AMERICA's David O'Connor and the Irish export Custom Made, third last year, share the lead with Swedish girl Linda Algotsson, 10 years O'Connor's junior, after the first day of dressage in the Badminton Horse Trials.
The new test ant high winds combined to produce conditions that were certainly not conducive to producing obedient flat work from a super fit horse.
O'Connor and the 12-year-old Bassompierre gelding Custom Made, which was originally produced in Ireland by Aaron Mannion, had held a .2 penalty advantage going into the cross-country 12 months ago, but dropped to second on the Saturday with a fractional time fault and then fell a further place with a fence down in the show jumping.
Algotsson, from Kalmar in eastern Sweden, is making her Badminton debut, but is certainly not in awe of the world's biggest three-day event and plans to take all the direct routes around tomorrow's cross-country. But the maths teacher, who mocks out 15 stables and rides four horses after school each day, is more concerned about Sunday's show jumping as her Swedish-bred Lafayett is not strong in this phase and dropped from overnight first to 10th in Luhmuhlen last year with a series of mistakes.
Algotsson's compatriot, Therese Olausson, is in seventh place, divided from her fellow Swede by British girls Paddy Muir and Daisy Dick, Australia's double Olympic gold medallist Andrew Hoy and Bermuda's Tim Collins.
Unfortunately, the rigours of the new test did not suit either of the two Irish runners that performed yesterday, with Duneight Carnival's work for David Foster marred virtually throughout by tension to leave him second last on a mark of 75.6, a depressing 27 points off the leaders.
Virginia McGrath was also disappointed with her score of 70.2, but The Yellow Earl was overbent for most of the test and failed to display the paces of which he is undoubtedly capable.
But both Foster and McGrath plan to make amends with speedy cross-country rounds tomorrow and Foster, knowing that a high placing has already slipped his grasp, expressed his determination to complete the jumping phases without further addition to his score.
Today's dressage timetable includes defending champion Mark Todd, this year teamed up with the grey Kayem, which was withdrawn before the start of the Olympic three-day event in Atlanta after pulling a shoulder muscle in a final bit of fast work. The New Zealander's 1996 winner Bertie Blunt was pulled out of the Badminton start list last month after a flare-up of the leg injury that caused his withdrawal before the final horse inspection in Burghley last year.
The remaining Irish trio will also be performing today, with Alfie Buller and Sir Knight due into the arena at 9.46, followed two horses later by Lucy Thompson and Welton Molecule, a half brother of the mare Welton Romance that carried Thompson to the individual gold at the 1995 European championships. Erie Smiley and his Olympic ride Enterprise are last of the Irish into the arena just after the lunchbreak.
