Bill Levett and Lassban Diamond Lift complete their Dressage for their Badminton debut
Article sponsored by Le Jabot and Stock Company
Images by Lucy Hall Photography -all rights reserved and are subject to Copyright
Bill Levett really is just a pleasure to follow. His dressage didn’t go as good as he liked but they still managed a respectable 31.9 even with the two flying changes not as crisp as they could be. We caught up with him and got his thoughts on his dressage test as well as the task in hand of the cross country that takes place tomorrow.
Bill you have just completed your dressage test talk me through how you feel it went.
It was nice, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I was wanting a 20’s test which he has been solid at all year but I missed two changes and if you miss two changes well it not going to happen you know. Even with the two changes missed I was still only on a 31.9 so to get a 20’s test you might be able to make one but you can’t make two mistakes.
How do you feel he coped out there with the atmosphere?
He coped well, he is good in the brain. He is a blood horse, he is a 7/8ths Thoroughbred so if he doesn’t have enough work he would blow for sure. It is hard to give him the right amount of work without losing the quality.
With the cross country tomorrow, what are your thoughts going in to it ?
I am on a good cross country horse but a very inexperienced one so I won’t really know how he is going to cope with the size of fences. I think he will certainly get the trip, he has enough gallop and speed to do that. When you bring them here to their first 5* you don’t really know until you ask the questions. I am anticipating that he is going to cope with it well.
Is there any particular fences that pose more of a question for you and your horse?
The big bank with the skinny brush at the back of it. (13ab Outlander PHEV Bank) Its something we haven’t seen much so it will be interesting to see how horses cope with that, whether they jump through it well or they don’t.
With the rain yesterday how is the ground?
The ground is good actually, it feels good. It will be interesting to see whether it gets a bit more tack or not.
We wish Bill and Lassban Diamond Lift the very best of luck for the test ahead of them tomorrow and hope they have a very successful safe trip round the cross country course. We will keep you posted on how they get on.
Bill currently lies 29th going into the cross country phase. Full results can be found here
Share this 
