Hallington rider Ros Canter caps season with Pau top 10

Canter finished seventh among an elite international field at Pau with emerging stable star Zenshera.

The combination led after the first day of dressage with an excellent score of 39.7, and was second overall of the 69 starters after the second day of tests.

They were one of only two combinations to dip below the 40 mark and finished the first discipline just one point off the pace.

On Saturday they went clear around a highly-demanding 32-fence cross-country track, but slipped to sixth after picking up 11.6 time penalties, taking her score to 51.3.

“Zenshera has come here with great cross-country form and I’m disappointed I wasn’t quicker,” she said.

“I was a little bit protective at the beginning [of the course].”

The pair then had just one pole down in the show jumping finale - Zenshera’s weakest phase - to finish seventh with 55.3, the third-best overall score by a British rider.

It was also two places better than Zenshera’s four-star debut at Luhmuhlen, in Germany, in June this year.

“He wouldn’t have the best show jumping record and would have one down, particularly at this level and in this sort of environment, but he’s been mega this week,” said Ros.

It capped a great season for the 31-year-old and her exciting crop of horses, and she must have a spot in the British squad for the World Equestrian Games within her sights for next year.

With Allstar B, she completed her first Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in the spring, finishing as the leading Briton and highest-placed lady rider in fifth.

She then tackled Luhmuhlen with Zenshera, his first CCI4*, where they placed ninth.

And in the summer Ros had her first senior team call-up, winning team gold with Britain at the European Championships and recording another impressive individual result, with a fifth-place finish.