Antonia Baumgart (3rd), Ruth Edge (winner) and Polly Stockton (second) at the Anderson Strathern CCI2*-S presentation
An Eventful Life filmed all competitors on cross country at
Floors Castle International Horse Trials - find out more here
Two well-known British riders, Ruth Edge and Polly Stockton, who have a mass of 4* (as they were known then) starts under their belts, battled it out in friendly rivalry for the CCI2*-S title at Floors Castle 2019 but ended up sharing the champagne
Ruth has in theory retired from eventing to focus on a career in pure dressage but maybe the talented young mare Invito II, winner of the Anderson Strathern CCI2*-S at Floors Castle, will tempt her back to high level eventing. Ruth bought Invito II as a three-year-old because “She wasn’t fazed at all by anything” at the Brightwells auction she bought her from “And that is exactly what she’s like”
The now six-year-old mare continues to be easy to ride and impressive in all three phases. They started with a dressage score of 24.80 to edge out the overnight leader, Norway’s Yasmin Olsson-Sanderson who finished in fourth place, and added just 0.4 time penalties on a relatively tough cross country course
Ruth Edge
Polly Stockton and Sir Alfred II
Ruth was literally and figuratively chased around the cross country course by her friend Polly Stockton, who took second place riding Chicko, a nine year old bay gelding who finished on his dressage score of 25.8
Polly was also riding Ballingowan Leia who finished in 15th place and Sir Alfred II who was coming off a win at Richmond (1) but unfortunately was one to find the water complex a bit tough, picking up 20 penalties there to put them out of the ribbons
Germany's Antonia Baumgart, last year's winner of this class took third place on Lamango (28.9), adding to the success of the young German riders here
As both Ruth and Polly have mentioned, the water complex was strong for this level, causing a few eliminations and penalties and keeping the spectators entertained
Even Izzy Taylor almost came unstuck here on Ballyfore Oh Man who tried to scramble on top of the carved leaping salmon instead of leaping over it. A lesser rider would have taken a ducking, but Izzy stuck tight, representing to jump it successfully the second time and Oliver Townend gave a masterclass on how to ride a young horse through it on Weston Goodfella
On the buckle for Oliver Townend and Weston Goodfella into the water
Yasmin Olsson-Sanderson and Inchello DHI finished in fourth place
Nicola Wilson and Mattie Clover, out of the same dam as Annie Clover, finished in sixth place
