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Harry Meade believes he has what it takes to win the Badminton Horse Trials one day after improving for the third consecutive year to finish 13th.

The 24-year-old West Littleton rider scooped £5,000 in prize money after a super event on Midnight Dazzler.

His was the best local performance at Badminton and afterwards he declared the event the most difficult in ten years.

That looked to be the case with top names such as triple Olympic champion and 2006 winner Andrew Hoy, Andrew Nicholson, and Pippa Funnell and Mary King, who have won Badminton five times between them, all going out on the cross country course.

Meade feels his time will come. He said: "This is my fifth ride round here and each year you want to come back a little bit stronger, which I have managed to do so far.

"For an 18-year-old horse to come out so strong on the Sunday, I was really pleased with that.

"You just hope it's the right year and the right horse, and you go for it. I wanted to improve on last year's 20th place so I was pleased with 13th.

"If I keep improving year on year hopefully one day I'll get that first place."

Meade says he will be overlooked for the Great Britain team for the next Olympics but he hopes to represent his country on the biggest stage sometime in the future.

"My top horse at Badminton, Dazzler, is 18 this time so he's not going to be considered for Olympic selection," he said.

"But it's a matter of just plugging away and hopefully sooner or later you're there with the right horse at the right time.

"They tend to select you rather than you going out and saying right, I want to be selected now', and hopefully it will happen to me."

Meade was impressed by the performances of Wiltshire's riders at Badminton and he feels there is a lot of talent in the county.

"I see all the local riders virtually on a daily basis and there's a lot good international competitors," he said.

"And it's not just British riders, you've got Australians, New Zealan-ders, Americans and Germans all based in Wiltshire and Gloucester-shire. It's a very horsy part of the country and there's been some good performances here.

"It was such a difficult course but problems were spread out and the going was so much better than last year," said Meade, who had 5.6 time penalties.

"The organisers had done a good job but the course rode faster in the morning and Midnight Dazzler went late afternoon, when the going was that bit more holding."

Two down in the show jumping phase cost the pair a possible top six finish but clear rounds were few and fair between on the final day.

Meade's second ride Birthday Night had a stop at the Hexagon Hedge, fence 15 on the 29-fence cross country course, and finished 31st overall.

"Birthday Night was only just over 11 seconds over the optimum time despite the stop," Meade added.

"The fence was at quite an angle and he just backed off a bit and lost impulsion - he went on to finish well."

Both horses will now have a break and come back for the British Open Champion-ship at Gatcombe in early August, with another crack at the four star Burghley event in Lincolnshire on the cards this autumn.

10:10am Thursday 8th May 2008

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