Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Thursday morning at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials often feels, for those of us in the mixed media zone, anyway, like a bit of a warm-up: we’re not firing on all cylinders quite yet, the scoring’s perhaps not wildly exciting, and by the time we get to the lunch break, we’ve often forgotten much of what was said in the very first conversations of the day.
Unless, of course, the second rider you speak to comes marching into the interview area, proclaiming that his (very, very) shiny new riding hat is “a solar panel for a sex machine!”
So thanks for that, I guess, Oliver Townend. You did wake us up, certainly.
It wasn’t just fashion statements and statements about fashion, though: Oliver also produced the test that would go on to hold the lead into the lunch break with the stalwart Ballaghmor Class. Though they’re typically low-to-mid-20s scorers – or as low as 20.8 here in 2018 – they began their week on a 29.3, on paper their worst-ever five-star score for a generally correct, pleasant, and flowing test. But that’s been typical of the judging here today: the ground jury of Xavier le Sauce, Robert Stevenson, and Nick Burton hasn’t been throwing marks at any competitor, but nor do they need to. The numbers across the board might look conservative – or stingy, even – but the judging itself is consistent and so far, their work is producing a tightly-packed leaderboard that’ll put the weight back onto this weekend’s cross-country, on which the fast ground might otherwise have made it less influential.
“It doesn’t matter [if they’re scoring conservatively] if they stay the same – as long as we just get consistent judging, it’ll be good,” says Oliver. “There’s plenty on the cross-country to sort us out — 11 minutes 40 is a long way!”
More importantly, he says, “I’m happy with the horse. There’s a couple of things that could have been better, but he’s getting quite clever: he’s wild at the trot up and wild everywhere, and then he goes in and says, ‘I’ve done enough now!’ So he got a little bit lazy, a little bit quiet maybe, but I’m still happy enough.”
Moreover, the four-time five-star winner – who has never finished outside the top five in ten runs at the level, and has been second here twice – remains the horse of a lifetime for Oliver, regardless of the numbers on the board.
“He’s unreal. I know it’s the same for everyone, but if you could produce the work that he’s doing at home, he’s somehow getting better and better and still improving,” he says of the eighteen-year-old. “So it just shows, if you stay doing the same things as you’ve done all their lives, and they don’t have a change in the system… He feels better than ever and he looks better than ever.”
Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
“He is what he is – you’re never going to make a London 52 or a Lordships Graffalo out of him,” says Gemma Stevens matter-of-factly about Chilli Knight, before breaking into a broad grin: “but he did his best shuffling ever in there today!”
She and her 2021 Bicton CCI5* champion go into the lunch break as one of just two pairs to slip under the 30 barrier so far – a commendable effort that puts them into second place provisionally on 29.5.
“It’s an absolute dream to get sub-30,” she beams. “When I heard my first few scores [from the judges’ boxes], I thought, ‘well, there’s no chance – I’m going to be on a 38!’ But we rode every single blade of grass out there and he tried his heart out.”
Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
The great villain of the day so far has been an oddly-placed camera, low down and brightly-housed at the A end of the arena, and while Chilli Knight didn’t have as extreme a reaction to it as several horses have today, he certainly noticed it.
“I’m not going to lie – the camera is really stupid!” says Gemma. “I’m going to say that right out loud – Badminton, you need to move the camera. We said that last night [at the riders’ briefing], and they wouldn’t move it. He was spooking at it, and luckily the test doesn’t always go past it – but it’s annoying! Next year, please, we don’t need the camera.”
Kylie Rodday and SRS Kan Do. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Kylie Roddy might be the smiliest rider in eventing, but, she admits, she’s spent the off-season “miserable – but smiley inside,” she laughs. The cause of that misery? An eye-wateringly intense diet and fitness regime, which saw her spend November to March on a scant 800 calories a day [Editor’s note – please don’t do this without professional guidance, folks] before steadily and sensibly ramping her calorie intake up at the start of the season.
“And I’ve been been going to the gym, and doing a lot of strength and conditioning work – but it’s all for the greater good, because George finds the whole job a bit easier now,” she says. “It’s all for the welfare of the horse, and we’re always trying to do what’s best for him.”
George – or SRS Kan Do – certainly repaid the favour today with a smart effort that puts the pair into an early third place on 30.1, nearly four penalties better than last year.
“I’m beyond thrilled,” says Kylie. “The first phase is always the one we get the most stressed about, and last year, I didn’t have a good first day, but we worked really hard this winter.”
That work, she continues, involved working over “about 100 raised sleepers [thick wooden planks] a day”, in a bid not just to improve his strength and fitness, but also to finally engineer a spring peak for the gelding, who has been so consistent at five-star but historically unlucky here.
“It’s of those real funny things, isn’t it? I just keep looking at Badminton and thinking, ‘if I turn up enough, hopefully the results are going to change!’” she laughs. “I don’t actually think it’s anything to do with Badminton or George, but he’s just always been an autumn campaigner; his best results have always been in the Autumn.”
So, she explains, “I didn’t give him long off this winter, and I actually kept him in work to see whether it’s actually a body conditioning type of thing rather than a seasonal thing. So I did my winter work a bit differently this winter, and we changed a few things at home that have made him a bit stronger. He works over the raised sleepers a lot, and so he’s worked smarter, not harder, hopefully for all the right reasons. The other thing is that I didn’t run him too close to Badminton, because in the spring, you’re always try to get the runs in, but he actually runs a bit better when he’s fresher, so he last ran at Thoresby [in March]. I went to Kelsall, but I didn’t run cross country, in a bid to do what I do in the autumn, even though we’re in the spring.”
Today, that freshness paid off.
“He’s such a level horse to ride, but he was quite frisky in the stable this morning – he was trying to nibble us, and he wanted to buck in the stable. So from this morning, I thought ‘game on!’ Most horses, [the atmosphere] sends them over the edge, but with him, it gives him that added extra, which is really lovely.”
But, she laughs, there was still a touch of the old George in there, at least in the collecting ring.
“He’s a really funny horse. The changes are established but his first two changes, when you warm him up, are always incorrect. But it’s like he goes, “oh, I go from that to that… okay, I’ve got it!’ It’s like he’s piecing it all together, and then he’s got it. So I always get the first two out of the way, and I say to [dressage trainer Ian] Woodhead, ‘close your eyes, first change incoming!’ But we know that’s him, so we get them done, and then we know that after that, he’s pretty good in his changes.”
Pretty good indeed: the pair never dipped lower than a 6 in the four flying changes in their test today.
Bubby Upton and Cola III. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
Twelve months ago, we saw 26-year-old Bubby Upton take the day one lead here aboard her longtime partner Cola III in a remarkable comeback from a badly broken back sustained the previous August. Through the long months between August and May, Bubby had to relearn to walk before she could even think about getting back on a horse, but no matter how unlikely it seemed, the thought of Badminton on the horizon remained a powerful motivator in her rehabilitation.
Now, a year on, she’s still on the road to recovery, but this time, she was able to tackle her test with significantly less pain after another major operation at the tail end of last year.
“I landed from Maryland [CCI5*, where the pair finished fifth], and then the next day, I was straight under the knife,” she says. “To be honest with you, it was a lot tougher than I had anticipated: I thought I would just bounce back and be absolutely fine, but mentally, going straight back to square one… Obviously I didn’t have to learn to walk again and things like that, but I had zero strength, zero muscles left in me, and so it was quite demoralising, having built up everything and worked so hard to then have to literally rebuild again. It took a lot longer than we thought. It wasn’t really until February that I was strong and that we could manage to get on top of the pain.”
“But,” she continues, “it’s a lot better now, and I’m forever grateful to my incredible surgeon who has, time and time again, done amazing things for my back. Hopefully now we can manage it a bit better moving forwards. I’m back to riding nine horses a day now, which is so nice, and the pain is less than the pain was when I was riding three or four last year. So we’re in a really good place, and I just feel so lucky to be still doing what I love and to be on track.”
Also a continuing work in progress is long-backed but game Cola’s flatwork. While their 30.2 today didn’t eclipse the 27.3 they earned last year on paper, Bubby was thrilled with the quality of work the fifteen-year-old produced in the ring.
“I’ve never been one to focus on [the marks]. I’m thrilled with how our system keeps working and how he went – I couldn’t be more thrilled with him,” she says. “He’s become really consistent at this level now. Badminton last year was probably the first time we’ve got him into the right frame and place, and then he repeated that at Maryland and throughout the season as well. And now, he’s come out this year feeling very fit and well. He’s just amazing. Every time I go in there, he’s the same horse, and he just loves it. So it’s a real honour to be back here on him.”
The progression is one that she credits her dressage trainer, Amy Woodhead, with directing them towards.
“Similar to last year, we’ve just been really working on the quality of the counter. He’s a long, strung-out horse, and for a long time, when we were focused on Young Riders and medaling there, getting the quality of canter wasn’t a priority,” she says. “It was – wrongly so in hindsight – about getting the marks and winning the medals at the end of the day. I would love to go back in time and have Amy training me with him as a young horse, because now at 15, he’s getting better and better. But I would have loved to have had that when he was 10, 11, 12, at the start of my career at 4 and 5* on him.”
Alex Hua Tian and Chicko. Photo by Cealy Tetley.
For Alex Hua Tian, today marks the start of a welcome return to Badminton after a nine year hiatus – and while he rued the last-minute withdrawal of his intended second ride, the perpetually low-scoring Jilsonne van Bareelhof, his remaining ride Chicko put in a solid test to sit him well in the hunt at this early stage. Their 31.6 puts them in fifth place at the lunchbreak.
“I’m very happy with him – he’s 15 now, and he’s spent his life at 4* and he’s ready for his crack at Badminton,” says Alex, who finished fourth at Pau with the former Polly Stockton ride last year. “That was his first time at 5*, and I thought, actually, that he did a better test today than he did at Pau. But it’s Badminton – you don’t come here expecting to be given anything.”
In terms of the cross-country challenge to come, this weekend’s long, dimensionally impressive course also represents a step up from Pau, but it’s a step up that Alex is confident he’ll tackle with relish.
“I think it’ll be a big week for him, but he’s got a lot of heart, so hopefully it’ll go well,” he says. In any case, he continues, the Irish Sport Horse will enjoy the journey, as he always does.
“He is – it’s very hard to say it without sounding disparaging, because I’m not – he is just genuinely no fuss. He’s just very, very easy. You could very happily salute, get off, pull the saddle off, and he’ll just graze in the middle of the field,” says Alex. “He would have been very happy as a Pony Club pony or coming to Badminton – he just loves his job. All he wants to do is please, and he’s just one of those rare horses – it’s just, turn left, jump a fence, turn right, jump a fence. There’s nothing else really in it!”
This afternoon’s dressage gets underway momentarily, with Japan’s Ryuzo Kitajima and Feroza Nieuwmoed first up to bat at 14.15 BST/9.15 a.m. EST. You can watch along via ClipMyHorse.TV, and we’ll be running live updates and insights over on Cheg’s feed throughout the competition, too. Plus, there’s lots more long-form content to come from us here in the thick of it, so keep it locked on EN, and Go Eventing!
The top ten after Thursday morning’s session at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials.
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