PrintMary King showed all her experience to take the lead after an eventful first day of dressage at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in Great Britain, the fourth leg of the HSBC FEI Classics.
King, 49, has been riding at Burghley for more than 20 years—she won it in 1996 on Star Appeal. And despite going into the top spot today, a momentary lapse in concentration today meant she had to correct an error of course during her test, which will have cost her valuable marks.
Riding the 14-year-old white-faced chestnut Apache Sauce, fourth here in 2008, she missed part of the final canter work and, on arriving at halt, had to be interrupted by Ground Jury member Marilyn Payne of the United States.
“I haven’t done that for years,” a smiling King said afterwards, confessing to a “blonde moment.”
She continued: “But when I went back and did the flying changes, they came off much better! You never know how Apache Sauce will go; sometimes he can be a real ‘red-head,’ but he was on his best behavior today.”
King’s long-time British team mate William Fox-Pitt, a five-time winner of Burghley and currently second in the $333,000 HSBC FEI Classics, is in second place on the handsome Argentine Thoroughbred Macchiato. Fox-Pitt also suffered a minor aberration.
Fox-Pitt was penalized with an error after he entered the arena more than 45 seconds after the bell had rung. “I had got myself into a position where I couldn’t see the clock. I’ve never done that one before!” he explained.
“Macchiato has started to really come on in the dressage,” added Fox-Pitt, who won Luhmühlen (Germany) in 2008 on the 12-year-old bay gelding. “He’s a sensitive and forward-going horse who always tries to please.”
Despite her contrasting lack of experience, third-placed Laura Collett, 21, who is contesting her first Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, managed not to forget any of her test.
The young rider from Great Britain produced a composed performance on Ginger May Killinghurst, a 15-year-old chestnut mare by Dallas, who has previously been ridden at the four-star level by New Zealand’s Andrew Nicholson and M-J Tumbridge of Bermuda.
Collett is a former Junior and Young Rider European Champion, but she admitted: “Those courses now look rather small compared to this!”
Describing her first Burghley as “amazing”, she has walked the cross-country with British team manager Yogi Breisner and pronounced it: “A lovely course—as big as you would expect. I’ve had some serious braking problems with Ginger May Killinghurst, but I’ve borrowed a new bit from Lucy Wiegersma and hopefully that will do the trick. I’m definitely going to take the long route at the first of the Dairy Mound Corners.”
Enjoying perfect sunny conditions, 38 of the 77 starters have now performed their Dressage tests in front of Martin Plewa (Germany), Marilyn Payne (USA) and Les Smith (Great Britain), seven of them scoring under 50.
Michael Pollard is the only U.S. rider contesting Burghley this year with Wonderful Will. The pair put in a solid performance today to finish tied for 10th place (52.0).
