Harry Meade, the world number one eventer, placed fourth in the five-star dressage at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event on April 23 with a score of 30.2 on Superstition. The 17-year-old horse delivered a polished performance after an unconventional preparation with no recent runs. Will Coleman holds the lead with debutant Diabolo.
Meade, riding his own and Mandy Gray's Superstition, praised the horse's accuracy and uphill frame after the test. “I was delighted with his way of going and his execution of every movement – he felt really polished, very accurate and had a nice, soft, uphill, open way of going,” Meade said. He noted the horse's fractious nature at competitions, explaining why he skipped prep runs since finishing sixth at Badminton last year. “It’s not what I would choose for every horse. But for me, it was the balance of what, actually, do the prep runs do for him and does the benefit outweigh the tension?” Meade added, highlighting Superstition's top-12 finishes at five five-stars before Kentucky's cross-country on Saturday. Young British rider Finn Healy, 21, competed in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S class as part of the Rising Lions initiative, scoring 35.8 on his own nine-year-old Greannanstown Monbeg Joe. “I was really chuffed with him – he’s still only a young horse, doing his second four-star test, and so to go into that arena on the first day of dressage is a big, big ask for him,” Healy said. The compact chestnut showed promise despite minor errors in the walk and canter transitions. Healy, who produced the horse from a four-year-old, described the Kentucky stadium experience as surreal and invaluable for gaining top-level exposure. Other Rising Lions riders, Isabelle Cook and Elizabeth Barratt, are set for their dressage tests on April 24.
