THE Stars and Stripes were riding high as American Kim Severson took the main honours in the SsangYong Blenheim International Horse Trials at Woodstock.

The former Olympic silver medallist, riding Cooley Cross Border, produced one of only nine clear rounds in the final show jumping stage to take the CCI*** class with 37.8 penalty points.

A close second was Laura Collet on Mr Bass on 40.4, while Julia Krajewski on Chipmunk FRH were third with 41.4.

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire’s Izzy Taylor rode a superb clear cross-country round under pressure to claim the seventh and last leg of the Event Rider Masters series.

It was an eighth international win this year for Taylor, 34, from Biceste.

“Be Touchable was magic in all three phases,” she said. “The pressure was certainly on. With this horse you have to go for it and you have to mean it and he has to be concentrating.

“I’ve been coming to Blenheim since I was a little girl doing the Pony Club show jumping and to win here has always been a dream.”