Newly-crowned world no.1 Tim Price has won the CCI4*-L individual at the Military Boekelo Enschede in The Netherlands and steered the New Zealand team to second in the FEI Nations Cup class.
Tim and Happy Boy finished on their personal best dressage score of 25.6 penalty points to take the win ahead of Tom McEwen (GBR) and JL Dublin who finished on the same score but the Kiwi combination was closer to the optimum time on the cross country. Laura Collett (GBR) and Dacapo were third on 25.9 after relinquishing their lead with a rail in the showjumping.
“I am very excited and happy for that result with this horse,” said Tim. “I did take him into the competition thinking he was going to be a threat to the top five . . . we have had a lot of experience together as I have had him since he was four and he has had some good results along the way.”
Tim described the 10-year-old black Indoctro gelding as “a bit of a performer”. Boekelo was just his second 4*-L. “It all started with a personal best on the flat which was better than I anticipated there.”
He knew he had to be closer to the optimum cross country time to edge ahead of Tom who was on the same mark. “Happy Boy is a great (showjumper) jumper and he had a good night’s rest. He warmed up fairly well and went in and rose to the occasion and jumped a great round. I still didn’t expect that to net the win – I thought Laura (Collett) being who she is and the lovely jumper that she was on with Dacapo, I thought she would pop around with a nice tidy clear. It was a real thrill to win and great for the Kiwi team to bag another podium, considering we were a bit of a skeleton crew out there.”
Dan Jocelyn and Blackthorn Cruise finished on 36.7 in 13th place after scoring 30.3 in the dressage, adding 2.4 time in the cross country and four in the showjumping. Amanda Pottinger with Good Timing came in for 19th spot, finishing on their dressage score of 39.6.
World no.2 Jonelle Price and Killbunny Andy scored 32.5 in the dressage, were clear and inside time in the cross country, but added faults in the showjumping to end the day on 48.5. “Killbunny Andy is a classy horse but today wasn’t his day,” said Tim. “Jonelle has a few things to tinker with. He will definitely come along from this for next time.”
Great Britain won the Nations Cup competition at Boekelo on 95.7 penalty points with New Zealand second on 101.9 and France third with 110.1. Germany’s fourth place was enough for them to win the FEI Nations Cup Series on 450, with Italy second on 415 points, and Sweden in third place on 375.
THE HORSE DETAILS:
Good Timing – owned by The Volunteer Syndicate
Happy Boy – owned by Susan Lamb and Therese Miller
Killbunny Andy – owned by Therese Miller and Constance Edmundson
Blackthorn Cruise – owned by Panda Christie and Dan Jocelyn
By Diana Dobson – HP Media Liaison