Norfolk's Piggy French insisted she would be looking on the bright side of life despite a tricky May continuing at the Chatsworth International Horse Trials last weekend.

Norfolk's Piggy French insisted she would be looking on the bright side of life despite a tricky May continuing at the Chatsworth International Horse Trials last weekend.

French arrived in the Peak District looking to consign a poor display at Badminton earlier this month to the history books but her preparations were once again left in tatters as she was eliminated at the cross country stage.

And after a solid if unspectacular dressage round and an impressive cross country performance, the European silver medallist looked to be well on the way to banishing those Gloucestershire woes.

But French, who hails from North Elmham, elected to withdraw from the competition ahead of the third and final event - the show jumping - and could therefore, only watch on as Aussie Sam Griffiths took the title in the Derbyshire sunshine.

But despite missing out on her chance to ruffle some feathers at the front of the field, French was adamant there were more than a few positives for her, and horse Some Day Soon to take from the weekend.

'Some Day Soon was a little wild in the dressage which made it a little bit difficult,' said French - who took individual silver at the European Eventing Championships in Fontainebleau in France last year.

'But then he came back a lot better in the cross country which was great because it was quite a hard course.'

While French was on the sidelines Aussie Griffiths produced a perfect show jumping round to take the Chatsworth title - which doubles up as the fifth leg of the HSBC FEI World Cup Series.

French now faces a tough battle to win over the GB selectors in time to get the nod for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in September.

But while fellow Brits Lucy Wiegersma and Fiona Hobby strengthened their Kentucky chances by completing the podium in Derbyshire French insisted she wouldn't be pushing the panic button.

'I am trying to bring Some Day Soon on and get it used to some of the bigger events like Chatsworth,' added French.

t HSBC is a platinum sponsor of the FEI - the highest level of sponsorship within the organisation. This is the third year of HSBC sponsorship of the HSBC FEI Classics and HSBC FEI World Cup.