Wesko's back! In France Tim Price and Wesko take second place at fifth Event Rider Masters leg
Tim Price (right) takes second place in ERM fifth leg (Photo copyright Anna Franklin/Event Rider Masters)Fifteen year-old eventing star Wesko is back to top competitive form with a vengeance - after more than two years out following an injury - with a brilliant dressage score and no show jumping or cross country faults in a top international competition.
With New Zealand eventer Tim Price aboard Wesko again, they took second place at the fifth leg of the 2018 Event Rider Masters (ERM) ncompetition held at Haras de Jardy in France.
Finishing on their dressage score, Tim Price and Wesko were 1.6 points behind the winners Alexander Bragg and Zagreb and 0.7 ahead of another British rider, third placed Izzy Talylor on Be Touchable. This puts Tim Price in third place on the ERM series leader board.
Wesko & Tim Price at Luhmuhlen 2014 (Photo courtesy LuDa-Stock)Haras de Jardy is renowned for its tricky show jumping course - there were just eleven clear rounds from the 36 competitors. And the three-star cross country course saw six drop out and only eight of those completing the course finishing inside the allowed time.
Marlborough based Tim Price and Wesko completed three competitions in June - with excellent dressage scores, but with bags full of cross country time faults. Tim was obviously letting Wesko - who he calls his 'best friend' - get used to cross country again and at a slow pace.
As one of Wesko's fans tweeted after the Haras de Jardy result: "Soooo good, #Wesko looks like he’s never been out of the game...He’s a horse who likes to finish on his dressage score - that’s for sure."
Safely on the podium after the cross country, Tim Price told the ERM television broadcast: “I’ll take that!...I don’t think I’ve had another one like him, it’s so much fun having him back. You don’t know until you know when you bring a horse like him back out at the top levels, but I guess now I know. It all came flooding back out there – he is just so much fun.”
In April 2016 Wesko suffered a 'significant' soft tissue injury which meant he missed the Rio Olympics and put him out of action for the rest of that season. He took longer than expected to recover.
Tim Price won the Tattersalls 3* and the Luhmuhlen 4* events on Wesko in 2014. And in 2015 Wesko was named British Eventing's Horse of the Year.
The 2018 Event Rider Masters series finishes in Scotland at the Land Rover Blair Castle International Horse Trials over the weekend of 25-26 August.