IRELAND’s Fred Scala (right) finished an excellent sixth place in the CCI-S4* at Barbury International Horse Trials last weekend.

Riding his own 10-year-old Ars Vivendi-sired Irish Sport Horse Corriebeg Vivendi, who was debuting at this level, Scala finished behind a star studded top five which included winner and ‘king’ of Barbury Andrew Nicholson, Alexander Bragg, Zara Tindall and Pippa Funnell.

Scala opened with a dressage mark of 36.0 and added only 1.2 time penalties in the show jumping arena. No combination got inside the time allowed of 6.36 mintues, but Scala was fault free across the country to add just 9.2 time penalties and rise to sixth place.

New Zealand’s Andrew Nicholson regained his crown, making it the sixth time he has won at this level at Barbury. It was, however, his first time winning the class with Paul and Disy Ridgeon’s 11-year-old Chillout-sired Irish Sport Horse Swallow Springs.

They finished on the winning score of 33.8.

“I love coming here. I like to support my local event. Swallow Springs has always been a very good horse, but he likes to look about – you can be coming to a difficult fence and his mind is on the bar or getting an ice-cream. Now, though, he’s very focused – he’s starting to feel like Avebury [four-time winner at Barbury].”

Twenty-one-year-old Mollie Summerland finished second with Charly van ter Heiden. She was leading overnight after an excellent dressage score of 33.8 but a show jumping fence down and 7.2 time penalties across country saw her finish on 35.0.

Britain’s Alex Bragg finished third with Hester (43.4), ahead of Zara Tindall in fourth with Watkins.

Tindall rose more than 30 places with the fastest time of the day, just five seconds over the optimum time. She finished on the same score as Pippa Funnell, riding MGH Grafton Street, but Tindall’s cross-country speed gave her the advantage.

Austin O’Connor won Friday’s Open Novice section riding Calvin II. O’Connor took over the ride on the nine-year-old at the end of April this year, and already had a win and a runner up spot on their joint card.

He narrowly pipped Wiltshire’s very own eventing world ranked number one rider Tim Price (NZL) to the post. Tim settling for second place on Happy Boy, who was having a non-pressured run after moving up to intermediate level earlier in the season.