‘She’s just my little horse I bought off Facebook’: rider making her Badminton comeback after 10 years slots into top three

The USA have enjoyed a strong start to the Mars Badminton Horse Trials dressage today (9 May). At the end of the first day’s dressage, Boyd Martin currently holds second aboard Tsetserleg TSF on 29, while compatriot Tiana Coudray has slotted into third on 29.8, thanks to a polished test aboard Cancaras Girl.

“I cannot believe it – it’s making me cry,” an emotional Tiana, 35, said. “She is not a natural dressage horse and we’ve worked so hard. The team that has helped me has been just vast and relentless and unbelievable.”

Tiana explained that Cancaras Girl, a 14-year-old mare she co-owns with Jatial Ltd, wasn’t showing promise of this sort of score prior before entering the main arena.

“Three minutes before going in the ring, she was melting down and I thought there’s no hope, but she was so good in there – so brave and tried in every single movement.

“She’s just my little horse I bought off Facebook. She was supposed to do a couple of novice events and then be sold to a kid, but here she is and this is way more than we ever could have believed.”

Tiana says the reason she bought his mare in the first place was due to “her heart and brain”.

“It was definitely not for her movement – she’s not built for the first phase and her body finds it quite difficult to be loose, supple or have any kind of cadence or swing –any of those things that you kind of need for dressage.

“Having said that, she’s so trainable and I love her – she’s such a good girl to work with every day. She’s 14 now and starting to get where correct training is supposed to get you, so it’s really rewarding. She’s definitely not got here on natural ability, but there’s been huge work from trainers, physios and massage and acupuncture and strengthening exercises, plus my team of vets have been incredible – it’s an unbelievable group of people that have got her here and not me.”

This is a first Badminton in 10 years for Tiana, who completed in the top 25 here twice aboard Ringwood Magister in 2013 and 2014.

“I’m so excited to be here. I was very  lucky I had the opportunity to go around Badminton twice, but it was 10 years ago and it’s taken us a long time to get a horse back here,” stated Tiana. “I was so fortunate and young in my career to have an amazing horse that I got as a four-year-old and he happened to be my superstar that took me all the way – then I grew up and life got real.”

Tiana says that her business has been “buying and selling horses”.

“I’ve had some beautiful horses through my yard, but they’ve been sold on because that’s what we had to do.

“To be entirely honest, I’m so grateful that Cancaras Girl didn’t move that well as a youngster, because she would have been worth a lot of money and sold. So actually, the fact that she was just a little bit ordinary meant that I could keep her and that is why she’s my first horse back at this level after all those years.”

Badminton Horse Trials dressage: results at the end of day one

Bubby Upton will hold the lead aboard Cola on 27.3 going into the second day of Badminton Horse Trials dressage, while Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg TSF are second on 29. Below Tiana in third, Georgie Goss on Feloupe and William Fox-Pitt on Grafennacht hold equal fourth on 30.6.

Badminton first-timer Max Warburton is fifth with Monbeg Exclusive on 31.7, while Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and Cartania are seventh with 32.6. Rounding out the top 10, Tom Jackson (Farndon) is eighth on 33, the USA’s Cosby Green (Copper Beach) is ninth on 33.7 and David Doel (Galileo Nieuwmoed) is 10th on 33.9.

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