George Hilton-Jones and Efraim complete their first Burghley Dressage 2019
Images by Lucy Hall Photography – all rights reserved and are subject to copyright
George entered the Dressage arena with Efraim, a lovely looking horse in a beautiful frame and great outline. Efraim had a very nice expression on his face, ears pricked in a positive way and no tension. The first half of the test was very even and looked fairly relaxed to start with and in good balance.
Though a loss of balance through the lateral work lost them some marks. The Walk was of good quality and was relaxed up to were they had to pick up Medium Walk then Efraim just anticipated the Canter. They had nice Extended Canter however the changes were not clean and it looked like Efraim started to just get a bit more tense after those and there was moments where there was a loss of outline and frame. However the last few movements pulled them back some marks and they finished on a score of 44.5%. This is the first time at Burghley for both George and Efraim so its all experience and they will take away plenty from here.
We caught up with George to get his thoughts on his test and more detail about what his thoughts are for the cross country …..
Well done George , Talk me through your test? are you happy with your performance ?
It has been a big learning curve for us today. Leo warmed up the best he has ever gone. Really relaxed and listening. Unfortunately when we got in the atmosphere just got the better of us and it all became a bit tense. Due to this we missed the changes and made a few too many mistakes. This was reflected in the mark. It wasn’t a disaster by a long shot but we have loads of room to improve.
Have you had a more in depth look at the cross country course yet? what combinations do you think will pose a question for your horse?
You really need to use your brain the whole way round. There are so many options, short, long, wiggly! The leaf pit is an early test, especially on a strong horse like Leo. But there is a more straight forward long route. There are big questions the whole way around the course, but to me the two biggest would be the Joules white oxers to the corner. This is huge and leaves no room for error. The other would be the upright gates which look to be on an attacking one stride.
How many times have you walked the course? who do you walk the course with and why?
I have now walked the course 3 times. Once with the family, once with Chris Bartle and once with Matt Heath. It’s nice to get other people’s opinion but in the end I have to make the decisions and have back up plans where needed.
Will you watch others ride the cross country before you ?
I’ll watch the first few riders go out to get a feel then just watch a few mates go round. But I’m not a big watcher and will probably hide in the lorry for the majority.
Do you have any lucky superstitions i.e lucky socks etc?
I’m not one for superstitions, we will just go out and enjoy ourselves
We wish George and Efraim the very best of luck tomorrow on the cross country and look forward to seeing how they get on, they currently sit joint 63rd after the dressage with Simon Grieve but with a good cross country performance we could see them climb the leaderboard.
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