European Championship individual bronze medallist, Sarah Bullimore has enjoyed another superb week aboard her 11-year old mount, Corouet as she landed second place at the world famous dressage event at the Burghley Horse Trials.
Bullimore and Corouet earned a fantastic 22.5 in their dressage test to edge out Piggy March on Vanir Kamira for top spot on the first day.
Come the second day however, New Zealand’s Tim Price pipped them to first place aboard Vitali to leave Sarah and Corouet in second.
Bullimore suffered a fall on Monday that left her knee badly bruised, but the pair showed little sign of pain when in the arena, with the 49-year old visibly delighted with their performance.
“He’s a little superstar”
“He was amazing. He really listened, he was really onside and actually looked after me.
“We’ve not come here in the best state to perform but he was great in there and that was probably the best test we’ve performed all year.
“He’s been a little bit tricky this year, he thinks I’m a bit of a hindrance at the best of times, so with a dodgy knee as well I think he thought I’ll just carry her.
“There’s still more in there, we’ve got better dressage scores at 4 star level and we can easily reproduce that at 5 star.
“We had a couple of silly little mistakes that still could be better but on the whole, I am over the moon with him – he’s a little superstar.”
By Bullimore’s own admission, Corouet has “little man syndrome” and is a dominant character but was highly complimentary as she felt the 11-year old looked after her through her injury.
The Burghley Horse Trials are world famous in the equestrian world, with Bullimore beating the likes of Pippa Funnell and even royalty, in the form of Zara Tindell in the dressage event.
The dressage continues today with the challenging cross-country stage up next for Bullimore on Saturday.
The final placings are decided after the show jumping event on Sunday with the penalties for all three disciplines tallied up, with the lowest number of penalties gaining first place.
