Monkeying Around fires a serious shot

Izzy Taylor scores in the highest level eventing class in Britain this year

- CATHERINE AUSTEN

Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market (3), Norfolk

IZZY TAYLOR achieved something at Burnham Market that no one else can do in 2020; she won a CCI4*-L on British soil. It might have been no-frills eventing, but she did it with style and certainty, adding nothing to her leading dressage mark of 23.2 on her own and Mark Sartori’s Monkeying Around.

The nine-year-old, who took the six-year-old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in 2017, is conspicuously talented but capricious. His performances here and at Burgham, where he was third in the CCI4*-S, show he is settling to the job.

“It’s very pleasing and exciting that one you’ve had high hopes for is really coming good,” said Izzy, for whom this was a fifth CCI4*-L success. “He’s a huge character who actually loves being good. He’s a very active-brained horse who is quite hard to keep happy and occupied at home; for a horse like him, lockdown was hard – like a schoolchild who is highly intelligent. He’s loved being here this week.”

There was a moment across country when Monkeying Around showed that he isn’t quite as confident in this phase as in the dressage and showjumping; Izzy said he didn’t quite read the final water complex and added a stride when coming out, but he never looked like taking the cheeky runout option he has resorted to a few times in the past.

“He is only nine and it’s easy to forget that when you’ve had them from the word go,” said Izzy. “He’s got a lot stronger; he’s quite a big horse now, which he definitely wasn’t when we bought him as a four-year-old.”