Liz Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill By Night (Libby Law Photography)
Halliday-Sharp (East Sussex, England) had a smooth round with Deborah Halliday’s Fernhill by Night, incurring four time penalties. She wanted to have a positive ride with the 2003 Irish Sport Horse gelding heading into the final phase.
“‘Blackie’ jumped great! It’s the first time he has jumped anything this height since The Fork, so despite going the inside lines and doing my best to make the time, I just had some time faults because I maybe looked after him too much in the set up before the fences,” Halliday-Sharp explained. “It was really important to me to give him a good, confident round, though, and he jumped great and didn’t touch a thing.”
Coleman (Wiltshire, England) had a four-fault round with her own Longwood that moved her and the 2002 Irish Sport Horse gelding up 11 places following the dressage phase. They have a score of 61.7 to sit in 74th place.
Coudray (Hungerford, England) and Jatial, Inc’s Sambuca F added nine penalty points to their score to sit close behind Coleman in 78th place. They move into the cross-country phase on a score of 62.9.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s cross-country phase over Alec Lochore’s track, Halliday-Sharp said, “I think the cross-country course is tough; it’s very technical with lots of difficult skinnies and accuracy questions. I also think the time will be tight as it always is here. It will be a good test for ‘Blackie’ to see where we are with the technical questions. It will be a challenging course, but I think it should ride okay if we stay organized and focused.”
The competition will wrap up with Sunday’s cross-country phase beginning at 11:00 a.m. local time.
Find out more about the Houghton International Horse Trials CICO3* and view the results.
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