Tuesday, 18 February 2020
Sonnar Murray-Brown might have spent much of last season side-lined with a broken leg, but his 2020 season has been off to a flying start. Following a strong result at Addington in January, where he and his own Erlentanz finished runners-up behind Charlotte Dujardin, this week the pair headed to Le Mans in France. They topped the CDI3* Grand Prix class with a score of 73.652%.
Joining Sonnar and Erlentanz in France were Gareth Hughes with the Kroll family’s KK Woodstock, and Laura Tomlinson with Ursula and Wilfred Bechtolsheimer’s Rose of Bavaria. They finished fourth and fifth in the Grand Prix respectively.
Come the Grand Prix Special, it was Laura and Rose of Bavaria who came top of the class with a score of 74.340%. Sonnar and Erlentanz joined them on the podium in third with 71.532%, while Gareth and KK Woodstock again finished in fourth with 70.851%.
An all-female team made up of Amanda Derbyshire with Gochman Sport Horses and her own Cornwall BH, Emily Moffitt with Poden Farms’ Winning Good, and Alexandra Thornton with Dunwalke Ltd’s Cornetto K, contested the FEI Jumping Nations Cup leg in Wellington, Florida on Sunday.
An excellent first-round saw the British tie with the home side, causing the teams to go into a jump-off for the title. Strong performances from all riders took the contest right down to the wire – a clear round and fast time from Beezie Madden (USA) left Alexandra Thornton (GBR) racing the clock. Despite Alexandra also jumping clear, she was fractionally slower than Beezie and the USA topped the podium. It was still a fantastic showing for the British team, showing the strength in our World Class riders – all of whom will be hoping to catch the selectors’ eyes in
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