There were many positives to take from Izilot DHI’s first Badminton. Immediately after their dressage test Ros said: ‘I’m absolutely delighted with him. He’s been doing good work this week, but didn’t like a camera in the corner of the arena off the right rein, so had a spook – but now he comes back to me. He has less blood (thoroughbred) than Lordships Graffalo and won’t have seen a course like this one, or as long as this one, so whilst I will set out competitively I will keep an open mind.”
The pair were the overnight leaders at the end of the first phase.
“We all knew it was going to be a big challenge for Isaac with the atmosphere around the lake and it just got a bit too much. He couldn’t decide where to look and reverted to his protective mechanism which is spooking. I am not disappointed. In fact I’m proud of how he had coped with the week up until then and we will reroute and get excited about the rest of the season with him. He enjoyed a hack around the beautiful Badminton estate before we left, taking in all of the sights at his own pace, what a privilege it is to even be able to do that”