At the halfway stage of the Land Rover CCI4*-S Bramham Horse Trials cross-country, Oliver Townend and the talented mare Cooley Rosalent hold the lead. They went clear inside the time, which at this stage of the competition is proving hard to achieve, to stay on their 26.6 dressage, meaning they can finish no worse than second.
“She’s very, very good. She’s still a baby with trees blowing believe it or not, she was spooking coming into combinations and looking at the trees next to them,” Oliver said of the eight-year-old owned by Paul Ridgeon. “We’re just ticking along and when all three bits come together, she’ll be very, very special and a winner and actually all three bits have come together today. There’s a horse in front of her that is a lot more experienced than her still to go but my horse has still been very, very good.”
Harry Meade and Carwarten Harrier, a 13-year-old owned by James Golub, had a great Bramham Horse Trials cross-country round to add just 2.4 time-faults to their 33.1 two-phase score to hold second place at the moment.
Tom McEwen and the eight-year-old MHS Brown Jack, who had been in fourth after the showjumping this morning, produced another good clear round, adding 9.2 cross-country time-faults to sit in third at this stage of the CCI4*-S Bramham Horse Trials cross-country.
“He was amazing. It’s the first run of the season where he’s been allowed to run a bit more because he’s stepping up and learning,” said Tom of the gelding who is owned by Fred and Penny Barker. “I didn’t have a single problem, he was as straight as a die. That’s the qualification ticked and now we can get on and improve things to be more competitive.”
Keep up-to-date with all the action from Bramham via horseandhound.co.uk and read the full magazine report in the 16 June issue of Horse & Hound
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