Success in Italy and Vardags Saratoga's 3-day début

It has been a very busy few days for team Vardags, with success in both England and Italy!

Flora Harris and Vardags Saratoga tackled their first 3-day event together, competing in the CCI* at Hartpury International. The competition began with the first horse inspection, Sara trotted her way through with ease ready for the first phase. Sara proved all her and Flora’s hard work is paying off in the dressage with a beautiful test, scoring 31.1 and leaving the pair top twenty heading into the cross-country. The next morning, the team set out on their first CCI* cross-country run. Sara flew round the course, truly enjoying herself and proving once again the natural flair she has in this area. In the final phase, the show jumping, Sara was remarkably fresh given her fast round the day before. Sara jumped an immaculate clear climbing five places in the leader board and finishing top ten. An incredible result for her first competition at this level, this mare is improving all the time and we can’t wait to see what her future holds! Adding to this feat Flora then competed our lovely baby Vivendi de Vardag at Westwilts in the BE100 5YO class. Viva did a stunning dressage, followed by a perfect double clear in the show jumping and cross-country, gaining her best score to date. This little mare has so much talent and proved this by ending the day on 30.5 penalties, coming in sixth place!

Following her wonderful success last week in Italy, Helena flew back to Britain switching her focus back to eventing. Competing on not one but two of her horses, Helena had a busy day! On her first ride, Vardags Bucephalus, Helena had a lot to handle in the dressage. Cephy was extremely fresh and Helena had to ride all her skill to finish on a respectable 40.5 penalties. In the show jumping and then the cross-country Cephy settled down with the pair jumping a flawless round in the last phase and finishing in the top 20. On her second ride Noble Nutteler, the competition began with a stunning dressage test with Nutty performing some truly stunning movements, finishing on a competitive 35.5. Again, Nutty performed very well in the following two phases, but a momentary loss on concentration on the cross-country resulted in a frustrating 20 penalties.

Over in Italy, Sara Battista had a brilliant result with Black Honey in the 130m CSI** on the Rivera Sun Tour, coming 3rd place and jumping a terrific round. The pair are on spectacular form at the moment! Our other exciting news is that our beautiful Dona Isabella de Vardag’s foal is now being carried via surrogate by Vardags Silmarillia. We are incredibly excited to meet are youngest Vardag, whose father is the world top five show jumping stallion, For Pleasure! Finally, we would like to say a huge congratulations to Flora Harris, Bayano and the whole team on being selected to represent Great Britain at the upcoming Nations cup at Millstreet in Ireland, we’ll be cheering you on the whole way!