26/07/2025
Piggy March has soared to the top of the leaderboard in CCI4*-S section
C, sponsored by Project Pony, at Burgham International Horse Trials
(24-27 July).
Piggy posted an exceptional dressage mark of 19.8 aboard Jayne
McGivern's lovely grey stallion Halo to overtake Oliver Townend and
Cooley Rosalent, who go into Saturday's showjumping and cross-country in
second place on 23.9. Izzy Taylor and Barrington Alice are third on
24.5.
Piggy said: "Halo was spot on - fabulous in his body and brain. He's
really come on; he's beginning to feel more established, stronger, with
more consistency and strength to his body and his work. He's always felt
very special and I'm delighted he is starting to get the marks that
correspond to what he feels like."
CCI4*-S showjumping starts at 8am tomorrow morning at the Northumbrian
event, with cross-country commencing at 9am. The cross-country can be
watched live on ClipMyHorse.tv [1].
Piggy added: "The cross-country looks very inviting with some good
questions. This is Halo's first run since the CCI5* at Luhmühlen; he
feels fit and well and I am looking forward to tomorrow."
There was no change to Thursday's top three in Holme Dodsworth Metals
CCI4*-S section D. Caroline Powell is in first place with a score of
23.3 aboard Nicholas and Fiona Lambert's 10-year-old Legally Grey.
Caroline has half a penalty in hand over Paris 2024 Olympic team gold
medallists Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Izzy Taylor is also third in this
section, this time on SBH Big Wall with 24.4.
Double Olympic team gold medallist Tom McEwen proved he has another
exciting young horse on his hands after winning WL Straughan & Son Ltd
CCI3*-S section A on Brookfield Danny De Muze. The seven-year-old, who
is owned by Alison Swinburn and John and Chloe Perry, added just 0.8 of
a cross-country time-fault to his leading dressage score of 20.8 to stay
ahead of Sweden's Therese Viklund and Sella (22.9). New Zealander Jesse
Campbell finished third on his Tokyo Olympics ride Diachello, also with
a finishing score of 22.9.
Tom said: "He's been amazing, to be honest. Piggy [March, from whom Tom
has inherited the ride] has done a fantastic job producing him, as only
she could do. He's only done one intermediate and then this
[three-star], which I thought was quite a strong track. I know the
courses here all jump beautifully, but it was probably the punchiest one
I've seen, so I was really pleased with him.
"He's perfect - a really placid character at home who puts everything
into it when he comes out at a competition. He did a stunning test here,
handled the showjumping well and was very cool across country."
Elizabeth Barratt, 19, headed up AW Jenkinson CCI3*-S section B on
Barratt Eventing's Big Boss Melo. The pair completed on their
second-placed dressage score of 26.5 to win the class, which also acted
as the final selection trial for the British team for the European Young
Rider Championships in Poland in August. They are the reigning Young
Rider National Champions, having won at Bicton in June.
Elizabeth said: "He's been amazing all week. I was sp pleased with his
test, because he can get quite tense and stressy, but he was really with
me and I couldn't have asked for much more from him. He jumped like his
always does - amazingly. He has his own unique technique, but he tries
so hard and gets the job done. We were held at the start of the
cross-country, which hasn't happened to me with him before, so that was
a new experience, but it didn't seem to bother him at all.
Fourteen-year-old Big Boss Melo was bought by the Barratts from France a
year ago.
"It took us a bit of time to adjust to each other - he had been ridden
by a man over there - and he is big, strong and bold-moving, but we seem
to have gelled quite now," said Elizabeth, who is very much hoping for a
first British team appearance next month.
Jemima Howden - also on the young rider squad short-list - took the
runner-up spot on her father David's Van Kaunitz on her dressage mark of
28.1, while yet another highly competitive under-21, Finn Healy, was
third on Greannanstown Monbeg Joe. In fact, the next five placings in
this section were all filled by British young rider team hopefuls -
Isabelle Cook (Mexican Law, fourth), Josh Levett (This Ones On You,
fifth and Huberthus AC, eighth), Anya Strilkowski (K, sixth) and
Elizabeth Barratt, (Ride For Thais Chaman Dumontceau, seventh).
Saturday and Sunday at Burgham not only offer top-class sport, but also
great fun for families, friends and children. There is a fun dog show on
both days, have-a-go dog agility, and hobby horses for children to
"ride", unaffiliated showjumping on Saturday and a Thoroughbred and
Ex-Racehorse Show on Sunday, alongside grassroots eventing classes.
Burgham also features an excellent range of tradestands and lots of
delicious, locally-produced food and drink and public bars. It is
situated in beautiful, tranquil Northumbrian countryside not far from
the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick.
Visit www.burghaminternationalhorsetrials.co.uk [2] to find out more and
to buy tickets.
All the cross-country from Burgham is being shown live on ClipMyHorse.tv
- visit www.clipmyhorse.tv/en_GB/ [3] to watch.
