‘Talented but sharp’ youngster leads, but frustration for top rider in first Badminton dressage session

Tom Jackson leads at the close of the first session of Mars Badminton Horse Trials dressage this morning (7 May).

Tom piloted Michael Stenning’s 10-year-old United 36 to a score of 31.8. They put in a workmanlike test with the scores only marred by some greenness in the flying changes.

“He’s probably one of the most talented horses I’ve sat on in terms of his athleticism and his ability, but his brain is quite difficult,” said Tom Jackson after his Badminton dressage.

“He can be quite sharp and quite spooky and just as you think you’re getting somewhere, suddenly you’re halfway across the school, facing the other direction. I was really pleased with how he coped in there, because it’s a lot for any horse, especially one that’s not the most experience.”

Tom has ridden recent Thoresby winner United 36 since the end of his eight-year-old year and this is the horse’s first five-star.

Gemma Stevens sits second on a score of 34 after a frustrating experience with Christopher and Lisa Stone’s Chilli Knight.

The 16-year-old, who won Bicton Horse Trials five-star in 2021, is not naturally gifted in this phase, and today he also rested a hindleg in the mid-test halt and threw in a change in the medium canter.

“That was absolutely rubbish,” said Gemma. “He’s actually probably trotting the best he’s ever trotted – well, shuffled the best he’s ever shuffled.

“It was all going to plan until the halt. I must have done 150 halts in the last two weeks, every one’s been bang on, then he goes in the ring and thinks, ‘Oh, I’ll just have a little rest.’ Cheeky little monkey.

“And then the same in the canter – if I’ve gone across that diagonal 100 times, I’ve gone across there 150 times and not once has he gone to do a change and then he goes in the ring and does it. It surprised the hell out of me – I was like, ‘What are you doing?’

“I’m really frustrated but at the end of the day, they’re horses, not machines and he certainly does have his own mind. He probably thinks he can do all this without me, I’m just an irritation on top trying to tell him what to do.

“He is feeling blooming well and on Saturday it’s just going to be a case of keeping that under wraps and keeping him under control.”

Tom’s lead is likely to be short-lived, with strong tests expected from Bubby Upton on Cola and Sarah Bullimore with Corimiro in the next session.

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