V8 Supercob

WITH a dedicated Twitter fan base of more than 10,500 followers and his dedicated hashtag #yehboi, Britain’s Ben Hobday managed to gather even more fans courtesy of his mount, a rather special Clydesdale/thoroughbred cross who powered around cross-country and was reportedly sold at Ballinasloe Horse Fair. Mulrys Error has his own Twitter account, @Mr_Mulry, on which he describes himself as “I’m an International Eventer. With the biggest feet in the business”, while Hobday says he is “a V8 supercob.”

Mr Stickability

ANDREW Nicholson’s title could equally be held by Badminton first-timer Niklas Bschorer who was so far out of the saddle following a mis-step out of the lake that his air jacket inflated. Some impressive manouevering – and help from a willow wave and his patient mount Tom Tom Go 3– saw him regain his seat but he later retired as the inflated air jacket was too much to bear while riding around the world’s toughest cross-country course.

Happy camper

BRAZILIAN rider Gabriel Silva Cury was by far one of the happiest riders to successfully compete the cross-country phase. Finishing in 39th at his first Badminton attempt was a fair achievement for a former show jumper rider who only started eventing in 2013. Trained by Mark Todd, he rode the Irish-bred Grass Valley, a former ride of Todd’s. The 15-year-old ISH gelding by Legal Pressure (TB) out of Connaught Gold (P)(ISH) by Clover Hill (ID) was bred by John A Cogan.

Jimmy’s shoe

AOIFE Clark’s eighth place finish with Vaguely North (Jimmy) equalled the rider’s previous best finish at the event with Master Crusoe (Paddy) in 2013. This was despite Jimmy losing a shoe at The Lake. “It was not obvious until I made the turn at the white Garden Gates coming towards home and I felt him slip slightly, so I decided to go long at the silver birches in the woods so as not to risk another slip to the final jump,” she wrote on her Badminton Horse Trials blog.

Murphy’s award

JOSEPH Murphy and Sportsfield Othello rose from equal 70th after the dressage to 25th in the final shake-up and won the famous Glentrool Trophy in the process – awarded to the combination that made the most improvement on their dressage score.

Eventing Consultant

CAMILLA Speirs’ other half, Diarmuid Byrne, featured on Badminton Radio on cross-country day, citing numerous facts and statistics about each runner.

Byrne has joined forces with good friend Sam Watson, to launch a new business, equiratings.com which will feature results, statistics and trends on event riders and horses all over the world.

Making a splash

SEVERAL riders fell victim to water complexes on the course.

Tina Cook (De Novo News) and Gary Parsonage (Sligo Luckyvalier) were both soaked at the lake, while Andrew Hoy got two on-course duckings, with Rutherglen and Lanfranco.

Caroline Powell got a drenching at the Sense Silver Birch complex riding Onwards And Upwards.

Paulank Brockagh

THE 2014 winner Paulank Borckagh (ISH), was honoured at the 2015 event by an enormous image of the mare and her Australian rider Sam Griffiths which hung as the backdrop to the lakeside bar, The Outside Chance. The Touchdown mare finished 10th this year, watched on by her breeders Paula and Frank Cullen who spent some downtime with her in front of Badminton House.

Chilli Morning

BADMINTON winner Chilli Morning is a thoroughbred/Trakehner cross whose thoroughbred sire, Phantomic, goes back to Northern Dancer. Bred in east Germany, the stallion is out of Koralle, a mare from a successful Trakehner family which includes two important stallions – Donauwind, sire of Olympic gold medal showjumper Abdullah, and Ibikus, four-time winner of the German Riding Championships.