15/10/2009 09:32:00

Halliday fifth with Baloo at British Eventing Young Horse Championships

Liz Halliday guided the inexperienced Baloo (Darola Diamond) to a fine fifth place finish in the Lycetts British Eventing Young Horse Championships this week.

The prestigious event for young horses took place at Tweseldown and in the 4 year old class which featured 28 horses that had made it through to the championships after finishing in the top two places in one of the qualifying events scattered throughout the year.

Baloo’s place was secured by winning his first-ever event at Firle Place in August and he impressed once again with a strong performance against stiff opposition. Lying seventh after Dressage with a score of 29.3, he had one rail down in the Show Jumping test before a perfect Cross Country round.

Dual sportswoman Halliday admitted that a final finishing position of fifth was hugely encouraging.

“He has the potential to be very, very good,” she said. “He only did one qualifier, and won it, and he wasn’t overawed in the finals. The British Eventing Young Horse Championships is a big occasion for a young horse, especially one as inexperienced as Baloo. He’s done very little eventing and I haven’t worked with him for long, so his performance was amazing.”

The previous weekend at the Pulborough Horse Trials, Halliday entered Ollie (Volien) in the Pre-Novice category and Vinny (Vincenzo), Newby (All Inclusive) and Wonder II in the Novice section, leaving with three top ten finishes and four strong performances.

Ollie, making her comeback following a short break, finished eighth in the Pre-Novice section, posting a 36 Dressage score and jumping a time fault-free double-clear in the Show Jumping and Cross Country.

Wonder II also finished eighth in the Novice section with an impressive 28.6 Dressage score and a double-clear, while Newby and Vinny were 10th and 12th after similarly positive showings.

“They all did really well and it was a good weekend’s work,” said Liz. “Vinny has never competed at Novice level before and Wonder has only seen that level of competition once, and not with me riding him. Pulborough is a good standard Novice course and a test for any horse, so I was more than happy with how well they performed.”

This weekend Halliday will return to Tweseldown where Ollie and Vinny are entered in the Novice category and Fox (Red Letter Day II) will compete in the Open Intermediate class.