Royal visit kicks off Windsor Horse Show

Royal Windsor Horse Show kicked off on Wednesday, with a visit from The Queen, who came to watch one of her young horses compete.

Mega feeling

Tower Bridge, a four-year-old who was bred by Her Majesty, came second in the Novice Heavyweight Hunter class, ridden by Katie Jerram.

Over in the dressage, the main class of the opening day was the Advanced Medium Freestyle to Music, which was won by Woodlander Farouche and Michael Eilberg.

The pair hasn’t been beaten since winning the six-year-old World Young Horse Championship in 2012, and they were awarded an aggregate score of 84.05% to take the top spot with a margin of just under 10%.

“Everybody expects her to do well and that does bring pressure,” said Michael. “But once I’m on and riding her talent takes over and I forget. The feel she gave me in extended canter is unbelievable – she felt mega.”

Charlie Hutton and Super Blue came second with a score of 74.278%, while Charlotte Fry took third place with Z Flemmenco on 71.455.

Aussie rules

In the showjumping, the prestigious Walwyn Novice Championships was the main event on Wednesday.

Twelve combinations secured their places in the final in two qualifiers held earlier in the day, which were won by Jane Annett on Pallas Masterclass and William Funnell on Billy Bongo. However, it was British-based Australian Rowan Willis who claimed the title with Bacarilla, who is has only ridden for a few weeks.

Going three-star

Thursday 15 May welcomed Windsor’s very first three-star competition, with the CDI3* Grand Prix, which was won by – you guessed it – Charlotte Dujardin. This time, however, she was riding Carl Hester’s Olympic partner Uthopia.

Their combined score of 76.960% put Michael Eilberg and Half Moon Delphi into second place (72.900) while Carl came third onboard Nip Tuck (71.660%).

Earlier in the day Ireland’s Michael Duffy and Tobino took the title in the Royal Windsor Seven and Eight Year Old championship, ahead of H&C blogger Yazmin Pinchen and Bandito.

The other championship class on day two of Windsor was the Land Rover Working Hunter championship, which was won by Libby Cooke and Harley Foxtrot, while H&C blogger Louise Bell took second place.

Full results can be on the Royal Windsorwebsite.