A lucky ending accured for Paul Tapner during the advanced cross-country at Aston-le-Walls. A riders worst nightmare became real when the bit of his horse snapped just before a fence. With his horse Bonza King of Rouges he was on his way to another win that day. But when reaching the end of the cross-country course the combination faced a few anxious moments when the bit snapped in two. “I was having a great ride — King puts a lot of effort into his cross-country,” the UK-based Australian rider told Horse&Hound. “It was going really well. We had a great dressage and showjumping. I was planning on winning, as I had already done in an earlier class." “King was getting very strong towards the end of the course. We went to make a turn to fence 20, a corner, but he didn’t turn and I had nothing in my hand [as the bit had broken]. We were going at a fair rate of knots so it was rather scary." While panicking for a moment with the thought that this would all going to end in a disaster, he managed to calm his horse down enough to make him stop. “You never know what will happen or how the horse will react. Some will panic and run blind. I thought he would do that to be honest."
A lucky ending accured for Paul Tapner during the advanced cross-country at Aston-le-Walls. A riders worst nightmare became real when the bit of his horse snapped just before a fence. With his horse Bonza King of Rouges he was on his way to another win that day. But when reaching the end of the cross-country course the combination faced a few anxious moments when the bit snapped in two. “I was having a great ride — King puts a lot of effort into his cross-country,” the UK-based Australian rider told Horse&Hound. “It was going really well. We had a great dressage and showjumping. I was planning on winning, as I had already done in an earlier class." “King was getting very strong towards the end of the course. We went to make a turn to fence 20, a corner, but he didn’t turn and I had nothing in my hand [as the bit had broken]. We were going at a fair rate of knots so it was rather scary." While panicking for a moment with the thought that this would all going to end in a disaster, he managed to calm his horse down enough to make him stop. “You never know what will happen or how the horse will react. Some will panic and run blind. I thought he would do that to be honest."