Team GBR's Townend, Canter and Wilson dominate 3 long day at the Lincolnshire Showground, praised for its fantastic ground and interesting courses, which certainly caught a few riders out.

Imogen Murray on her way to 5th in the ON with I've Dun Talking and 6th in the Novice with Roheryn Ruby (pictured)

Plenty of praised has been lavished upon the Lincolnshire Horse Trials, held on the Lincolnshire Showground and organised by the Bishop Burton College team, this weekend, with both officials and riders keen to praise the fantastic ground and innovative courses.

Lincoln certainly proved to be an event for multiple winners with yet again British Eventing leading rider Oliver Townend producing 4 wins, plus a 3rd and two 4th's.  It was a hat-rick of Open Intermediate wins with Ballaghmor Class (29.9), ODT Chareeb (29.2) and Cooley SRS (35.9), plus an Intermediate win for Ececheira on 32.5.  With the Intermediate time proving elusive for most Oliver displayed a masterclass in cross country riding to finish inside the time on Samuel Thomas II, who finished 4th in section T.

Kitty King and Ceylor L A N again displayed their Olympic and Team GBR star quality with an Advanced-Intermediate win on 29.1, being one of only a few to make it home inside the time and finishing 6.7 penalties ahead of the field.  A great start to the season for the Olympic duo, following up from their 2nd place finish at Tweseldown's season opener.

The Intermediate wasn't all plain sailing as we hear, from our voice on the ground, that a number of riders sailed straight past fence 16...we'll spare those rider's blushes though.

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Local rider and Nations Cup team member Ros Canter had a spectacular time at what would be considered her local event.  It was 4 wins for Canter (BE100 - DHI Jura, ON - Shannondale Sure, ON - Monarchs Little Imp, Int - Las Vegas 200) out of her 11 rides across the weekend, with a further 3 finishing in the placings.

Ros commented:

"I have had a great time at Lincoln. Despite the wind, the horses have all performed well and 4 wins is a bonus! Las Vegas thoroughly deserves his Intermediate win as he has really improved on the flat over the winter and has always been a fantastic jumper. Shannondale Sue and Monarchs Little Imp had a great time yesterday and they now move up a level at Weston Park.  DHI Jura was great to win at his first run this year. He only has one eye which can really affect him so it was great that he ran so well. The courses were perfect for the time of year and rode beautifully, and the show jumping was testing but it's always a treat to ride in the lovely arena!"

​Senior Team GBR stalwart Nicola Wilson produced a clutch of BE100 wins, with all three horses finishing on their sub 30 dressage scores - Cooley Conker took section A on 26.5, All We Need section B on 28.5 and Elite Jaguar section D on 29.8.  Wilson also produced two near perfect cross country rounds in the Novice to finish 6th with JL Dublin and 8th with Shannonview Glory.

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Great days were also had by Pippa Dixon who produced a 2nd in the BE100 with Eto O, finishing just 1 second over the optimum time to add 0.4 to their 27.3 dressage to finish on 27.7.  Pippa also produced a 3rd place in the 100 section on Balou M, finishing on 27.8, with just 0.5 marks splitting the top 3 placings.

Pippa commented:

"All the ponies were fab!! The 4 o'clock start was most definitely worth it!...especially pleased with Balou M's first outing in a year after injury!"

It was a 5th and 6th for 'one to watch' Imogen Murray in the Open Novice with I've Dun Talking and the Novice with Roheryn Ruby, following on from their 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finish at Oasby last weekend.

"I really enjoyed Lincoln and the going on Saturday was perfect with all 3 of my rides really benefitting from the educational tracks. I've Dun Talking is only a 7yr pony(14.2) but her 5th place in the Open Novice was her 11th top ten placing at that level. Really pleasing was Fran Reeve's Roheryn Ruby who led the dressage again and has really benefitted from the UK Sport World Class Programme's training."

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