BARBURY HORSE TRIALS: Performances a very satisfying weekend’s work for Kitty (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

BARBURY HORSE TRIALS: Performances a very satisfying weekend’s work for Kitty

12:30pm Friday 6th July 2012 in Wiltshire Sport

LOWER Stanton St Quintin rider Kitty King is celebrating after two memorable performances from two young horses at Barbury.

The 29-year-old won the CIC two-star section B on Persimmon before finishing a respectable eighth in the main three-star event on Zidante.

King led from the front on seven-year-old gelding Persimmon in the two-star after the dressage, adding clear showjumping and cross country rounds to finish with 41.3 penalties, beating Australian Paul Tapner and British Olympic riders Piggy French, Zara Phillips and William Fox-Pitt.

“He’s only a young horse and that will be the toughest track he’s ever done,” said the Wiltshire rider.

“He was absolutely fantastic in the dressage and did two perfect jumping rounds.

“We led from the front and beat all of the Oympic horses – that was rather nice and the owners (Jane Murfett and Franks Inns) got a bit excited by that.”

King and eight-year-old mare Zidante were the overnight leaders in the three-star dressage after day one with a score of 43.6, which only went on to be beaten by American Boyd Martin, New Zealander Jonathan Paget and eventual winner Andrew Nicholson.

The pair eventually finished with 54.4 penalties and King added: “I was absolutely thrilled with her because she is a young horse for this level of competition and she coped with the atmosphere fantastically well.

“She did a good test on Thursday and was leading right through until Friday lunchtime but couldn’t quite hang in there.

“She jumped beautifully on Saturday and actually had a first showjump down for the whole season – she’s jumped clear every time and that was a real shame but she gave me a great ride in the cross country and was pretty much foot perfect.”