Third place for Berkeley at Blair – CCI4*S
Images courtesy of Menzies Breen – all rights reserved and are subject copyright
With Daisy in the lead, I am not going to lie I was feeling the nerves and I was pretty anxious when she went out of the start box, but it appears I didn’t need to be!! Despite me doing every jump with them (whilst sitting in the comfort of the media centre of course!! ) Daisy did a superb job and if marks could be award for style then she would most definitely have won, They made the course look ridiculously easy, everything looked to jump well and in a controlled manner. The first water fence 6 and fence Malcolm Lochran posed no issues and they jumped the House of Bruar Gate and Bothy at fence 10AB with absolute precision and style it really was a fluent round up to this point.
This was not the end, they continued on a lovely rhythm to get a great shot at the Baileys Horse Feed Corner and then followed it up by being foot perfect through the water at The Land Rover Lost Garden which was fence 13ABC. This was becoming a real pleasure to watch and a round I will remember for a long time as these fence are by no mean small, the line and shot at fence 19 AB the LandRover Log and Arrowhead was superb and a fantastic piece of riding. The whole round was just delightful, However at the end there was a temporary issue of 15 penalties for a flag which had gone but Daisy had gone inside the flag and the video footage was reviewed and the penalties later removed thankfully. Despite Daisy’s round being one of the nicest smoothest cross country rounds I have seen for some time it was unfortunately not within the time, but no one did make the time, she had just under ten penalties in hand when she set out but incurred 11.2 time penalties dropping her to 3rd place which is still an amazing result. especially considering there was only 4 penalties separating the top 5 and only 1.5 penalties between Daisy and Nicolas Astier who won the section.
We caught up with Daisy after her round, whilst her horse was cooling off and to be honest looked that fit he could have ran round there again!!
Tell us about your Cross Country Round
I had a fantastic ride, I assume the time is pretty dam near impossible to get, because even though I didn’t take a pull for the first five fences I still wasn’t on my minute markers, so thought oh god!! I knew that Astier and Sam had gone like the clappers, so I just went as fast as I could also in the back of my mind is that he has got Blenheim long format in a month’s time, but I went pretty dam fast actually!! The horse was amazing! He was super bold and he was a bit strong in places because its quite twisty turny and I had to do a bit more setting up than what I would have done if he had been less strong, but I wouldn’t have changed the way he went for anything, he was so straight, so brave, so careful.
How long have you had Ballinteskin Cooper S ?
I have had him since he was 5 so five years, we’ve taken him really carefully, I am never one to rag them round as 8 and 9 year olds so he didn’t do much on his 7th year – nothing dramatic but he got a bit of heat yet there was nothing to show for it, it was just one of those things.
He is a big horse
yeah he is quite big, he rides big because he is so scopey and I really struggle to stay on him sometimes when he is such an extravagant jumper. It has been worth taking time with him, and getting everything under their belts in a nice confident fashion before you step them up
We have seen Chris Bartle with you quite a bit, is he your normal trainer ?
Not at all, I just wanted to walk the course with somebody, you know another set of eyes, as I am inclined to miss something really obvious! Chris is not my normal helper but he is someone very handy to have around.
If you think that all the professionals have loads of grooms to help them out, they don’t! Daisy was washing off her own horse and taking the studs out like the rest of us have to and it was refreshing to see. Daisy is very humble and down to earth and has a very wicked sense of humour. i have enjoyed following her over the course of this event and look forward to hearing how they get on at Blenheim in the next few weeks.!!.
Just a note as well if you think that all the professionals have loads of grooms to help them out, they don’t! Daisy was washing off her own horse and taking the studs out like the rest of us have to and it was refreshing to see. Daisy is very humble and down to earth and has a very wicked sense of humour.
Follow us
Share this 
