second Away From Gold After Cross Country

The Cross Country Phase of the London 2012 Olympic Eventing competition will surely go down as one of the greatest events the sport has ever seen, and probably the most exciting day the London Games is likely to witness. 74 horses jumped out of the start box, and fifteen did not make it through to the finish, a number of which surprised everyone. Four nations held firm, to maintain team scores that have a chance of putting their team on the podium, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand & Sweden.

London 2012 | Dressage, Drama & An Inspirational Leader Board

Truly Inspirational | Day 2 of London 2012 Olympic Eventing

The lead up to these games has been nothing short of an epic novel or Hollywood Blockbuster. You really couldn't make this stuff up. Day 2 of Dressage for the London 2012 Olympic Games Eventing at Greenwich Park has been nothing short of inspirational, surprising and full of stories that will make this competition the most interesting of recent times.

Yoshi Oiwa | Leader After Dressage

It promised to be a truly ground breaking day of dressage, with an ample helping of World, European & Olympic Gold Medalists in the hot seat. I knew we might see a few more break into under 40s club, I think we were just a little surprised at who managed that and who didn't.

First on my watch list was Zara Phillips. To my untrained eye this was a beautiful test. Both horse and rider totally composed, soft, yet energetic and "in sync". 3 of the flying changes looked faultless, but perhaps not as expressive as judges seem to like to see. Lenamore threw out some nice extended trot but didn't seem to really steal the show today, and suffered as a consequence posting a score in the fifties. 

London 2012 | History In The Making & Dream Headlines

Sadly No Fairytale Headline For Neville Bardos, But Perhaps A Medal & An Underwear Deal For Boyd

One of the legacies I'm left with after five years of living with a broadsheet journalist is the little game of "Guess Tomorrow's Headline" we played as we waited for the morning papers, each paper adding their own particular style (or lack of it in the case of the tabloids) to the big story of the day. Every single Olympian must dream of winning one of those shiny metal medallions, and speculate over the headlines in the national & trade press the following morning. 


This year's Olympics, more than any other I can remember, gives rise to so many dream headlines depending on the winners, losers, lovers and sinners from the eventing world stage. Just run your eyes over the long list of horses and riders in the line up for the eventing at Greenwich and it's not hard to image what any number of headlines, littered with superlatives, might read given the number of hugely popular combinations dreaming of making history in the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

Salperton Horse Trials: Rayef, The Kings & The Olympics

Laura Collett & Rayef | Open Intermediate Winners on a score of 25.0 (Dressage 21.4!)

Young Laura Collett illustrated that with all the stars aligned, and in the right circumstances she & Rayef are unassailable. With a dressage score any German would be envious of (a staggering 21.4) they led from the get go, winning their OI section by an equally staggering 13.3 point advantage finishing on a score of 25.0 ahead of the even younger Emily King (a surname that was to haunt me all day).

Salperton is hosted by Rayef's owner, Jason Houghton, on the most wonderful undulating parkland of magnificent, clover rich pasture. Walker Logistics, another Patron of Laura's were sponsors at the event, making this very much the Collett Eventing Team Show.

Chris King Racing Home To Take 2nd In AI Section F On Idol Hero

This being the heart of the Cotswolds, the course has plenty of steep inclines and descents on the way round, making it easy to bowl along on the forehand or run out of steam if not careful, but Laura & Rayef just sailed round, as did another of the leading Kings of this sport, Chris King. He rowed home one second over the optimum time looking every bit a NH jockey as he thundered past me on Idol Hero to finish second on a score of 28.9 behind yet another King, Kitty King, who won AI Section F on her dressage score of 27.9 aboard the fabulous little mare Zindante. By the way all of these King's are unrelated, and with so many of them being announced (Mary [King] also made an appearance)  I incorrectly tweeted earlier today that Chris had won this section. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of these two horses and the Kings later this season (weather permitting).

The TEAM GB Olympic Quest | Rockers, Ravers, Lovers & Sinners

WFP & Lionheart Headed To Greenwich | The Olympics Are So Nearly Here It's Scary

The waiting is over (well almost - we wait to see who is on the subs bench), Team GB Eventing has been announced amongst much comment, opinion, and heated discussion - it's all a little scary! Some are ranting, some are raving, and others are just loving the debate about selection choices.

The 5 members making up the team are:

Kristina Cook - (41)  Miners Frolic
William Fox-Pitt (43) Lionheart
Piggy (Georgina) French (31) Jakata or DHI Topper W
Mary King (51) Imperial Cavalier
Zara Phillips (31) High Kingdom

Zara Phillips | On The Team

Personally I think Zara is an inspired choice. The Olympics is nothing but pressure, and a home Olympics is like turning up the gas and leaving the lid on! Her horse has continued to grow, mature and improve event after event, and Zara has achieved more than any other her age at senior level. I would suggest aided by the fact that she can handle the pressure better than most due largely to the attention she attracts because of her royal connections.

If you look down this list you'll notice that each of these riders is predisposed to handling pressure very well.   I've always thought this is what separates the best from the very best, and given the right horsepower you'd expect to see Pippa Funnell in that list, given how well she has learnt to manage nerves when it matters most.

Chatsworth 2012 | The Olympic Quest Continues

Mary King & Imperial Cavalier On The 'Badminton Bypass' To Chatsworth

Over the coming few days we'll learn more of the back-up plans for many riders for whom a main pre-Olympic run was brought to an abrupt halt by the cancellation of Badminton earlier this week. Statements of how little impact this has had, have been dotted around all over the news in the last few days, even though Badminton's profile and position in the eventing calendar makes it a very useful event as a Key Performance Indicator in Olympic year, not to mention one of the best qualifying events to tackle for European based riders.

All that aside, many of the elite were already heading to the Peak District for Chatsworth Horse Trials and a slightly less demanding Olympic prep run to showcase their fitness and agility in what often provides one of the best indicators for competitive form.

A Peek Round The Corner To 2012

My Daughter & I Playing Peek-A-Boo With Our Cameras

The holidays are coming to an end, and that means everyone's thoughts turn to New Year's resolutions, turning over a new leaf, or the excitements for the year ahead. For the first time that I can remember I don't really have a new resolution I feel a burning need to fullfil, but having just had the most wonderful holiday with my children in the relative peace and tranquillity of the Welsh valleys, enjoying the simple pleasures of family life, I probably will seek to simplify my personal life next year, if only because my professional life has been so hectic this year, and that looks set to continue throughout most of 2012.

2011 was a cracking year for me eventing wise (sadly only as a spectator). Despite some logistical hiccups I managed to get to most of the big events that I intended to in the UK plus a few abroad, and even managed to snap some golden moments for my sporting year book. 2012 brings probably the most exciting Olympics, for this sport, there has been since the games were last held in London back in 1948. It was, after all, those games that gave rise to Badminton Horse Trials, the foundation of our sport, and Great Britain is widely acknowledged as having the best eventing circuit in the world, so with the eventing elite on our doorstep what better place to enjoy Olympic Eventing!

Pau 2011: Sunday's Action | The Winners, The Losers & The Great Grey

Mary King Takes Home The Big Money Winning The 2011 HSBC FEI Cassics™ Series

I'd just started writing my love letter to Pau and lamenting about having to leave when I suddenly remembered I should at least briefly recap Sunday's goings on and post some pictures as yet unpublished. Saturday's cross country phase left many a sore leg on a horse, giving grooms and riders plenty to do overnight. As I left the event around 11 pm that night horses were being inspected for soundness on the tarmac roadways in preparation for the morning's trot up.

Pau CCI**** 2011 ✔ Done: WINNER - William Fox Pitt

William Fox-Pitt Wins Pau CCI**** 2011

Pau CCI**** Cross Country | The Course, The Competition & The Crowd

Mr Cruise Control | Still the "Horse To Take Home From Pau"

Well, What A Day, What A Four Star! After today Pau is definitely on my calendar as a permanent fixture! The weather and the end of season atmosphere certainly helps, but this is also a very interesting track. Pierre Michelet had clearly planned the placement of every fence to the last millimetre, making use of every opportunity to break concentration, and force riders to think how their horses might react.

Pau CCI**** Cross Country ✔ Done

William Fox-Pitt 

Hang on to your horses, I'll be back shortly with a round up and another Helmet Cam. Mean while here are the photos:

PAU CCI**** PHOTOS

Laters.........

Pau 2011 - Dressage ✔ Done

Andrew Nicholson & Mr. Cruise Control | The Horse To Take Home From Pau

The sun here in Pau is still shining as the dressage phase finally draws to a close. Two Aussies, Clayton Fredericks & Chris Burton, sit neck-a-neck on 43.7, with William Fox-Pitt and Oslo half a point behind.

Pau 2011 - Friday Morning | More Dressage - More Training - More Sunshine

Andrew Nicholson & Armada

Friday's at these big 3 Day's I always find more relaxed, especially the mornings. Pau is possibly a little different, only in the fact that there are a few key riders who have 3 horses in the CCI****, which means the Friday morning session will include some of these.

William Fox-Pitt is currently leading on Oslo on 44.2. Andrew Nicholson didn't produce his best from Armada, but as he would say "this isn't a dressage competition", and this horse is awesome cross country.

Here's  a few photos whilst I go hunting for more interesting stuff

Pau 2011- Day One: There's Something About Mary

Mary King | Current Leader 

Mary King is currently leading the CCI**** here at Pau, with both William Fox-Pitt & Andrew Nicholson in her slipstream. Something, someone said at dinner this evening, made me think there really is something about Mary that sets her apart from the rest; she always has a smile and hello for everyone, always willing to help out, and as I said in a previous post she's the eventer most young riders admire, and Thursday at Pau belongs to Mary.