Veyga Puts Sharon In The Hunt

Sharon Hunt takes a section on a horse who could bring her back to the big time, while Oliver Townend scores a double victory

- Catherine Austen

“I HAVEN’T had a horse since Tankers Town as consistent as this one,” said Sharon Hunt after winning intermediate section F on her family’s Veyga.

Comparing the 12-year-old by Cevin Z to her Luhmühlen CCI4* winner and British team partner is high praise indeed, but Sharon thinks Veyga is a special one.

“He has got quite low mileage, despite his age — he breezed round his first advanced at Chatsworth double clear recently,” she said. “He’s now really established at everything; he’s diligent, very careful and always tries for you. I can really trust him.”

Sharon plans to take him to Blenheim for the CCI3*, via the CIC3* at Hartpury.

The pair led from the start in their section with a dressage of 25.2 and a clear round show jumping. Six cross-country time-faults left them 1.9 penalties in front of Mary Edmundson and DG Maradona.

Both jumping phases were influential — there were cricket scores and even eliminations in the show jumping, which Sharon described as “big, square and quite a long track”.

The cross-country course itself, designed by Charles Etherington-Smith, was fairly straightforward, but it twisted tightly round the early flat section and then ran up and down Upton’s banks, and just two riders in the intermediate classes made the time.