Harry Meade and Cavalier Crystal. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Over the last couple of days at Defender Burghley, one of the most prominent narrative arcs has been the better-than-expected performance of many horses who haven’t necessarily shone previously in the first phase – and, too, the slight underachievement on the scoreboard of horses who can ordinarily be relied upon to deliver better and better marks.
For a not insignificant chunk of today’s cross-country action, it felt like the story was about to shift to something even more unexpected: a rough day in the office for those horses most hotly tipped as cross-country specialists, while some unexpected stars found themselves on the rise.
Much has always been made (and rightly so!) about the rare breed that is the true Burghley horse. It’s a horse who’s careful, but not so careful that it loses energy by overjumping or frightens itself; who’s clever enough to figure its way out of a sticky situation; who’s quick across the ground but also quick to find a fifth leg; who’s got massive lungs to gallop up and up and up without hitting its limit and, perhaps most importantly of all, has a heart as huge as the course is long. Not every top event horse can, or should, do Burghley. Even fewer will find themselves besting the track, or, indeed, the clock.
This year’s field has been tipped by our pals at EquiRatings as being the strongest on record, packed with the sort of horses who’ve made themselves generational icons by embodying all of the above qualities. But this year’s course, cleverly architected by Derek diGrazia, is also arguably one of the strongest we’ve seen at Burghley. We won’t wax lyrical in too much depth here – you can head to our course preview for that – but in short, it’s been a confluence of modern eventing technicality with traditional eventing terrain and stamina questions, helped along by an intermingling of the two directions the event has historically run in. It’s neither purely clockwise or anticlockwise but instead, one and then the other and then the other again, creating a nearly constant terrain shift. That 11:24 optimum time? Most people felt that nobody would catch it.
The first horse and rider out of the startbox, though, gave it a jolly good crack. That was the infallible Harry Meade and the first of his three rides, Et Hop du Matz, who looked to be taking it steadily around Derek’s track but somehow, quite miraculously, ended up adding just 2.4 time penalties to their score card. And then: a steady, educational round for Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and Sixmilewater — not a clear but not at all a disappointment for the rider, who had intended to use the run as a training round — a smart clear and 5.6 time penalties for Kiwi Sam Lissington and the unknown quantity Billy Alberto; a 20 and just shy of 50 time penalties for Aimee Penny and PSH Encore; 20s for Tom Bird and Joseph Murphy and the USA’s Grace Taylor, the latter of whom opted to retire, and an early tumble for Padraig McCarthy from MGH Mr Messack, who found himself caught between a refusal and a game attempt to jump at the angled brush at fence 7B. An early tone set, then, for much of the theme of the day: a cross-country challenge that would test existing heroes of the sport and create new ones.
Tom Bird and Cowling Hot Gossip. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
That feeling only intensified as cross-country continued. Standout rounds came from unexpected sources, such as Simon Grieve’s diminutive Burghley debutant Autograf, who was dwarfed by the fences but popped them all with the ease and glee of a participant in this morning’s Shetland Pony Grand National, and Holly Richardson’s Ballyneety Silver Service, just ten years old but swift and clear for 9.2 time penalties and a 13-place climb to the top ten. Also excellent – though steady on the clock – was Tom Crisp’s Burghley first-timer Dassett Rock Star, who jumped a smart clear despite a disrupted preparation, and five-star debutants and point-to-pointing veterans Tom Strawson and Public Address got the job done for a clear round that Tom described as “a buzz that’ll take some beating.”
And on the flip side of the coin? A shock fall for 2023’s runners-up – and consummate cross-country specialists – David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed (14th after dressage), who came to grief at the wide corner at 10B, which the game gelding tried to bank. Both were quickly up and cleared to hack back to the stables, but their swift exclusion from the game was enough to dispel any complacency anyone might have felt about the best in the world having victory handed to them. But that’s not all, folks! Two runouts and a subsequent elimination for missing a fence for former champion Piggy March and the very good MCS Maverick (5th), winner of Bramham with Pippa Funnell, took the promising new partnership out of the field; Germany’s Christoph Wahler and D’Accord FRH, with whom he caught the time at Badminton this spring, similarly handed over their claim to fifth place when the gelding stumbled after the turret brush fence at 14, popping the rider neatly out of the plate. Alex Bragg and Ardeo Premier, ninth after dressage on their international personal best, retired midway around the course after the ordinarily very good cross-country horse never looked to find his rhythm; New Zealand’s Sam Lissington and Lord Seekonig, fourth after dressage, also pulled up near the halfway mark after taking a long route at the Keepers question. Also retiring on course was Emily King and her sixth-placed Valmy Biats, who ran into early issues at the influential Boodles Raindance combination, where they ran out at the angled hedge, while Max Warburton and Deerpairc Revelry, 12th after dressage, picked up a late 20 penalties at the Defender Valley.
Oh, and there was the moment we saw the top of the leaderboard change, too: Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent left the startbox with just one second in hand, and returned to the finish having dropped down to fourteenth, with a runout at the final element of the Maltings complex and 9.2 time penalties on their scorecard.
“I kept going with her because people forget she’s only eleven,” says Oliver. “She’s been first, second, and third at the level already, and I don’t know what reason there was to run out — probably just because she’s a horse, and horses make mistakes sometimes as well. But I decided to continue on because she needs the experience, she needs not to learn that you can just run past and walk home. She gave me a beautiful ride before and a beautiful ride after, and she should be in a winning position, apart from that.”
‘Right,’ we all thought to ourselves, just the last handful of competitors ahead of us. ‘Ros – just be safe. Get around. Nobody’s made the time, nobody’s likely to; you’re fine, have a cruise, get home and come chat to us about it.’
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
And when 2024 champions Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo left the startbox, ‘cruise’ is exactly what they did. The whole way around the track, they stayed in an easy, fluid rhythm, picking their way through the massive questions and technical complexities like they were popping through gymnastic exercises in the school. It was unhurried, stress-free, and when the pair crossed the finish line, ‘Walter’ barely looked to have broken a sweat.
Which is probably why EN editor Sally lost her mind entirely and started sobbing when we realised that they were somehow eight seconds inside the time.
“I’m not even sure I can put it into words,” says Ros. “Gosh… he’s just the most incredible horse. Like last year, I didn’t feel like I was going very fast, because he gives you the ability to prepare for every single fence in the way you want to do it, and you still keep hitting your markers. I didn’t realise I was quite as up as I was — I actually thought I was probably cutting it a bit fine, but he just seems to be so fast and so efficient.”
‘Walter’s’ love for his fans – and his fans love for him – helped to carry the pair through the “intense end section of the course and bring them home looking fresh.
The crowd out there were insane as well. He did feel probably as weary as he’s ever felt, kind of coming through Defender for the second time, but going up that hill they were wild — it was amazing.”
But, she laughs, “no, [I didn’t enjoy it]! You never do, I don’t think. I mean, obviously the pressure is on because he doesn’t make mistakes, and so if it’s a mistake, it’s my mistake. The pressure’s on because we’re in a good position, and I want to do well for my team, and [owners] Michelle and Archie [Saul].”
And, particularly pertinently, “the pressure’s on as well because I’m pregnant and there was a lot at stake today. Extra pressure — but it’s not pressure I haven’t dealt with before. I’ve tried to approach it the same way as I did when I went to the Olympics.”
There was much speculation from the outside about whether or not Ros would choose to run today, and she had to make sure to give herself the time and space to touch base with how she felt in the lead-up – something that’s not particularly easy when you’re the hot favourite to win, the reigning champion, and the most talked-about rider in the field.
But, she says, despite a rubbish night’s sleep sharing a small bed in the horsebox with husband Chris and daughter Ziggy – “they kept stealing the duvet!” – “I felt good this morning,” she says. “I felt better once I’d done my dressage and once I was in the competition, actually. I felt — you know, I think on Thursday there’s lots of chat about my condition and everything else, and it sows the seed of doubt a little bit. But once I got my dressage test done, and I felt good doing that, and I walked the course and got in the right frame of mind, I felt very much in the competition.
“I wanted to be here, there was never any doubt about that, but the reality is that all eyes were on me today, quite rightly so. I did hop on him this morning for my benefit, just to hop a few fences, and thought, yeah — you know, you’re just Ros and it’s Walter, and we can go and do what we do.”
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Though the intensity of the course did tire Walter towards the end, he finished looking perhaps the freshest of any horse today, on a day when very few returned looking fatigued. That, explain Ros, owes to a baseline of fitness that’s allowed them to overcome a dry summer without much galloping opportunity.
“I think the secret is Lordships Graffalo, to be quite honest,” she says. “This year it’s been incredibly dry, and we only do our fitness work on grass, so we’ve barely galloped. We’ve done lots of trotting and things like that, but every time I’ve gone to gallop, I’ve gone, ‘I don’t dare do it.’ And I’ve just trusted the fact that our hills are so good, and I know him so well, that I could get him ready like that.
“Interestingly enough, I was a little bit more nervous for Cassie [Sanger, who’s based with me, because her horse looked tired at Kentucky, and she’s only been with me for under six months. She’s been doing exactly the same [fitness work] as what Lordships Graffalo has been doing. I was slightly concerned, and I said to her, ‘Pace yourself, because we haven’t got the gallop work in, and we could do more next year when the ground’s better.’ And interestingly, her horse finished better than he did at Kentucky. So it’s very interesting, what our hills can do.”
Her own fitness levels, too, felt on excellent form – but, she says, riding while pregnant is a decision that’s entirely individual and might not suit every rider.
“I think the big thing is that this is what I do every day,” she says. “Okay, we don’t go around Burghley every day, but this is what I do. This is what my body is very used to doing, and my body is fit for purpose. For an amateur rider to come and try to do this would be a different thing, because they might ride five times a week. But for me, my body is tuned into this. And do you know what — the more exercise I’ve done this week, the more walking I’ve done, the fitter I’ve felt. And that just goes to show as well that pregnant people can continue to be normal, and probably feel better for it.”
Ros and Walter will head into tomorrow’s final day with a compelling margin of 6.2 time penalties in hand, giving them a fence to play with – but they’ve never yet had a rail at this level. If she can jump clear, she won’t just retain her title – she’ll also beat the record for the best Burghley finishing score, wrestling the title away from… herself.
Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Even the kings of speed couldn’t eclipse Ros and Walter – though Ireland’s darlings Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue came closest in the field, picking up 0.8 time penalties in a round that was ten seconds slower than Ros’s. That pulled them up to second place overnight, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the eighth place they’d earned after delivering their best-ever five-star score of 27.8 yesterday.
“He’s unbelievable, isn’t he?” says Austin. “I thought that was tough going out there today, and he had to be his very best. But he jumped super — he wanted to jump between the flags.”
One of the things that made the time so hard to catch by Austin’s estimation was its flow – or, more specifically, the moments in which it was disrupted.
“To me, the course lacked a bit of rhythm here and there,” he says. “I guess that’s cross country, though: you’ve got to go to plan B and the horses have to go to plan B. And actually, he galloped home. I think it was very much true cross country — you have to have scope, you have to have gallop, and they have to be accurate and sharp. They have to want to be cross country horses.”
Watching Austin and ‘Salty’ around the big tracks is an undeniable privilege as a fan of the sport – and for his rider, being half of that kind of partnership is something that eclipses everything he’s experienced previously.
“For sure [this is a horse of a lifetime],” he says. “I’ve said that for three or four years now: any horse that takes you to two Olympics and three or four five-star podiums – there isn’t too many of them for anybody’s life. Whatever happens tomorrow, he owes me absolutely nothing. So right now, we can enjoy it. I’ll certainly enjoy it this evening. All I do know is he’ll always give me his best. If his best or my best isn’t good enough, then it’s not good enough on the day — but the main thing is that he’s fit and healthy.”
Tim Price and Vitali. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
There are plenty of different ways to gain some ground on a leaderboard, and Tim Price and Vitali were handed a novel one this evening: their clear round, over which they picked up 8.8 time penalties, originally had them in fourth place at the close of competition, behind Harry Meade and the last of his three rides, Annaghmore Valoner. But after the close of the press conference and the wrapping of the TV interviews, the live scoring suddenly refreshed itself to tell a very different story: Harry and Annaghmore Valoner hadn’t finished one second over the time – they’d actually added 3.2 time penalties. The reason behind this seemingly random restructuring of the scoreboard? Apparently, an error with Harry’s start: in the process of confirming the scores, he was deemed to have left the start box a number of seconds early. Though this ruling perhaps raises more questions than it answers – Harry, after all, is known for being a man who’s meticulously aware of details and rules, and the team around him perhaps even more so – it’s where we find ourselves at this juncture in the competition.
That change meant that Tim will retain third place overnight, the same position he held after the first phase.
Although the pair’s round looked like smooth sailing, Tim explains that it didn’t always feel that way.
“I’ve had more smooth rounds where I think everything almost went to plan A to perfection — Ringwood Sky Boy was a good example of that the year he won [in 2018],” he says. “But every opportunity to go around and come home clear and relatively fast, that’s a job well done and a fun day at the office.”
“[In some places, this round] was a bit lumpy-bumpy,” he continues. “I was knifing into the water and jumped the first water [with his head high], which isn’t the nicest feeling. But then he was fantastic in so many places. I made a mistake into the Trout Hatchery to cut my corner to the skinny, and he just chipped one in and slithered through. But that’s what a good cross-country horse has to do: we want to do a good job for them eight times out of ten, and the other two, they’ve got to do a good job for us. And he did that today, for sure.”
That, he explains, is part of Vitali’s essential makeup.
“He doesn’t understand the concept of running past a fence. He would never fall over a fence unless it was some exceptional moment. He’s a very, very unique cross-country horse. There’s nobody like him. He’s so honest and so up for the job. He just gets to a fence and wakes up — even if he’s on tired legs, he sees the fence, wakes up, and jumps a very deliberate fence. And that’s great fun when you’re trying to get home. That’s the feeling he gives. It’s just a matter of trying to be as economical as possible. He’s not the fastest, but he sure is the most honest.”
While Tim and Vitali might have added a few more time penalties than their nearest opponents, they’re still a reliably efficient pair over big tracks – something that comes down to rideability, as well as trust.
“With him, I can travel fast to a fence, travel away, and maintain the same speed,” Tim says. “I’m quite a smooth rider, typically, so I don’t spend too long doing things — I try to leave the rein soft the whole way to the fence, then just give a little support off the ground. And in a lot of ways, that’s definitely faster than someone on a super-fast horse who’s going fast, pulling up, jumping the jump, fast again. He’s not slow — he’s just not as fast as some. He does extended trots [with so much hindend action], and you can’t have your cake and eat it. But he’s brilliant.”
Though Vitali’s showjumping has been a let-down in the past, Tim is once again enlisting the help of Irish showjumper Shane Breen to help him prepare for tomorrow – a strategy that paid off when they won CHIO Aachen this summer.
“He’s very good for me mentally because he just reminds me to ride him like a good horse and be positive, no fuss, no bother and just get in there and ride a good round.”
Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
There are feats of endurance, and then there’s what Harry Meade considers a pretty normal day in the office. This is the third year in a row that he’s ridden three horses around this track, but the first time he’s done so with a punctured lung, an injury he sustained after falling from his bike at an event in mid-July. Until two weeks ago, he couldn’t even sleep in a bed – he had to sleep sitting bolt upright in a chair to help his lung, and his broken ribs, heal. To even be here is impressive; to have ridden one horse around would be laudable; to manage three starts, veering into fantasyland. To finish the day with three clears, all of which are among the swiftest of the day, and to hold fourth, fifth, and sixth places? What is this, a pony novel from the 1960s?
After that funny little scoring switcharound at the end of the day, Harry’s final horse, the consistently speedy Annaghmore Valoner, is his best-placed, moving from 15th to fourth with 3.2 time penalties, while his second ride, Crystal Cavalier, added 2.8 time penalties to climb from 16th to fifth, and his first ride, the day’s trailblazer Et Hop du Matz, leaped from 25th to sixth with just 2.4 time penalties.
As the man who’s spent the most time out on it today, Harry was roundly impressed with the course set by Derek diGrazia.
“I thought it was a fascinating course,” he says. “Probably the most important thing and the headline in what [Derek] has achieved is that it allowed all of the right ingredients in an event horse to come to the fore. It was a test of stamina, speed, scope, bravery, agility, and quick-footed reactions. The intensity of the course was pretty consistent the whole way around. Burghley is so important in fulfilling that role – and Derek’s course in fulfilling the purpose of Burghley is vital in actually maintaining what is such a fundamental part of eventing. And part of the knock-on effect of that is to attract riders to select the right type of horses, and the philosophy of how you produce them through the levels.”
Harry Meade and Et Hop du Matz. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Each horse that Harry left the startbox with required a slightly different plan, ride, and pace to execute the job at hand, he explains.
“I was delighted with the first horse [Et Hop du Matz],” says Harry. “He’s a big, gangly, young horse, and it’s first Burghley. If you go out first – which I’ve obviously done a lot of times, this was my third year in a row here doing it – you quite often have a bit of a gauge and an idea [of how fast you’ll be], but I thought this was a bit like sticking the tail on the donkey. The intensity of the first part of the course meant that your minute markers were basically irrelevant the whole way around, and it was just a matter of feel. And because [Et Hop du Matz] hadn’t been to Burghley before – and he’s a very long horse – I wasn’t sure how he was going to cope. It’s like trying to take a train with six carriages across Capability’s Cutting — it’s not that comfortable on him. And that kind of pace usually wastes time, so I was really pleased with how he went around.”
Harry Meade and Cavalier Crystal. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
With midfield ride Cavalier Crystal, who has finished third here the last two years in a row, he knew more precisely what was to come.
“She was as good as ever. I mean, she’s just great. She’s a cool little girl, and she gave me basically a textbook ride. If you could do the computer simulation of how to do it bang on, she was that from first to last.”
Although his final ride, the 2024 Bramham winner Annaghmore Valoner, is generally his fastest horse, he also knew he had to give her round the most thought – both because she often wants a bit of extra hand-holding, and because she hadn’t had all the runs he’d intended in the lead-up to this week.
Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
“She’s come into this really, really short of match practice,” he says. “She’s had one run since this time last year. I didn’t run her this summer as the ground was so firm, and then I ran her round one Open Intermediate at Upton in early July. I got off and said ‘I’d like to run her four more times between now and Burghley, very gently at a lower level just to allow her to breathe and relax’. Then stupidly, I fell off a bike two days later, so I couldn’t do anything on her. So she’s come off the back of nothing, and she’s quite a sensitive, worried, overachieving, slightly unsure-of-herself lady. And I was very proud of how resilient she was out there. I always feel a bit protective of her, like sending a little sister off to school where she’s going to get bullied.”
Harry credits the day’s success – and beyond – to the exceptional team around him, including head girl Jess Errington, in her 18th season with the Meade family, and Molly Parkin, who’s been with them for 11. And, of course, there’s his wife Rosie, who’s among the most graceful – and busiest – multitaskers the sport has ever witnessed.
“We’ve always had an approach of not a huge yard, but a real emphasis on quality, not quantity,” says Harry. “Really trying to understand each horse and get the very best out of them. Taking a softly-softly approach, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s how I like to do it. You really you feel that you might take a slow burn, but hopefully it allows each horse to come to their very best when they get to the top level. And our strike rate of getting to the top level is proportionately disproportionately high — and when they get there, they’re really happy. That’s hugely thanks to my team and the attention to detail and hard work.”
Alice Casburn and Topspin. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
23-year-old Alice Casburn might still be one of the youngest competitors in the field with her homebred Topspin, but at this point, the pair are also foremost among those expected to climb and climb. That expectation, Alice admits, means that “I was really feeling the pressure this morning!”
But this is their fourth Burghley, an event at which they’ve never finished outside the top ten – and pressure or otherwise, they were always going to get out there and remember the point of the game. That’s exactly what they did today, returning home with just 4.4 time penalties and two flag queries that were quickly removed from their scorecard, giving them a seat in overnight seventh place up from first-phase 20th.
That impressive time actually came as a surprise to Alice, who had planned for a steadier run – until Spin told her he wanted to open up.
“I wrap him in cotton wool, because I love him so much and I worry about him so much, because he tied up at Badminton and I really stress about him,” she says. “The second I feel him start to sound a bit heavy, I completely take the gas off. Today I came through the finish, and he was still galloping. And I was like, ‘he probably would have told me just to kick on, mother!’ — but I was cantering down the hills thinking, ‘just breathe, Spin. Just breathe.’”
To help him along, she found some novel ways to keep his breathing level.
“I was very vocal today! I got instructions to talk to him. He hyperventilates a bit, and the only way I can stop it is by basically screaming lovely things at him the whole way around.”
Alice and Spin, who still lives in the stable he was born in, have known one another their entire lives, and that partnership continues to prove its strength at the top level – but, laughs Alice, “we’re like siblings! We fight a lot, we love each other, and also we’ve got to fight for Mum’s favour. Because it’s always my fault — and it’s never his — and he’s the favourite child. Sometimes I’m like, ‘he just span round!’ and Mum’s like, ‘well, you must have done something!’ And I’m like, ‘no — he span round!’”
Alice and Spin are renowned for being weekend climbers, and are among the very best showjumpers in the field, but dressage has often been a bugbear for them. This week, though, a bit of a change in their preparation meant they scored a 31.4, their best score at five-star in nine runs.
“I think I’ve just tried to enjoy it a bit more,” says Alice, who says she even got a hair sample analysed by an energy healer to try to get to the bottom of it. “They basically just said he doesn’t see the point! Normally, I’d get really buckled on my dressage. I’d be like, ‘oh my gosh, I’m at Burghley in two months and my flat isn’t good enough,’ and I’d get really hyper-fixated on it. This week, I just took him for a jump yesterday and just let him have a really nice time. We’ve just tried to do things he enjoys and keep his morale high.”
Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza II. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
On Thursday, British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud was quick to point out that his sixth place finish with Zaragoza here last year came after a dressage score that was five marks better than the 31.8 they scored this year – but 5.6 time penalties later, that little detail doesn’t seem to matter much anymore. Today, we’ve seen them climb from 21st place to eighth after a round that finished with a bit of ‘allez allez’ gutsiness.
“She was getting a bit tired, and I had to make sure she jumped the jumps and protect her a little bit. It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient,” says Gaspard. “She felt very strong after the Trout Hatchery and the triple bar — she was really galloping. And then I think after the Leaf Pit she got a bit tired, so the last two minutes were a bit looking after her a little bit. I did protect her at the end, I might have lost a few seconds, just to make sure she jumped the jumps properly. She’s the kind of horse you don’t really want to chase, so I just put my hands down, and she was galloping. I couldn’t say no. It felt better to just let her get on in her own way. Maybe you pay for it later on, but I just went with her more than actually against her.”
Laura Collett and Bling. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Laura Collett’s rangy red mare Bling might have flunked out of her intended career as a hunter when she was just four, but at 12 and in her Burghley debut, she’s proven that her recruitment into eventing was a savvy slow-burn. She made her step up to five-star at Badminton this spring, picking up an educational 20 penalties en route to completion, and today she put the education gleaned that week into practice, jumping boldly around for 8.8 time penalties.
“She was absolutely incredible,” says Laura, who makes her return to Burghley this week for the first time in fourteen years. “I thought she came out of Badminton really confident. Yeah, she had a little blip, but it was just a genuine mistake, and she learned from it. And I think the proof is in the pudding as to how awesome she was around there. When she popped off that Leaf Pit, I thought, ‘oh, we’ve got this far, don’t have another silly 20 at a step down!’ But she was absolutely insane around there.”
Coming back to Burghley and feeling Bling come into her own, she says, is “such a buzz. I mean, I looked like a proper Pony Clubber around there — I kept patting her, telling her she was such a good girl, and I’ll probably told off for taking too much time telling her she was a good girl! But she needs that at this stage. She’s a bit of a quirky, funny horse, and we’ve learned to come to a compromise on a lot of things. I have to probably not ride in the way I’d normally ride on her, because she just wants to be left alone — and I’m a bit of a control freak. So if anything, she’s been really good for my riding, because it’s taught me to just let them get on and do their job and trust them. And she rewarded me for trusting her.”
Holly Richardson and Ballyneety Silver Service. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
We reckon the smile won’t leave Holly Richardson’s face for a good few weeks after the thrill of finishing clear and quick, with just 9.2 time penalties, aboard her ten-year-old five-star first-timer Ballyneety Silver Service.
The pair sit tenth, up from 23rd, going into tomorrow morning’s final horse inspection, an incredible career high already for the 31-year-old, who has previously ridden around Burghley twice with Bally Louis.
“It’s definitely helpful having been here before,” says Holly. “It’s definitely helpful knowing how the terrain rides, but obviously it goes the other way around, so that’s made a difference this year. When I walked it, I thought it would suit him really well because he is a real blood horse. And I knew he would gallop up that hill, and as soon as I could get a breather back into him, I knew he’d come around. I know I’m sat on the right horse for this.”
Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Sometimes, Burghley debutants leave the start box looking starstruck and overwhelmed – be they debutants of the equine or human variety. Sometimes, they gain in experience and confidence along the way and finishing looking much more established. And sometimes, as in the case of 20-year-old Cassie Sanger, the youngest rider in this year’s field, they start out looking as though they’ve ridden around here for years, and somehow finish looking even better than that.
Redfield Fyre might not always have the most conventional jump; today, certainly, he began his round looking deliberate but not always lightning-fast with his front end after ducking through the covered fence at 3. But Cassie, who’s had the gelding since she was fifteen, knew exactly what was going on and stayed calm, committed, and supportive as they navigated the course – and by the halfway point, he blossomed into the very best version of himself. That, then, was a feeling they could ride all the way home, and when they crossed the finish line they did so with just 9.2 time penalties, moving them from 40th place to 13th going into the final day.
“It’s so special,” says Cassie. “I was very nervous this morning, and then the second I got on my horse, he just gives me so much confidence. He just tries so hard for me. I said to someone right before I went out when I was projecting all my nerves, I was like, ‘what if he doesn’t do this for me?’ And they said, ‘nope, he will, he’s 100% going to. If you get there a bit funny or your plan doesn’t go right, he’ll still be there for you.’ And he was, every step of the way.
“I always like to joke around and say he’s used to the young rider, the ‘Cassie Sanger ride’ if you will, where sometimes it’s not always right,” she continues. “But he’s so smart with his footwork. We’ve always called him a little slinky because he can get himself out of the way, even if he’s huge — he’s like 17.3. He’s just such a smart horse.”
Being based with Ros Canter since May has been a huge boon to her in her preparation for this event, she says.
“It’s been amazing. She’s a master at every phase, so just training at home, her wealth of knowledge is just huge and I’ve been soaking it all in. Course-walking, she’s just been so amazing. We just make very strict plans, but obviously anything can change and we’re okay with that — it’s that mentality of being ok with that. To have your plan and focus on that.”
Whatever happens next, Cassie has fulfilled a long-held goal this week.
“It’s definitely been a lifelong dream to be here. Someone asked me when I got my heart set on Burghley, and I said when I got [Redfield Fyre],” she smiles. “When we tried him, he was a seven-year-old, and we took him cross country schooling and we were all like, ‘that will be your first Burghley horse.’ And so for him to have done that is pretty special.”
Max Warburton and Deerpairc Revelry cross the Burghley flyover. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
For course designer Derek diGrazia, and the rest of us raptly following every stride on site, the day’s competition felt like a resounding success. But even he, with his depth of wisdom, was surprised by the impact the track had on some of the obvious frontrunners in the start list.
“As the day went along, I just thought to myself — there were some rides out there that I thought were going to go around, and then all of a sudden they had a little problem here and there,” he says. “That was surprising for me. I think going into this, we knew — or at least I felt — that the time was going to be difficult to achieve, and it turned out that way. There was a lot to do out there. I think that you couldn’t let your guard down the whole way around. You had to ride it all the way to the finish, and that’s how it turned out. If you didn’t concentrate for just a second, it seemed like something was going to happen.”
Now, as he looks ahead to his fifth course here at Burghley, he’s excited to develop upon everything he learned from this change in direction.
“For me, it’s a challenge getting it right to be able to keep the flow right,” he says. “Now I’ve done it, so it gives me things to think about if we go around this way again, which potentially, that’s how it could end up. It certainly helps me, looking forward to doing it this way again.”
The day’s competition saw a 60% completion rate, just that one clear inside the time, and average time penalties of 20.8 – a set of numbers that looks pretty spot-on for a challenging, but not frightening or injurious, CCI5* of this calibre. 30 of 50 starters made it to the finish, and 21 of those jumped clear – and just one MIM clip was activated on course all day, too. Three horse falls is, of course, three too many, but all horses, and all riders, bounced up quickly and were on their way home without ado. On a positive note, it was also great to see the ground jury acting decisively where pulling up horses was concerned – a call that’s undoubtedly sometimes a hard pill for riders to swallow, but a welcome move for equine welfare.
As we look ahead to Sunday, and our thirty competitors left in the mix, other than that healthy 6.2 penalty margin between first and second place, the scores remain tightly packed for showjumping. Tomorrow’s Defender Burghley finale begins with the final horse inspection at 8.45 a.m. (3.45 a.m. EST), and then, we’ll see the first session of jumping commence at 10.30 a.m. (5.30 a.m. EST). The top twenty will jump in reverse order of merit from 14.30 (9.30 a.m. EST), and then, as quickly as it began, it’ll all be over for another year, and we’ll crown our 2025 champion. We’ll bring you along for the whole ride, as always – until then, Go Eventing.
The top ten following an exciting day of cross-country at Defender Burghley.
Many thanks to Kentucky Performance Products for their support of our Defender Burghley coverage! Click here to learn all about their science-backed and time-tested nutritional support products for horses.
Defender Burghley: [Website] [Tickets] [Timetable] [Entries] [Timing & Scoring] [Burghley TV] [CrossCountry App XC Map] [EN’s Coverage]
