EMILY King stormed into second place at the end of the Badminton Horse Trials dressage session.

The youngest rider in the field and the daughter of 1992 winner, Mary King, delivered a supremely cool and polished performance that belied her 20 years and earned her a score of 36.8 on Jane Del Missier’s Brookleigh.

“I was really pleased with how he went in there. He warmed up beautifully and didn’t change when he went into the arena, which is what you want,” said Emily, who paid credit to her trainers, Kyra Kyrkland and Ferdi Eilberg, for her performance. “Hopefully they will be proud of my test.”

German sensation Michael Jung, bidding to win the Rolex Grand Slam, remains rooted at the head of the field on La Biosthetique-Sam FBW on a score of 34.4, while his fellow countryman Andreas Ostholt (So Is Et) dropped to third.

Meanwhile, Zara Tindall made a solid return to four-star eventing.

Former world champion Tindall posted a score of 48.0 penalties on High Kingdom that put them inside the leaderboard’s top 20, before dropping to 36th by the end of the day.

High Kingdom missed almost all of last season after suffering a freak stable accident just before dressage at the Rolex Kentucky event in America.

It means the horse has still to secure Olympic qualification to be in the selection frame ahead of Rio this summer, although that should be achieved at Badminton if Tindall and High Kingdom go anywhere near their usual level of performance “He was a little bit jolly in there, but it is better to be that way,” Tindall, The Queen’s granddaughter, said.

“He hasn’t been in a proper arena for a year, so I am pleased with him. Some of his work was really good.

“There are bits we have got to work on, and he was a little bit fresher than he normally probably is, but you just have got to deal with what you get and make sure everything is accurate. Now, he can go and do the fun bit.”

Saturday’s cross-country course will, as always at Badminton, go a considerable way to shaping the battle for top 10 finishes 24 hours later.