Mark Phillips on Badminton: ‘The cross-country course was a refreshing change’

Mark Phillips reflects on the cross-country course and flag penalties at Mars Badminton Horse Trials

It was glorious to have sunshine again at Mars Badminton Horse Trials, though it was with a wry smile that event director Jane Tuckwell said that while the weather was wonderful, the extreme dry was almost more expensive to handle than the wet.

A new dam in The Lake maintained a perfect depth of water for the horses, while the rest became shallower. There was nothing but praise for the near-perfect ground on the cross-country. That required an unbelievable amount of work in the recent dry weeks, when the natural supply of water has been somewhat limited.

Eric Winter’s cross-country course was very different this year – bigger, better and fairer than some of his previous efforts. It was a refreshing change to the trend of modern courses with fewer skinnies and multi-element questions. Most of the combinations proved effective speed bumps, making the time difficult to achieve, even with perfect conditions.

Some combinations were on shorter strides, where riders had to slow down or make a bending line to make the fences easier for their horse, and there were a number where the rider had to choose between taking the forward distance or adding a stride.

In way too many cases, rider error meant horses arrived at a take-off spot too close to the fence, resulting in an up-and-down jump and a static landing, which uses up a lot of energy as they have to get going again. Whether this design was intended or by accident, I’m not sure!

The result, though, was excellent statistics and an exciting competition. Having said that, cross-country day seemed like a long old affair – fewer starters and finishing before 5pm would have been better entertainment.

The seemingly endless queries about whether a rider was inside or outside a flag became tedious, particularly in Ros Canter’s case, where penalties were marked on the online scores as under review, then the review symbol was removed so it looked like she definitely had faults – then the penalties were taken away. A decision took over an hour.

Modern technology helps, but when it doesn’t work and the information has to go overland as opposed to via the airways, the effect is unacceptable.

Much noise is always made about spectators keeping dogs on leads. This year, we had a humorous incident at the KBIS Chasm fence, where a dog chased the horse all the way down the hill. Luckily the horse was unaffected, but the dog hadn’t walked the course and didn’t see the ditch coming. Hopefully it had nothing more than a sore head the next morning!

Invaluable support

Mars Equestrian stepped up from presenting sponsor to title sponsor at Badminton last year and we are so lucky to have them supporting the major five-stars at Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley.

The Mars brand is mostly associated with chocolate and pet food. Few know that Antech, one of their many “arms”, provided invaluable support to horses and riders, doing instant blood analyses, diagnostics and imaging in the stables, so that horses could get the best and exact treatments needed all through the week.

An expensive rail

As expected, cross-country day was a classic showdown between Ros Canter, Oliver Townend and Tom McEwen. Sadly, JL Dublin ran out of gas in the later stages, dropping Tom out of contention.

Harry Meade again demonstrated his outstanding skills across the country, achieving two clears inside the time for the second time in three weeks. Sadly, the dressage remains his Achilles heel as he needs lower scores if he is to go on to international honours.

Gemma Stevens, Emily King and Bubby Upton all impressed across the country and Oliver showed great judgment.

Oliver’s one fence down in the showjumping was one of the most expensive poles ever at a cost of £54,000. You have to feel sorry for him, but their day will come as Cooley Rosalent is still young and improving.

In the meantime, Ros and “Walter” reigned supreme.

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