She may have picked up a British accent, but she’s definitely an American and now Tiana Coudray is standing second with 28.1 penalties on Cancaras Girl at England’s prestigious MARS Badminton 5-Star event.
The leader after the first day of dressage on Thursday, she was moved back after that segment concluded on Friday by the four-time 5-star winner, Great Britain’s Lordships Graffalo and Ros Canter, who gave birth to a daughter less than four months ago.
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo
The defending champion is on to of the standings with 23.7 penalties, 4.4 ahead of Tiana.
A member of the U.S. team at the 2012 London Olympics, Tiana came to England and never left, but still rides under the U.S. flag.
Of her16-year-old Holsteiner mare’s test, she said, “It started a little bit rocky. She was a bit shy and making a few little mistakes. We threw a point away here and threw a point away there.”
On the other hand, “the quality throughout was really good. When she does a clean test, there will be a lot more again,” Tiana believes.
A bright spot was a mark of 9 for a flying change.
“She’s always had phenomenal changes,” said Tiana, who bought the mare from Scotland because she seemed like a prospect for a “cute junior horse.”.
Calling the mare “an absolute darling,” Tiana noted, “She really struggled with the dressage. She was never flashy on the flat. She wasn’t worth a huge amount of money,” so the decision was made to keep her.
“I’m just so grateful that the universe made that happen. I had a long spell of not having horses at the top level. She’s the one that got me back out here. It’s been a long, long process developing her,” Tiana revealed.
“She just proves that if you keep chipping away and you train them well, they can keep growing and growing.”
Just 0.5 penalties behind Tiana is Belgium’s Lara de Liederkerke on Hooney D’Arville with 28.6, 0.1 ahead of 2025 Maryland 5-Star winner Felix Vogg of Switzerland on Cartania.
The second-best U.S. result belongs to Grace Taylor, tied for fifteenth with Game Changer on 30.8 penalties.
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