On dressage: “He [Anderoo] just went in there and got tense. He’s been doing the best he’s ever done leading up to Burghley, but he just went in the ring and got tense. He knows the test so well that he anticipates everything. But it’s out of the way!”, best he ever has leading up to B, went in ring and got tense, knows test to well anticipates everything, was not good. But it is out of the way!”
On the cross-country course: “It’s definitely BIG! Mike Tucker did it this year. It gets quite big on the second half. This is my first time at Burghley. Of course, you always have to respect every course, but it is not as technical as the Olympics. But there is still plenty to do! It’s a big, “gallop-y” course, quite hilly, and it turns back on itself quite a bit.
“The jumps in the arena are quite technical. You come in from one corner, turn back on yourself, in a hairpin turn, and then jump the rosette fence, which is usually the last fence. When you land, you turn to the right quite quickly and get on the line for two roll-tops that you jump on an angle in one stride. It looks pretty tough. You really need to keep their attention in the arena.
“The whole way around, something can happen at every jump.
“At the eight- or nine-minute mark (the optimum time is 12:15), at the straightaway at the Dairy Mound, you come up to a brush, vertical but a bit tall. You land, one stride, then down two steps, a bending two strides to a narrow brush oxer. Then after that, a big old ditch and brush.
“They have a huge steeplechase fence called the Pardubice after that.”
On Foot and Mouth Disease precautions: “Whenever you come into the stabling area, the cars run over something that disinfects the tires, and then you get out and walk across these mats to disinfect your shoes or boots. When we got here, the horses also had to walk over something.”
Editor’s note: Watch for Linden’s report following cross-country Saturday afternoon.
