Team Price eventers get ready for Badminton - and for the new Event Rider Masters competition
An urgent phonecall...On Thursday morning (April 28) at Mere Farm, up on the downs above Mildenhall, Jonelle Price was schooling Ringwood Sky Boy, the horse her husband Tim will be riding in next week's Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials (May 4-8). Tim was asleep in Lexington, USA - or maybe just waking for the first day of the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event and getting Bango ready for the dressage.
The season has been going for a couple of months - somewhat interrupted by sodden courses and cancellations. "Now", says Jonelle, "with Badminton we start six weeks on the trot" - six weeks of hard work, hard riding and a lot of travelling.
At Badminton she will be riding the thirteen-year-old mare Classic Moet - known as Molly - they are fresh from a competition win at Belton Park International: "She's in great form."
The new challenge this season is the introduction of the Event Rider Masters (ERM) competition. This is a concerted effort to bring eventing into the twenty-first century, popularise it through television coverage, make it more exciting and provide bigger prize money.
The first of the six-leg competition is a fortnight away at the Dodson & Horrell Chatsworth International Horse Trials in Derbyshire (May 14 and 15.) Both Tim (currently at number three in the world rankings) and Jonelle (currently number 17) will be taking part.
The third leg of this ground-breaking competition will be at the St James's Place Barbury International Horse Trials (9-10 July) - up on the Marlborough Downs.
"It is", Jonelle told Marlborough.News, "slightly going away from the traditional sport as we know it. Eventing takes place at beautiful places, but it's stuck in the last century. This will target the television audience and make it more exciting."
The ERM cameramen have been at Mere Farm - and the result is the stylish Are You Ready?
Click on image to access promo
Warming to the prospect of ERM, she adds: "They're coming from a completely different angle - revolutionising the sport really. Television is the key thing."
Jonelle schooling Ringwood Sky BoyCompetitors will wear the same numbers throughout the competition: "That'll make it all easier to follow for new comers to the sport."
With just 40 riders (from ten nations) accepted for this new contest, the dressage will take place on day one, the show jumping in the morning of day two and the cross country in the afternoon of day two.
The bottom 20 competitors after the show jumping will ride the cross country stage in a randomly drawn order. But the top 20 will go in reverse order and the prize giving will take place at the finish line - none of that waiting around while they double check the figures and get everyone in the right place.
The ERM team have been brought together by Di Brunsden and five other people involved in the sport - and passionate about it. Di Brunsden is part-owner of Sir Mark Todd's horse Leonidas II and former director of JP Morgan.
Jonelle Price waits her dressage entry: how long will the top hat survive in the Event Rider Masters era?Also in the team is Alice Plunkett (of Channel 4 Racing) who is also Mrs Fox-Pitt - wife of champion British eventer William Fox-Pitt. They have tapped the business expertise of Christopher and Lisa Stone - Christopher Stone is an owner of event horses and CEO of Northgate Information Solutions.
The ERM team will be going hard to make a big impact on social media - building on the reputations of their top riders like William Fox-Pitt who has 60,000-plus Twitter followers and 50,000-plus Facebook fans.
Tim Price's challenge at Kentucky ended at the last obstacle in the cross country when he parted company with Bango. He had been at tenth place after the dressage. Next stop Badminton.
Badminton is the next stop too for Germany's Michael Jung. He won the Rolex Kentucky riding Fischerrocana FST - becoming only the second rider to win this four-star event on the same horse in consecutive years. He returned an uncatchable 13.3-point lead.
If Jung wins Badminton this week, he will become only the second rider to win the lucrative Rolex Grand Slam with its $350,000 prize. Britain's Pippa Funnell is the only previous winner of the Grand Slam, - in 2002-03.
FOOTNOTE: Jonelle says that Wesko has started his rehabilitation from the injury that took him out of contention for Rio: "He will be back next year." Wesko has had three top placings in four-star competitions.
His injury is a blow for the New Zealand Olympic team. Last month Tim Price told Eventing Nation: "I think Wesko has Rio written all over him. I've felt it since he sort of came of age. He's proved himself at the four-star level and is finding that job easier." He said then his number two horse for Rio would be Bango.