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It has been a really exciting couple of days of dressage here at Badminton. There have been some truly beautiful tests from the leading riders and some really unfortunate tests, like poor Cathal Daniels, whose chestnut mare threw all her toys out the pram to leave them on a score of 84.6 penalties in last place.
The quality of the tests on the whole was very nice. I really enjoyed watching the dressage, although due to the bitter cold wind, I couldn’t spend too long in the main arena watching without moving! However, I did watch all the ex-racehorses ringside as well as a few of my favourites such as Mark Todd. I have also spent most of this afternoon in the warmth of the media centre catching up on work while watching the tests and listening to Badminton Radio.
So who is leading the way after the dressage?
- Christopher Burton & Graf Liberty, 32.9
Christopher Burton & Graf Liberty
- Ingrid Klimke & Horseware Hale Bob Old, 36.4
- Jonty Evans & Cooley Rorkes Drift, 37.2
- Karin Donckers & Fletcha Van ‘T Verahof, 37.3
- Lauren Kieffer & Veronica, 38.0
- Andrew Nicholson & Nereo, 38.0
- Thibaut Vallette & Qing Du Briot En HN, 38.7
- Bettina Hoy & Designer 10, 39.2
- Michael Jung & La Biosthetigue Sam FBW, 40.0
- Astier Nicolas & Piaf De B’Neville, 41.5


Other notable riders:
- Mark Todd currently sits 13th and 14th for both his horses, just outside of the top 10.
- Alex Bragg, Badminton first timer and farrier sits in joint 18th
Ex-Racehorse Summary
The ex-racehorse which impressed me the most in the dressage was Kaapachino. He was the first in and he just looked fantastic and the judges obviously agreed! For the first 11 movements in his test scored nearly all
Tomorrows Cross Country
Tomorrow should be really exciting. I have been round and looked at all the fences and read all of Eric Winter’s (the course designers) comments about individual fences and combinations and I have to say it looks really challenging! And the riders are certainly giving the course a lot of respect.
Michael Jung said it’s “a very tough course” where you have to concentrate from the very first fence until the last. Bettina Hoy said it’s “a very clever course” and that the time will be really tight because most the fences are on an angle/off the gallop track, so you need to slow down to turn into them. Yesterday’s leader Thibaut Vallette’s horse has never competed at 4 star level before, so his horse might need more time setting up to new, more challenging fences. Thibaut also said that he’s not familiar with some of the style of combinations and fences, but he’s not worried about the course. Jonty Evans is looking forward to the cross country tomorrow and said his horse “genuinely loves the cross country.” And despite Ingrid Klimke being 3.5 penalties behind Christopher Burton this is “not a dressage competition” and that she will be planning on taking all the straight routes tomorrow!