Jung Remains in the Lead Badminton Horse Trials Day Two

Jung Remains in the Lead – Badminton Horse Trials Day Two

Day two of dressage is complete at the Badminton Horse Trials, Germany’s Michael Jung remains in the lead as this year’s 77 riders prepare to head out onto the cross country course tomorrow morning.

Today’s final dressage rankings saw a shock entry into the top three in the shape of young British rider Emily King coming into second pace. Posting the only other sub-40 test of the entire competition Emily was “over the moon” with her test. With eventing royalty as her mother in the shape of Mary King, Emily did not aim to be here as an ‘also ran’ and was less surprised than her audience at her result. “I came here wanting to do really well,” she said, “I am a very competitive person and since we went to Pau and we got a good result I knew he was capable of going well,” she said of her mount, the 14 year old black gelding, Brookleigh.

Day two of dressage is complete at the Badminton Horse Trials. Germany’s Michael Jung remains in the lead as this year’s 77 riders prepare to head out onto the cross-country course tomorrow morning.

Having walked the cross country course with her mother, Emily is keen to tackle the imposing 6.5km track designed by Giuseppe della Chiesa. ” I really like the look of the course, it is a nice big, bold, attacking course with lots of accuracy questions. It’s a more old fashioned course, not too modern and technical,” she said, “there is no point in overthinking things, I know what I have got to do and how I have got to ride for him to respond well and try to keep focused on that.”

Germany’s Michael Jung leads by more than two penalty points going into the cross country phase, which could give him the breathing room he needs to maintain pole position given the ground conditions and influential optimum time of the course. “I think the time will be okay tomorrow, we have nearly 12 minutes but nearly the same amount of fences as when we have 11 minutes so we will have 1 minute more to gallop.” He said, “on this ground and in this weather it will be okay but it depends on the rhythm you have to the fences and how this effects the energy of the horse.”

Yesterday’s overnight second placed rider, and Jung’s fellow German team member, Andreas Ostholt slipped into third, which leaves Great Britain’s Francis Whittington sitting in fourth ahead of going cross country tomorrow. Australia’s Christopher Burton produced a stunning test on Nobilis 18, but the horse just wrestled with a bit of tension which caused two costly errors, slipping the combination just into the top five ahead of tomorrow.

Great Britain’s Dani Evans and Izzy Taylor take equal sixth spots on their mounts Raphael II and Allercombe Ellie respectively, with another Brit and eventing Stalwart Oliver Townend currently lying in seventh on his WEG 2014 mount Black Tie. “The course is big and may be slightly over his capabilities, but he is a genuine horse and tries really hard so hopefully we will have a good round tomorrow,” he said after his test late this afternoon.

New Zealand fills the final two places in the top ten with Clarke Johnstone on Balmoral Sensation in ninth and Badminton first-timer Jesse Campbell riding Kaapachino bringing up the rear.

With the weather set to be as scorching as the competition tomorrow, it should make for an incredible test of athleticism for horse and rider, so hold on to your hats and enjoy the show!

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