Finishing on your dressage score is a sure way of climbing the ranks in any eventing competition, and so it was for Andrew Nicholson who rose to third on Yacabo BK in the seven-year-old class at the World Breeding Eventing Championship for Young Horses at Mondial du Lion, France.
James Avery, who led after the first two phases, had two show jumping rails and a time fault to eventually finish sixth. Mary King, who had been lying second, had a disaster round and dropped back to 16th. That paved the way for Astier Nicolas to take the win on Alertamalib’or ahead of Izzy Taylor and Direct Cassino.
Izzy continued her winning way in the six-year-old class, leading from go to whoa on Monkey Business. Paul Tapner, on Bob Chaplin, was second and third went to Frenchman Thomas Carlile with Birmane.
Andrew, talking after the prize giving, said he had been hoping for a top-ten finish. “Third place is a great reward for him. He is good in all three phases, and I think he has the level to compete in four-star competitions in the future.”
Dan Jocelyn, who had two horses entered, had a nasty fall while warming up and posted on his Facebook page: “Well, that wasn’t how I wanted to finish the season. Flipped my horse at the warm-up fence, knocked myself out, and an ambulance to hospital. Thank you to everyone that has helped, including the event at Mondial du Lion and friends. We are in the car on way back to UK with a neck brace a black eye and a broken finger. Good luck to all in the show jumping, especially the Kiwis, will be watching on iPad being chauffeured to docks. It’s been a great season and these two young horses will have their day.”
Jesse Campbell and I Spye finished fourth in the six-year-old class, with Andrew on As Is taking seventh place.
