Winning Start to the Season for Mark Todd

Mark Todd continued the new season in strong form with two wins and two places at the Lincolnshire One Day Event over the weekend.

All four horses were competing in the Open Intermediate class with NZB Land Vision and NZB Regent Lad winning their sections with dressage scores of 25.5 and 25.0 respectively followed by brilliant double clears.

Hot on the heels of NZB Land Vision was his stablemate NZB Grass Valley, who competed in the same section, with a dressage score of 29.1 and two clear rounds bringing him home for third. 

Making it four double clears, NZB Campino finished on a total of 31.4 points which saw him just beaten by Burghley winner, and fellow New Zealander, Caroline Powell on Lenamore.

The previous weekend at Tweseldown saw Mark finish second on NZB Land Vision and sixth on NZB Grass Valley in two very competitive Open Intermediate sections. An impressive result for these two Badminton-bound mounts who were both having their first runs of the season.

Badminton, where Mark first gained notoriety in the 1990s by riding around most of the cross country course with only one stirrup, kicks off on April 21, while the next event in Mark's build up to Badminton is the Belton International Horse Trials commencing on April 1.

New Zealand Bloodstock Ltd, who sponsored Mark's campaign to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, continues to support him in his next Olympic quest for the Games in London 2012.