The first competitor of the event into the dressage arena was Sam Griffiths, flying the flag for Australia. Sam has been enjoying considerable success with his horses recently and was on form with Happy Times today to score 45.5. Oliver Townend was the first rider to challenge Sam’s lead and put on a good display with the grey gelding Neo du Breuil to score 46.7 but when Andrew Nicholson entered the arena, the competition moved up a notch. The big grey horse Avebury was uphill and collected and the nines started to flow until the flying changes let him down a little. He scored 42.8 to take the lead despite a hand that yesterday was still black with bruises from a fall on the first of his four rides at Highclere last weekend.

“It works alright when I’m riding and that’s the main thing” he pointed out nonchalantly

Andrew was followed into the arena by Australian rider Chris Burton. Chris has been getting some amazing dressage scores since his arrival in the UK but this probably was not Holstein Park Leilani’s best day. The arena was remarkably full for the Thursday morning session (not surprising considering the stars on show in the early part of the day) and there was quite a bit of atmosphere but it didn’t seem to bother the chestnut mare owned by Jean and Jade Findlay. However she seemed to be a little bit laboured at times but still managed to score a solid 54.5, to leave them in 17^th place at the end of the day. 

William Fox-Pitt was the last rider before the first morning break on Parklane Hawk, last year’s Blenheim 3* winner that is having his first 4* start here. Despite the horse’s relative inexperience, this was the only horse to score under 40 by executing an impressively smooth, accurate and beautifully ridden test. However William added unnecessary penalties to his 39.7 score by halting early at L rather than X at the end of his test, much to everyone’s surprise. In the press conference later, William said “It’s a shame that I stopped in the wrong place at the end but that’s where I planned to stop!” Even more surprising was that Pippa Funnell made exactly the same mistake later in the morning on the very big moving Mirage d’Elle

Luckily Mary King had learnt the right test and put on a very good show from the start on the flashy chestnut with lots of chrome, Apache Sauce. A few mistakes in the changes towards the end unfortunately brought some 3’s from the judges and resulted in a final score of 44.8 and third place at that point. The rider who suffered the biggest brain failure of the day was New Zealander Craig Nicolai on Just Ironic who completely lost his way during the test and, despite help from the judge, had two errors of course and an embarrassing start to the event! He received great applause from the crowd however who were obviously sharing his pain

To keep the large crowd in their seats, the last combination of the morning session was Mark Todd and Major Milestone. The horse was gleaming in the warm sun as they started well but had problems in the counter canter and flying changes which put them down the field.

 In the afternoon session ex-Aussie Boyd Martin put in a good test on Neville Bardos and received a warm reception from the crowd who not only enjoyed the well put together test which scored 49.7 to put him in 12th place at the end of the day but they probably also appreciated how Boyd has bounced back from a very tough time following the barn fire on his property and the death of his father.

Australian rider Hamish Cargill and his horse Sandhills Tiger have been having a good crack at the big overseas events recently and although they had a slight miscommunication during the early part of the test there were some very nice moments. They finished in 26th place on 59.3 and are looking forward to a day of terrifying course walks tomorrow. Two other combinations shot up the field in the last section; Irish rider Elizabeth Powell on Kilpatrick River took 3rd place on 43.3 and Laurence Hunt on Phoebus pushed Sam Griffiths down to 6th spot at the end of the day.

When the crowds were not watching the dressage they were making the most of the beautiful weather by sitting out in the many food and drink areas enjoying a wide range of wonderful foods and some very pleasant areas to sit and watch the world go by. With more than 600 trade stands, it is hard to get around them all but there is no doubt, judging by the size of some shopping bags, that many visitors are giving it a go.