Daisy Dick may have had a disappointing World Equestrian Games trip after her Springalong chose to be uncooperative in the dressage there, but she made up for it on Aug. 31-Sept. 3 at the Blenheim International CCI*** in Woodstock, England with a win on Springbok IV.

Perhaps a result of the WEG in Aachen, Germany the weekend before, there were far fewer entries by foreign riders not based in Britain. But the American contingent consisted of four horse/rider combinations–Amy Tryon on Le Samurai, Bonnie Mosser on Close The Deal, Sara Dierks on Somerset II, and Jennifer Wooten on The Good Witch. WEG long-listed Sara Mittleider scratched her El Primero after an injury in the last training gallop before Blenheim.

Tryon led the American charge, placing fifth with Le Samurai, a new mount for her. She took over the ride this summer from Robyn Fisher. Mosser and Close The Deal finished just out of the top 10 in 11th, while Wooten and The Good Witch completed in 46th. Dierks suffered a fall at the water.

After dressage Pippa Funnell led the pack, having ridden on Thursday and scoring a 40.4. Funnell was not happy with the test; expecting to ride on Friday, she had only hacked out on Wednesday. She’d had to ride Ensign twice earlier on Thursday as he is lazy and quickly gets behind her leg. That said, to the spectators, he appeared active and forward, with his only mistake a premature flying change, beautifully corrected by Funnell.

Jo May scored 44 penalties with a lovely, relaxed test on Faere Vision to lie just behind Funnell in second, with Dick stalking them in third. Dick’s forward, flowing ride aboard Springbok IV resulted in a score of 46.0 penalties. After a very disappointing ride aboard Springalong (normally superbly consistent in this phase) at the WEG, Dick was very pleased with her Blenheim test–particularly as Springbok IV has been known to spook at flower boxes.

Tryon and Le Samurai produced the best of the American tests–a lovely, active, and flowing test that scored 50.4 penalties. Tryon was very pleased with his performance, though upset at her own error of test in forgetting the halt and rein-back. A 10-year-old, 16.3-hand, Holsteiner-Thoroughbred-cross, Le Samurai is an exciting four-star prospect for Tryon.

Mosser and Close The Deal put in a confident, flowing test, scoring 52.1 penalties, with which Mosser was quite pleased, as dressage is his worst phase. A 12-year-old, 16.1-hand, Thoroughbred cross, by Art Deco, Close The Deal was acquired cheaply by Rebecca Polan as a 2-year-old debilitated by bastard strangles. Originally intended as a trail horse for her father, Close The Deal completed the 2004 Radnor CCI** (Pa.) with Polan, who then handed the ride over to her instructor, Mosser.

A Stiff Challenge
Arranged to run on perfect footing through rolling terrain in ‘Capability’ Brown’s magnificently landscaped Blenheim Park, Michael Etherington-Smith’s cross-country course consisted of 28 numbered fences requiring a minimum of 42 jumping efforts.

In her preview for Eventing magazine, Lucinda Fredericks described the course as requiring bold, attacking riding. William Fox-Pitt considered the course to be dimensionally as big as the WEG course and, due to the undulating terrain, to be tougher. Riders generally liked the course but agreed that it was long, with many fences at maximum size and width.

Mosser and Close The Deal were one of the first nine horses to go, who all went clear, albeit all over the time. They skipped around with ease, even tap-dancing across the top of the huge oxer before the two corners in the main arena. However, immediately thereafter, the problems came thick and fast.

At the large oxer before the corners, Birthday Night, William Fox-Pitt’s first ride, slipped on landing from the oxer and couldn’t make the first corner. Andrew Nicholson had an uncharacteristic fall when Paul Rigeon’s Silbury Hill bobbled on landing at Fence 24, but landed on his feet and bounced back into the saddle in nanoseconds.

On the other hand, Dick boldly sailed around clean on Springbok IV as did Fox-Pitt in his classic style on Parkmore Ed. And Funnell’s ride on Ensign was bold and attacking.

Funnell was delighted with Ensign’s round; he’s come a long way since his go here in last year’s European Championships, when he’d been quite green. Funnell noted that, except for the first fence, which she admitted she rode badly, she’d ridden the course as planned.

Dick said she’d had a fantastic, foot-perfect round except for the table to the corner where Springbok IV was “unreal” to have jumped it. She was very proud of the 11-year-old, 16.0-hand bay gelding. And Fox-Pitt was very pleased with Parkmore Ed, who he considers a world-class horse.

The fastest round of the day–indeed the only one without time penalties–belonged to the 28-year-old equine dentist, Francis Whittington, aboard Margrete Paget’s Sir Percival III. Indeed, they completed a full 25 seconds under the optimum time and 27 seconds ahead of the next fastest round. Asked his secret, Whittington advised that it wasn’t rocket science. He rode forward and kicked immediately on landing to gain a second at every fence. And he set his watch 10 seconds ahead of time.

Among the Americans, the next to go after Mosser was Dierks, riding Edith Hunter and Christopher Desino’s Somerset II. They demonstrated the value of the new frangible pins at the entry into the water. Apparently distracted by the crowds, Somerset II jumped big over Fence 15 and couldn’t pick his front end up quick enough to bounce over Fence 16. By breaking, the frangible pins avoided what otherwise would have been a very serious rotational fall, and both horse and rider walked away unhurt.

A quick bit change that required a mad dash back to the stable for a bigger pelham was necessary for Le Samurai in the cross-country warm up. Although Tryon planned a con-fidence-gaining round as his rideability was still questionable, they actually already looked like a polished partnership.

Last to go of the Americans was Wooten, from California, on The Good Witch. One of the smallest horses present, the 10-year-old, 15.2-hand Irish Sport Horse mare jumped around boldly. However, they had a run-out at Fence 17B upon exiting the water, and Wooten unfortunately fell at Fence 27C, the second- last from home. She quickly remounted and finished, ecstatic to have completed.

Moving On Up
Of the surviving 52 horse/rider combinations after cross-country, Funnell and Ensign led with 45.2 penalties, Dick and Springbok IV were in second with 48.4 penalties, and Fox-Pitt and Parkmore Ed were in third with 49.7 penalties. Scores were equally close through most of the rest of the field, so show jumping had a major impact on the final placings. Of the Americans, Tryon stood in 11th place, Mosser in 26th place, and Wooten in 51st place.

The time was tight on Di Boddy’s well-designed show jumping course and there weren’t any clear rounds among the 23 horse-rider combinations that jumped during the morning session. One of the very few rounds within the time was that turned in by Wooten and The Good Witch. The single rail that they dropped was very commendable and it was a round that moved them up to finish in 46th place.

By then in 25th place, Mosser and Close The Deal led off in the afternoon and set what looked like would be the standard with a near-perfect round completed within the time and with only one unlucky rail dropped. But that very quickly proved overly optimistic as the next, higher placed, combinations began dropping between two and seven rails each as Mosser and Closed The Deal moved steadily up the rankings to complete in 13th place.

The first of only five double-clear rounds was produced by May and Faere Vision in a round that moved them from 13th to sixth place. Tryon and Le Samurai then produced the second double clear and, as rails continued to fall, this effort moved them into fifth place.

Tension built toward the end of the order since Funnell’s lead was less than a rail ahead of Dick and less than a rail and 2 time penalties ahead of Fox-Pitt. Fox-Pitt and Parkmore Ed increased the tension with a beautiful double clear, and Dick and Springbok IV then matched it.

Funnell jumped a confident round on Ensign, but a single rail dropped them to finish in second place behind Dick and Springbok IV.

Carole Kozumplik