Paul Tapner tops leaderboard on opening day

He was victorious here back in 2010, and Australia’s Paul Tapner got this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials campaign off to a good start when topping the leaderboard after day one of dressage.

Grey day

Aptly, for a day filled with overcast skies and endless showers, it was greys who dominated in the dressage arena, with Paul’s Kilronan finishing top with 36.0pen.

Just behind the pair was Francis Whittington and Easy Target, who produced a four-star career best to get 36.2pen, while Lucinda Fredericks and Flying Finish were third with 39.0pen.

Wet weather

Despite hailing from somewhat warmer climes, the rain did not cause any problems for Paul Tapner.

“I don’t mind the rain – I don’t like drought or being sunburnt so there’s a reason I moved here,” he said. “When I came out of the stables and it was raining I thought, bring it on, it will affect everyone else but me.”

Kilronan produced a calm and relaxed test to go below 40pen for the first time at four-star. “This horse has been getting sub-40 at three-star level and it’s been eating away with me that we weren’t at four-star level. I’ve worked hard to figure out where we’ve been losing marks,” added Paul.

Easy does it

Francis paid credit to training from Ian Woodhead, as well as a revised warm-up routine.

“Over the winter I’ve been learning to ride again,” he said. “With ‘Smokey’, I knew that he had the movement to do a 30s dressage test. Ian Woodhead has been helping me over the winter and with our warm-up today. We had a process in place and knew how much time we needed. Normally I’d run though movements of the test but today I spent most of the time settling him. I’d done all the training at home, I just wanted him to be relaxed.”

A look ahead

Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the dressage, including many of the ‘big guns’ – such as Tina Cook, Pippa Funnell, Mark Todd and the current Rolex Grand Slam contender, William Fox-Pitt.

The day finishes with Andrew Nicholson and Nereo, and given the New Zealander’s superlative four-star form during the past few years, he looks set to finish the dressage phase on a high.

Saturday will see attention turn to the famous four-star cross-country, designed for the first time by Giuseppe Della Chiesa.