Southern Horse Magazine June / July 2016 | Page 11

2 headed out on track, Mary ran out to watch her daughter on the big screen and meet her on course near the last. Emily rode Brook, as she calls him at home, brilliantly setting up at each fence riding way beyond her 20 years. Everyone was willing her on, the crowds clapped and cheered as she past them and all was going well, at the half way marker she was ‘on time’ and heading for a clear within the time until she came to grief at the penultimate fence the Rolex Road Crossing. Jumping the first element safely Brook took a wrong stride and down he came, on top of Emily, who lay there winded for a few seconds. When she got up, you could see how disappointed she was, with tears in her eyes. Mum Mary ran to her daughter and put an arm around her shoulders, later advising Emily, “You’ll have many more Badminton’s” And won’t she just! This young determined lovely rider is one to watch in the future and has been trained to follow in mums footsteps, there will be no surprise when she is selected to ride for GB in one of the Olympics. A great Badminton debut for her and one that she can be very proud of. [email protected] Images by Sebastian Oakley / FEI Francis Whittington had gone clear but added time penalties to his score, he said afterwards he wanted to make sure his horse got round safely and was delighted with the result. All he could do was sit and watch the others go. The thrills and spills kept coming, with a nasty fall from Jeanette Brakewell’s horse Lets Dance at the same fence as Emily King, this time the recovery wasn’t as quick. It has to be said, that ALL the riders, grooms, vets, officials and basically anyone else with equestrian knowledge immediately ran to the assistance of both horse and rider and their diligence saved lives! The fence is right next to the warming up area and the incident was well under control, a few of the spectators were in tears, understandably, but when Lets Dance was walked away fine and Jeanette was taken away in the ambulance, there was a huge sigh of relief from the crowd and in fact all involved with helping them. Well Done Badminton officials! Towards the end of the day, Gemma Tattersall and Artic Soul set off at a good pace, they tackled each fence with ease and it was clear that Gemma could come home inside the time. Again a huge cheer went up as she came over the last fence, her smile said it all, she gave Artic Soul a huge pat and was buzzing with delight, finishing on her dressage score that jumped her up the leader board in to third place, where she stayed overnight as Dani Evans and Raphael came to grief, Izzy Taylor and Oliver Townend had time penalties and Christopher Burton, who was the penultimate rider to go fell off. The atmosphere in the grandstand on Sunday afternoon was electric when four British riders were in the top 20. When Mark Todd jumped a clear in fourth with a score of 44.8 the crowd erupted in cheers and applause, Gemma Tattersall was next in and had to jump a clear round to stay in her 3rd spot. Gemma did an excellent job with Artic Soul, calming him down, he listened to every command and kept a steady rhythm throughout, the crowd got a bit restless as she approached the latter part of the course, but they behaved and stayed calm until she jumped over the last and in to third spot. Page 11