William competing Atlantic Vital Spark in the CIC2* at Barbury
With Aachen on the horizon, and of course the World Equestrian Games just beyond that there’s an exciting bunch of team hopefuls, potentials, and sure things competing in different classes this weekend at Barbury International - it’s always interesting to see who thinks what is the best preparation for their horse; I don’t suppose any of us will really know until mid-September!
Samantha Clark donned her sun hat and sun cream for Saturday at Barbury where she caught up with Australian rider Christine Bates and China’s Alex Hua Tian – those interviews coming soon – as well as the man who won the first ever CIC3* run here in 2005, William Fox-Pitt
“You could hardly have guessed William was riding this weekend, as laid back as he seemed at the lunch break” says Sam “He wandered down to the show-jumping warm-up to help a few people, chatted to Christine Bates who he had asked to go and ride a horse in Australia that he was interested in buying, and then wandered up to the tents for lunch, waiting patiently to meet his guests”
“He spoke about still being inspired by riding talented horses, about getting emotional lately about happy things, and about really caring about the sport of eventing which is why he’s applying for the FEI Eventing Athlete Representative position. He also talked about the types of horses he likes, and although he seems so relaxed, he misses nothing, so he’d clocked almost every round of show-jumping that morning while he was riding his 2* horse and waiting to go in! As usual, I felt like I kept him talking way too long, but wish I could have asked him much more”
