Emily King has gone into fifth place in today’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials dressage on Valmy Biats (5 September).
The British rider and her own, her father David’s and David and Paula Evans’ 16-year-old threw down a strong and accurate performance to score 26.1. This puts them behind new leaders Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent (22), second-placed Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo (22.4), New Zealand’s Tim Price and Vitali (23.1) and day one leaders Piggy March (MCS Maverick).
Apart from a slight stutter through their final flying change, Emily looked to have Valmy Biats in a lovely frame and balance and was mostly awarded marks between seven and eight.
“I’m very pleased with how he coped because he’s a very sensitive horse and there was quite a lot of extra atmosphere following Mr Townend, who is a competitor and he was revving up the crowd,” said Emily, who has been dealing with the disappointment of not being selected for the forthcoming European Eventing Championships at Blenheim.
“Valmy was definitely a lot more on edge today but he was a lot more rideable – I don’t wear spurs on him any more and I hold his hand as much as possible.
“Our preparation has all gone to plan and he’s feeling super. It’s great to have got off to a good start today but it’s all about tomorrow.
“We will all have to ride the undulations in the correct way and be aware of allowing our horses to travel how they want. I’m just hoping I can do Valmy justice.”
Burghley first-timer slots into sixth place
Germany’s Christoph Wahler went into sixth when following Emily into the arena. Although he is a regular at five-star level and on German national teams, this marks a first Burghley for 31-year-old Christoph, and he scored 27.2 with D’Accord FRH, owned by Hendrik von Paepcke and Stefan Haupt. This was a personal best for the 13-year-old gelding at this level, who finished seventh at Badminton this spring.
“It’s our best test so far, so I’m very pleased,” said Christoph. “There were no real mistakes – he’s a pretty horse but he’s not the strongest in the movement and finds dressage hard, but today he really focused on me, was good in the warm-up and great in the arena.
“All the time warming up, I thought, ‘can I please just manage to get this in the arena today?’ He’s been progressing throughout the year and he’s usually better towards the end of the season. For example, at Badminton he felt terrible 10 minutes before I was going into the dressage arena, because he was getting a little bit excited. But he felt so within himself today, waiting for me and comfortable in his body.”
Asked about his thoughts on seeing Burghley’s cross-country course for the first time, Christoph said: “It’s more technical than I thought it would be. I was expecting many big fences and a stamina test, but I didn’t expect so many right-hand turns to so many corners, but it is what it is.
“I’ve been hoping to get a Burghley horse since I started eventing. Now we’re here, and we’ll just try to do our best tomorrow.”
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