British rider puts in only clears in time on Kentucky cross-country: ‘I tried to save a quarter of a second here and there’

Harry Meade put in the only two clear rounds inside the time over the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country course today. The British rider’s brilliant performances mean he has moved up from 17th after dressage to third on Mandy Gray and his own Et Hop Du Matz and from 18th to fourth with Amanda Gould’s Grafennacht.

After his second ride, Harry shared one of the tactics he used to put in such fast rounds: “I thought there was a repeat pattern at some of the fences where there was a sharp turn afterwards. For example, at the table before the Cosequin Cove water, I swung out onto fresh ground and then jumped that fence at 45 degrees back towards the direction of travel. I thought if I could save quarter of a second here and half second there, it would just eat back up to be inside the time.”

Harry’s first ride was the 11-year-old Et Hop Du Matz, who stormed round, taking all the direct routes.

“I’m thrilled with him,” said Harry. “I slightly boldly said he was probably the best cross-country horse I’ve ever sat on just before Maryland, where I fell off him and I felt a bit stupid, because he’s a sublime cross-country horse.

“He leaves the start box with a resting heart rate, a completely resting brain, and he is relaxed the whole way around, and he can read everything. He’s got time and he’s game and it’s all slow motion. He’s just cool, he’s rangey, he’s athletic.

“I said a couple years ago, I think he’s the best horse no one’s ever heard of, but I hoped he would come into his element. He’s still gangly and green and weak and I hope he’ll get better and better. And that took nothing out of him – he could have had two minutes longer on the course, or he could have had another six inches of rain in the last month, and it would have suited me even more.”

Harry said his only slight surprise was at the final water, the Cosequin Cove at fence 22abc, where he was planning to take six strides between the corgi in and the first triple brush arrowhead.

“I just saw a five and squeezed,” said Harry, who was then quite far off both triple brushes, but Et Hop Du Matz showed his scope and cleared them without any drama. “The only surprise for me was the scallop caught my foot in the air. That’s the nice thing about a good horse, they can take take off from a long way or a close spot, and both look fine.”

Harry Meade on Grafennacht: ‘She’s game and trusting’

Harry Meade set out at the end of the Kentucky Three-Day Event cross-country day on the former William Fox-Pitt ride Grafennacht, who he doesn’t know terribly well yet – they had a “good spin” around a CCI4*-L in Italy in March, where they won, but didn’t cross-country school before or after that as the ground was first too wet, then too firm.

“So I was actually coming in quite blind and still getting to know her a bit on the way round, and trying to adjust my riding to her,” he said.

Asked what he’s learnt about the mare today, he replied: “She’s a super game horse. She’s got a massive heart. She wouldn’t be the most sort of athletic, scopey horse that could fiddle if she was slightly wrong on a fence, but she’s very uncomplicated in her mind.

“The big thing for me was that she doesn’t like adding a stride. If she does, she hollows her back, drops her back, and slightly bundles through it. So it was just trying to keep galloping and standing her off everything. And I was really pleased with the ride she gave me through the Cosequin Cove water, because I took out a stride coming to the first brush, which then made the second one nice.

“That said, I did the opposite at the second water [the Rolex Crossing, 12abc] – she plopped into it. I spoke to William earlier today, and he said, ‘Just remember, she sort of plops into her water. She doesn’t jump generously out.’ And she did plop into that. So I just sat up and added a stride. But the great thing about cross-country riding is you can analyse these things, but a lot of it’s just reacting into the instincts in the moment. She’s a cool horse.”

Harry added that Grafennacht didn’t read the final angled brush element of the Care Credit Question at fence 6abc and he “sort of just held her to it, and she was very game and trusting”.

The mare also got a little close to the corner in the Defender Head of the Lake and twisted over it so he took a split second decision to take the long route out.

“I was trying not to chivvy her or harry her on the way round, but just to settle back into that good gallop, and just try, in a very un-interrupting way, to save quarter of a second at each fence,” he said.

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