It was a case of ‘so close’ at Pau, with Izilot DHI narrowly missing out on back-to-back Pau 5* wins. He stormed in to the lead after dressage with a superb score of 19.0, over five penalties clear of the field. Meanwhile MHS Seventeen posted a very respectable 31.7.
Torrential rain resulted in the removal of ten fences and a two minutes shorter optimum time before cross country day got under way. First out for Ros was MHS Seventeen, making his 5* debut. On a day when no one came close to the optimum time due to the ankle deep sloppy mud, ‘Vinnie’ rose to the challenge coming home clear with 20.8 time penalties.
One of the last out of the start box was ‘Isaac’, with the worst of the ground. He also jumped a lovely clear, but 21.6 time penalties meant he dropped one place to second.
Both horses showjumped immaculately, Vinnie climbing up the leaderboard to 11th and Isaac keeping the pressure on the overnight leaders who were only 0.3 ahead. In the event, one second faster across country and Ros would have retained her title. Both horses in the top 12 still made for a pretty successful week.
Ros & Izilot DHI © Hannah Cole