Equestrianism: Funnell has flying start as Rock rises to the big occasion

The conditions may have been different, but Pippa Funnell still achieved the same satisfactory start to the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials yesterday when she and last year's winner, Supreme Rock, held the lead at the conclusion of the dressage phase.

This time Funnell performed in drenching rain, but Rocky (who had been worryingly uncooperative as he warmed up outside the arena) rose to the occasion when it mattered most. The Briton holds the advantage over two other distinguished women riders – Bettina Hoy from Germany and Piia Pantsu from Finland – as they prepare to tackle the muddy cross-country course today.

Supreme Rock appears to relish the big occasion. "He couldn't be bothered when we were warming up," Funnell said, "but you can feel him lift up when he gets into the arena and that lifts me up as well." Though anxious that the ground could be wet and holding by the time this horse (who is her second ride) appears in his late draw, she would "rather be on Rocky than anything else."

Funnell overtook Hoy, who had produced one of her own inimitably elegant dressage tests when she rode Ringwood Cockatoo to take an earlier lead This will be the first four-star test for Ringwood Cockatoo, with whom Hoy finished second to her Australian husband, Andrew, at Luhmühlen in Germany last year. In the process she won the German eventing championship (for which Andrew, now lying fourth here on Moon Fleet, was ineligible because of his nationality) and so ended the pursuit of a title that she had been trying to win for 20 years.

Bettina Hoy was eliminated in a fall at the Vicarage Vee when she rode Unsung Hero here last year. "This time I had decided to take the long route there before I even looked at the fence," Hoy said. By general consensus the Vicarage Vee complex (fences 17 to 19) is more difficult than it was a year ago and there may be plenty of others taking the easier option, especially if more rain has fallen overnight.

According to William Fox-Pitt, now lying fifth on Tamarillo, "the only question now is how muddy it gets." Fox-Pitt concurs with the general view that The Vicarage Vee fences are the start of the most demanding section of the course. "You need a considerably bolder horse than last year," he said.

"There's no space for the faint-hearted to rekindle their enthusiasm over the fences that follow."

Riders were due to appeal to Hugh Thomas, director and course designer of the great event, to reduce the length of the preceding steeplechase course so that the overall endurance aspect will not be as demanding under the conditions. Whatever happens, Fox-Pitt believes that the competition will not be won on the dressage as he it sometimes has been in the past. Funnell was equally aware of the problems imposed by the rain. "We'll all have to ride with our heads and be very sensible," she said.

The excellence of Hoy's test yesterday was the undoing of New Zealander Blyth Tait and the highly strung Eze. Tait, a former world and Olympic champion, knew that the writing was on the wall for Eze as soon as he saw the draw – for the one thing more or less guaranteed to unsettle the 12-year-old was the noisy round of applause that was bound to follow Hoy's performance.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS BADMINTON HORSE TRIALS (Glos): Standings after dressage: 1 Supreme Rock (P Funnell, GB) 33.2 penalties; 2 Ringwood Cockatoo (B Hoy, Ger) 33.4; 3 Ypaja Kuruso (P Pantsu, Fin) 41.6; 4 Moon Fleet (A Hoy, Aus) 42.4; 5 Tamarillo (W Fox-Pitt, GB) 42.6; 6 Mr Smiffy (A Nicholson, NZ) 44.8; 7 Cornerman (P Funnell, GB) 45.6; 8 Dope Doux (E Sarasola, Sp) 47.2; 9 Over to You (J Brakewell, GB) 47.4; 10 The Psephologist (M-L Thomas, GB) 47.8.