Amelie Billard, the 18-year-old French girl who was European junior champion in 2001 and took team and individual silver medals at Pardubice this year, excelled at the Blenheim Petplan International Horse Trials yesterday.

She leads the dressage by 8.4 penalties on Derby de Longueval, overtaking Pippa Funnell and Viceroy in the process.

Darrell Scaife was third for Britain on Chase the Melody, with New Zealand's former world and Olympic whampion Blyth Tait fourth on Welton Envoy.

Dressage leaders (after 2nd day out of 3): 1 Derby de Longueval (A Billard, Fra) 33.6pens, 2 Viceroy II (P Funnell) 42, 3 Chase The Melody (D Scaife) 42.8, 4 Welton Envoy (B Tait, Nzl) 43, 5 Horton Who (M Kulak, USA) 43.2, 6 Doubtless William (E Mackenzie) 43.4.