Day one of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials has finished with Michael Jung in the lead, and a strong performance from the competition’s youngest rider.
Spectacular recovery
Aged just 20, Niklas Bschorer is in third place riding Tom Tom Go 3 on 39.2pen. Despite his young years, the German rider does have a certain advantage in the dressage arena as his dad rode up to Advanced level dressage and his mum is also a former dressage rider.
Now based in Wiltshire, Niklas came to people’s attention at Badminton earlier this year when he pulled off a spectacular recovery after his horse Tom Tom left a leg at the lake.
He seems unperturbed by his near miss, however, and said he is looking forward to Saturday.
‘Special moment’
“I walked course this morning and there are nice fences and the going is perfect,” he said. “I’m going to walk the course again with Mark Todd to get some advice, but I know my horse best so I’m going to focus on that.
We’ve not heard Burghley cross-county described as ‘nice’ very often before, but we put that down to youthful exuberance.
His German compatriot certainly has more experience, but is also competing in his first Burghley. Michael described entering the dressage arena as a “special moment”, however he managed to maintain his composure (we wouldn’t expect anything else) to score 34.2pen.
“I just tried to concentrate,” he said. “Fisherrocana was very quiet and really listened to me. It was nearly the very best test we can do.”
‘Absolutely thrilled’
Michael was one of three riders to score in the 30s, but he is a full 3.6pen ahead of Andrew Hoy in second place on Rutherglen.
“In the canter work he was a tiny bit tight, so that’s why we got 37 and not a lower score, but apart from that I’m absolutely thrilled.
“Where’s he come in relation to where he’s been in past few years is enormous.”
The highest placed Brit is Rosalind Canter – with a name like that she was clearly destined for great things on horses. Her score of 40.2 with Allstar B puts her in fourth place.
Eventing legend
Anything could happen to the leaderboard, however, as there are still another 38 combinations to compete in the dressage phase tomorrow.
The first in the arena are Beanie Sturgis and Lebowski at 9.30am. This will be followed by the eventing legend that is Mark Todd, who is riding Leonidas II.
Other big names to look out for are William Fox-Pitt (Fenhill Pimms), Kristina Cook (Star Witness), Nicola Wilson (Annie Clover) and Michael Jung (La Biosthetique-Sam FBW) who will no doubt try to beat his own winning score.