Longleat horse trials 2011

LONGLEAT

Kitty King made it three in a row by once again winning the CIC** for the third consecutive year at the 25th running of the Longleat Horse Trials. Not only did Kitty win the class on Ben Walden’s exciting young prospect, Zidante, but she also repeated her feat of last year by taking the runner up spot on General Opposition. “Longleat really is one of my favourite events” said a delighted Kitty “I had my first British Eventing win here and always arrive feeling the horses will go well” Things had not gone to plan for the Longleat organizing team as heavy rain on the days leading up to the event caused the going in the dressage area and on the cross country to cut up badly, resulting in the abandonment of the last two novice sections on Saturday and all Sunday’s Intermediate classes. However it was decided to go ahead with the CIC** class as this ran over ground that had not been used on the previous days although two fences were taken out. After dressage Nick Gauntlett, on Chilli Morning, topped the 66 strong class but he, along with 24 other riders, decided to save their horses for another day leaving just 42 to continue. Kitty and Zidante had been well placed in 5th after dressage on a mark of 44.2, added nothing more in the show jumping and flew round the cross country to finish with 6.4 time penalties and make it four wins this season for the seven year old mare. Kitty said “I had a bit on a change of plan at fence 5 (see box) as I thought the distance from the palisade to the skinny was an attacking three strides but when “Herbie” (General Opposition) landed deep after the first part I took a pull and went for four which worked well for him so I decided to do the same with Zidante” Kitty is aiming the mare for the seven year old class at Le Lion d’Angers at the end of the year. “I did come here determined to make it a hat trick of wins as that’s very special” she said “And I love the CIC Trophy!”
Laurence Hunt also enjoyed a good day to finish third on Janet Oliver’s homebred gelding On Q for Gold. The pair survived a sticky moment at the penultimate fence as Laurence explained “He was just a little tired towards the end and got a bit close to the second of the turtle fences but we landed on all four legs so that was OK. The course actually jumped bigger than it walked but I guess that was due to the sticky going. I was a bit unsure about running as I rode a couple of novices yesterday and it was getting deep but I knew this was on unused ground, I think the Longleat team have done an amazing job to run today, all credit to them”
A clear round in the show jumping helped secure fourth place for Abbie Hughes and Ramiros Secret “We never jump clear rounds” laughed Abbie “but today he just kept getting better and better. He was off for a year through injury but has come back really well, if I’d put my foot down on the cross country we could have won but he’s too good a horse to risk.”
This year Longleat celebrated it’s Silver Jubilee and marked the occasion with a party for all their supporters, a complex of flower box fences on the cross country in the shape of the number 25 and a large cake in the shape of a lion, made by organizers John and Jessica Colson’s daughter, which was auctioned to raised funds for the Help for Heroes charity.
BOGEY FENCE
Although the CIC cross country ran over the same route as in previous years designer Eric Winter had included several new fences. As well as the 25th Jubilee fence, these included pinned Corners in the wood at 11 and two beautifully carved Turtles at 19. However the fence which caused mayhem was no 5, a Palisade to an angled skinny Triple Brush. In total 14 riders ran out at the B element – eight retired there, two were eliminated and four got over at the second attempt.

OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE
As if coping with the striding at fence 5 was enough Olivia Craddock and Boherdeal Cruise also had to contend with a dog in hot pursuit “It started chasing us from fence 3” Olivia said “and we didn’t manage to shake it off until fence 6, fortunately my horse wasn’t frightened by it” The pair still managed to finish in 11th.