Tara Dixon and Master Smart. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Tara Dixon’s 5* debut has been a long time coming. Eventing runs in her family: her mother, Karen Dixon MBE (née Straker), is a four-time Olympian who has jumped around some of the biggest tracks in the world many times over. That in-house education has served Tara well as she’s risen the ranks. In 2016, Tara told Your Horse UK that she wanted to become an Olympian in her own right, and compete at the top level for as long as she can.
Now, nine years later, she finds herself on the cusp of making that top-level debut a big reality, with one phase down and two to go aboard the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, Master Smart, by Master Imp.
Horses in the Dixon family have to “earn their stripes” in order to obtain a “Smart” in their name. Karen, for her part, partnered with two big-time horses during her career, Get Smart and Too Smart. That tradition has carried on — and Master Smart earned his name nearly right off the bat as a talented young horse.
“He earned it in his first year with us, literally just as a five-year-old—he got it straight away,” Tara said. “And he’s got Master Imp in him, so we got Master Smart.”
To be sure, Tara’s lead-up to Defender Burghley was less than ideal. At Bramham in June, Tara fell with her other horse, Global Narco, and sustained multiple injuries and broken bones that set her back in her training for this week. Fortunately, she had enough time to make a turnaround (being plied with gin by some well-meaning friends always helps the cause, also) and get back for this debut.
“I broke my wrist, my knuckle, and my eye—-I cracked my eye socket, so my eye was all swollen,” Tara told us after her dressage test on Friday, where she scored a 37.5. Arriving here, her primary goal for dressage was to get into the 30s with a horse that’s been tending more to score in the low-40s. “I’m absolutely over the moon, to be honest with you. I’ve said to Mum for weeks and weeks, if I got a dressage score that started with a three—even if it was 39.9—I would be delirious. And to get a 37? Yeah, I’m absolutely elated.”
It’s actually quite a circuitous path she’s taken with “Fred” to get here. In fact, Tara and her mom found the horse while on a trip to watch Burghley in 2018. “The last time I came here was seven years ago with Mum, just to watch,” she said. “En route we were looking for horses, and that’s when I found Fred. So we’ve done full circle, and now we’ve returned with him in the competition.”
Tara admits it hasn’t been the easiest to produce this horse (are Master Imps ever easy?), but Tara says the time has been well spent. “He was always very special, but he’s very sharp,” she elaborated. “When he was younger, and I first got him, I’d fall off just doing dressage. He’s been a really tough horse to produce; you’d feel like you were getting somewhere, and then he’d fiddle his feet and you’d be on the floor. But now we’ve built a relationship and a connection. It took a good couple of years for us to be really close, and now we’re inseparable. I love him.”
What’s it like having such a well-accomplished mom to help guide her? Tara says it’s been incredibly special, and the amount of knowledge Karen stores in her brain is expansive. “She just has all those small details, and she just says it all without thinking and I just listen and take it all in. I’ll take every bit of advice I can get, all the help. She’s amazing, she’s always with me by my side. Yeah, I mean her help, her knowledge, her connections, even just to people sometimes who need a third opinion. And she just doesn’t even have to raise a finger and she’s got friends there that are willing to help with huge amounts of knowledge.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s challenge, Tara says she’s feeling up for it. She’s been well-prepared: she’s spent a solid three or so seasons at the 4* level, and she knows she’s put in the work necessary to ride here at Burghley.
“You need a lot of concentration all the way through, and it’s going to be a long way around,” she said of the course. “But I think we’re ready to tackle it, and I’m really excited.”
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.
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