RIDERS competing under red, white and blue flags may have topped and tailed the first six placings in the CCI2*-S at last weekend’s Ballindenisk international horse trials but both the USA’s Gillian Beale King (Tullibards Evita) and Britain’s John Tilley (My Turn Ramiro) are based in this country as are the four Irish riders who separated the pair.

The top four finishers completed on their flat work marks but not the dressage winner on 29.4, Alison Holden, who picked up time penalties in both jumping phases to drop to eighth with Lates Eddie (40.6). The addition of 0.4 of a show jumping time penalty didn’t affect the fifth-place finish of Ben Connors on Zuperlative (35.8) but Tilley would have finished fourth not sixth had My Turn Ramiro (37.2) not lowered one of the coloured poles.

It was more or less business as usual for Cathal Daniels and Robbie Kearns who, respectively, placed third and fourth on their first phase scores with Independent Article (32.5) and Belline Newmarket Delight (34.1). Most disappointingly for Junior rider Ali Fitzpatrick, she narrowly lost out on the win with her mother Emma’s Dutch Warmblood mare Kelly.

The well-related young Co Cork rider, a granddaughter of Arthur Comyn, and Beale King matched strides throughout to finish on their dressage scores of 31.2. However, the American’s cross-country time of 5.18 was closer to the optimum (5.21) than the 5.16 of Fitzpatrick who thus had to settle for second with Kelly, a 10-year-old brown daughter of Governor.

Technical

Beale King, who finished second in the CCI1*-Intro on Lawrence Patterson’s six-year-old Zangersheide stallion Dorus Heldenlaan Z, who was competing at just his third event but has 43 Showjumping Ireland points to his credit, gave us her opinion of the jumping challenges in the two classes.

“I thought the show jumping tracks were technical enough with a lot of bending or related lines; I was glad to be riding two good show jumpers!

"The cross-country courses had some great questions, and were nice galloping tracks, beautifully dressed and presented. My pair both came away better horses after the weekend, top finishes or not, and that is most important,” the winner said.

The owner/rider, a gardener and ‘foodie’ in her spare time, then discussed her winner, Tullibards Evita, a nine-year-old palomino Irish Sport Horse mare by Tullibards Bennys Legacy, who featured in these pages during the Baileys Horse Feeds Flexi Eventing series at The Meadows.

“Tullibards Evita is a mare I’ve had for three years. I bought her from her breeder, Hans Kuehnle. It has been a long, slow road with Mino. From being ‘behind’ for her age from the get-go and far weaker and quirkier than I realised upon purchase, to needing tooth surgery a month after I bought her, to having a year off from competition because of her knee injuries, so this win is very special and hard come by.

“Mino has a big heart and a big stride, a lovely barrel to her, but is only 15.2hh. She’s certainly on the small side for me at 5’7 but she rides a far bigger horse than she is, especially to a jump.

“The bolder I ride her to a fence, the bigger she grows, and the braver and tougher she gets.

“She’s an out and out jumping machine which makes up for her not so fancy flat work, though she does an accurate test. I am constantly working to hone the dressage, helping her gain the confidence and strength to travel more open through her neck and shoulder and push more from behind.

“We will continue to carefully monitor and care for her knees as she gains fitness and gets some more runs under her belt this season. She will tell me, as she always does, if she does or doesn’t want to do something. I will listen to her, as I do all my horses, on what she is happy to do or not do.

“I am thankful and proud to have brought Mino back after injury in such good form although it wasn’t without endless help from her vets Henk Offereins and Grace Allen, as well as her physio, Heather McReynolds. I am really looking forward to more fun times with my favourite ‘pink pony’.”