Canadian Olympian Rebecca Howard won took place against some of the world’s best international Eventing competitors at the CIC3* Barbury Castle International Horse Trials held July 4-7, in Wiltshire, GBR.
Howard, of Salmon Arm, BC, who currently lives and trains near Marlborough, GBR, was competing with her partner, 2012 Olympic Games and 2010 World Equestrian Games mount Riddle Master, the 12-year-old Canadian Sport Horse gelding sired by Rodero, owned and bred by Blithe Hill Farm of Orangeville, ON.
The pair started the competition by taking on 66 competitors in Friday’s Dressage phase earning 42.8 penalties putting them 10th heading into Show Jumping. Howard and Riddle Master went clear in show jumping taking on 3.2 time faults moving them up the scoreboard into eighth. But it was Sunday, the final day of competition, when the duo proved to be a force to be reckoned with. A foot perfect performance on the cross country course designed by Captain Mark Philips without any faults earned the pair a final score of 46.0, racing them up the leaderboard to third from eighth.
“Barbury was a beautiful event, and carried some great atmosphere for Rupert (Riddle Master) to practice in. I’ll continue to work on improving his dressage and finding the right formula for warm up to enable us to get the same quality of work in competition arena. He is affected by electric atmosphere, but he us getting better each time,” commented Howard. “He showed his experience on the cross-country making the difficult combinations early on the course, feel easy. Next up we’ll do either CIC 3* Haras du Pins, France or the CIC 3* Hartpury, GBR as final preparation for the CCI 4* Burghley Three Day Event , September 5-8 .”
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