Pippa Funnell Reigns Supreme after day one of the Saracen Horse Feeds Houghton International
There’s 19 horses still to do their dressage in today’s headline ‘three-star’ class at Saracen Horse Feeds Houghton International. It’s Pippa Funnell with MGH Grafton Street and Billy Beware lying in first and second place respectively as the day gets underway.
Sweden’s Terese Viklund is now in third place on Diabolique, while both Laura Collett’s Mr Bass and Kiwi rider, Jesse Campbell’s Cleveland sit in fourth and fifth respectively. Holly Woodhead has is in sixth place on Parkfield Quintessential. Campbell also holds equal seventh place on his second ride Amsterdam II, having posted the same score as Nicola Wilson riding Bulana. Less than one and a half penalties separate+ these top eight combinations.
There was no change at the top of the leaderboard yesterday in the ‘two-star’, with France’s Thomas Carlile, Australian Brook Staples and Piggy French filling the top three places. There’s little to choose between them, however; Carlile scored 29.2, Staples 29.3 and French 29.4.
Germany’s Dirk Schrade has a more comfortable lead in the ‘one-star’. Dajara 4 performed a lovely dressage test to score 24.6, with Jesse Campbell also in the running in this class riding Diachello, finishing in second. Caroline Harris, Piggy French and Tom Jackson complete the top five.
In the NAF British Eventing under 21 National Championships, the reigning Junior European Champion’s run of form is continuing. Suffolk born Bubby Upton is emulating Pippa Funnell by filling the top two spaces on the leaderboard. Cola III currently has the edge over her European Champion Eros DHI.
Away from the eventing, Nicola Wilson won yesterday’s Combined Training; this competition consists of dressage and showjumping with no cross country. Nicola narrowly pipped Ros Canter to the win, Ros riding No Excuse. Izzy Taylor and Director General took third place. Meanwhile, yesteday was action packed with both affiliated and unaffiliated showjumping, the day wrapping up with the first of the Arena Eventing classes.
The trade stands are well stocked and with the weather forecast predicting two days of sunshine the organisers are looking forward to welcoming around 12,000 people over the weekend. Tickets can be bought on the gate, which opens at 8.30am. The cross country gets underway at 9am.
For more information on any aspect of this year’s FEI Saracen Horse Feeds Houghton International Horse Trials, visit http://www.musketeer.co.uk
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.