Emily King and Yasmin Ingham on song – as Tom McEwen collects frangible penalties on Badminton cross-country

Emily King and Yasmin Ingham had Mars Badminton Horse Trials cross-country performances to celebrate – while Thursday’s dressage leader Tom McEwen slipped down the order in an intense hour for top Brits earlier today.

Emily and Valmy Biats, fourth here in 2024, settled into a rhythm for a smooth and assured spin around Eric Winter’s cross-country course.

The pair held fifth after dressage and added 7.2 cross-country time-penalties to their account, for a two-phase total of 34.5.

“​​He’s one of the best horses here. I’m so lucky to have him – it’s all about horsepower, and David and Paul Evans, who kindly secured the ride for me last year, they have made it happen,” said Emily, of the 16-year-old gelding.

“I’m a bit emotional; I haven’t set any records, I’m not in the lead, but he was just amazing – he listened to me and tried so hard.”

She added: “The team here have done an incredible job on the ground, it is perfect. It is fast ground, and we know the time is gettable… These are the biggest fences they’re going to jump in the sport and then coming at them with speed, it makes it tough. It’s up to height. The let-up fences, they’re not let-up fences.

“It’s tough from start to finish. You’ve got to be on your A-game and Valmy was so on it, he was awesome.”

World champion Yasmin and her long-term partner Rehy DJ made their Badminton debut with a foot-perfect performance. Like Emily, Yas settled her horse into a comfortable rhythm and the gelding popped neatly round, picking up 9.2 time-penalties to add to her dressage score of 38.7.

“He was incredible. He kept on jumping till the end and grew in confidence the whole way around. It was a really strong track, huge, very much Badminton. I couldn’t be more proud of him how he coped,” said Yas.

Yas added she “went out with a plan and stuck to it”, the only alteration being to take the slightly wider line around the tree at Huntsman’s Close to ensure Piglet understood the question.

“I’m glad I did that. He flew home, on the nice rolling downhill towards the end he regained a little bit of breath, picked up as he went into the main arena and finished really well,” she said.

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, team gold medallists at the Paris 2024 Olympics, had a hairy moment at the final log on the direct route at the KBIS Chasm (15cd), when “Dubs” left a leg. They later picked up 11 penalties for breaking the frangible device at the first corner at Equidry Huntsman’s Close.

Tom said that Dubs leaving “a couple of legs half-way round just took a little bit of the stuffing out of him”.

“Then it was quite hard work all the way back up the hill,” he said, adding the ground was brilliant and we’ve seen some travel brilliantly on it, but that “just for me and Dub, it was just a bit of a pull up that last hill, but he tried so hard and I’m delighted with him”.

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