News Article


Final Runs prove Readiness for Olympics

The heat is really coming on now in the lead up to the Olympics with all the Team riders having their last runs prior. Lucinda and Clayton show their winning form with a win and second respectively.

 

At Sulperton, Clayton and Lucinda ran Brit in the Open Intermediate and Ben in the Advanced Intermediate. This event is an ideal place for a good hit and run as the ground was as good as it gets at this time of the year. With the combination of a bit of rain and the agrivator machine it really took the edge off. Sulperton is very a hilly course and has plenty of features making it enjoyable and interesting even for the experienced horse.

 

Brit was one of the first to score well in the dressage as she ran very early and scored well as usual 27.7 (72.27%). She then went on to jump a lovely clear show jumping and also double clear x-country her clear in time (one of only two in her section), this meant she finished on her dressage score to win the section of 34 entries. She beat Miners Frolic and Tina Cooke (4th), the favorite to replace Zara Phillips on team GB for the Olympics, as well as Mark Todd on his Olympic Horse Gandalf (11th).

 

Ben scored an amazing 26.9 (73.13%) his dressage - he is now becoming so reliable.  Clayton was anxious to put his showjumping result of Tattersalls right behind him and did well considering Ben had become very excited due to the X-Country being so close the Show jumping warm up. Clayton said, "He is so fit now and ready go, that seeing the X-Country course sent his heart through the roof, I could feel it pounding on my legs. As they had not started the class yet, I took him back to the lorry for a chill out, came back and just jumped one oxer and went in."

 

The morning courses had proved difficult due to the undulating ground and slippery conditions. Many riders and horses struggled to jump clear. However, Ben jumped really well just tapping the back rail of the oxer going into the treble combination. “I was really pleased with him today although there were pressures to do well and the conditions and atmosphere didn’t help. To complicate things even further I was still playing with the Hackamore thing, just so I feel confident if we need it in the future again. The rail today could have been my fault as we could have had a bit more power up the hill to the Treble,” said Clayton.
 
With four faults added to the dressage Clayton went on to the X-Country and really galloped only adding two time faults, which was one of the fastest of the day to finish 2nd.
 

“I am really pleased with today, Ben was his usual great self. He was so keen in the jumping phases. He will need this for Hong Kong. I used this course as a real hit out and an opportunity to run him faster, he pulled up the huge hill well and recovered really quickly” beamed Clayton. 

 

With great results again this weekend Ben and Brit look in great shape to win medals for Australia in Hong Kong - we are all just awaiting that final selection announcement!

Published: 22 Jun 2008