Christoph Wahler and D’Accord FRH. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

This was Eric’s sixth Badminton track, and the unflappable, garrulous Welshman was rightly pretty chipper about the day. As EquiRatings pointed out, the clear round rate was 56% – 44 from 79 starters – and six horses made the time on ground that was universally praised, and probably didn’t ride quite as fast as we had imagined it would, given Britain’s exceptionally dry spring. Among those 44 clear rounds, the average amount of time-faults was 14.9. Good stats, I’d venture.

Riders had consistently said beforehand that they thought the course had more “flow” than in previous years, and Eric acknowledged that it had.

“I worried a bit to start with that they were going to find it easy,” he says, before explaining his planning process and rationale.

“I do a little bit tomorrow, then I start in August, September time and just think about where I am going to go and the route. So I wanted to get to the MARS Lake early [fences 9/10ABC], because I thought that would be really interesting, so if I was going to do that, I wanted to put them in good shape to get there early. So I sort of flowed it in and made that [early part] much less aggressive without too much interruption to their speed. I thought the Agria Corners [fences 6 and 7] in front of Badminton House would introduce them to the crowd, which is always a big thing at the Lake – that would get them into that atmosphere and give them more opportunity at the Lake to deliver well.

“I don’t think the Vicarage Ditch line was that much more flowing, but I’ve always tried to take that out of being “shotgun alley”, where you go down one route and twist and turn and twist and turn, so that came up very level. I didn’t want to use the rail-ditch-rail Hollow this year, because we had another area to use – when we took the soil out of the sunken road area I developed, we put it there so I could use that in the future and bring in a little bit more flow to that, which worked well.

“Sometimes that has its own little penalty – for opening them up and giving them a bit more gallop, they get there a little bit quicker and then they make mistakes, so that was really what I thought of; that they travelled up and shot past something, rather than… Often on a course, when you have the most difficult combination, no one has a problem with it, because they really throttle back and they make sure it happens, whereas I was looking for the casual slide-by.”

The MARS Lake complex came quite early on in the course, at fence 9/10 and was widely praised for its “throwback” feel. Photo via CrossCountryApp.

Asked which rounds he had enjoyed watching the most, Eric replies: “I loved Caroline Powell’s High Time horse – I thought that was really nice. I was really pleased Lara de Liedekerke-Meier went so well, because it’s great to have those Belgian guys here. [And] I was really pleased to see Nicky Hill go well – she’s such a little trier and it was fantastic to see her go so well.”

“It would be really nice to get more European riders; I know it’s difficult because they don’t have the depth in numbers that the UK does, so they hold back those horses to do championships. But I thought this year, if ever there was a year to put a course out that was a little bit more European in its feel, this would be it, because with the Olympics last year they might come here because the Europeans isn’t so crucial as a Worlds or Olympics. So I built a little bit more European in those angles and just opened them up a little bit more.

He continues to expound on the day, saying: “It always pleases me when people have a run-out early on and carry on. At the root of what I do, it is about educating horses; prepping horses for next year. So hen they run out at fence six and they pull up – I understand it when they are on something that’s 14 or 15 years old, but when they’re on a ten-year-old horse that is learning the ropes, it always pleases me when they think there’s enough on the course to educate their horse and that they’ll carry on. I think that’s very positive and always a recommendation of a course; when they pat it on the neck and retire as soon as they run out, they’re there to win or they’re not going to bother.”

Eric grins as he says: “I’ll change it for next year. I like it when nobody knows for sure what they are going to get here. Oliver [Townend] and those guys, they come here every year, but more than that, more than 100,000 people come here and walk the course, and the least you can do is give them something to look at that they haven’t seen before or they don’t know how it’s going to jump. That creates an excitement and a buzz around the cross country.”

The Mayston Equestrian Sunken Road at 21 caused its fair share of influence, with six riders encountering trouble here. Photo via CrossCountryApp.

“It’s about the spectacle as well as the competition,” I suggest. “Absolutely,” Eric agreed. “I was really pleased with how the logs with the ditch in between [the KBIS Chasm, fence 15abcd] jumped. That is a socking great big ditch, so it is a spectacular fence – if you’ve never been to a horse trials before, or if you have and you ride at 90cm or 100cm level, if you stand there and look at that ditch, there’s no way you can ignore it. And if you put it together well, that’s an education.

“If you’d asked me at the beginning of today which fence I wanted to jump well, it would have been that, and horses jumped through there really smoothly. Hopefully, people who watched will have seen how to jump a ditch – not too fast, not too slow, and sit up and balance, and the horses read it really well. They’re not scared of ditches if you train them properly.

“The one thing I would say about all of those guys [at the very top] – it’s not that Oliver is an amazing rider or Ros is an amazing rider or Gemma is an amazing rider; actually what they are is amazing trainers. And then the riding, how they deliver on a cross-country course, is a result of the fact that they can gallop and sit up and the horse responds straightaway. That’s what I look for all the time – the training of the horse, the training of the riders; their braveness, but their ability to move up on a distance and still turn when they get there.

The Equidry Huntsman’s Close caused the most stir before cross country and went on to exert its influence on six competitors.

“Any competition – eventing, showjumping, dressage – is a little bit like going into war, and the more weapons you have, the better off you are. If you can turn left at the gallop, right at the gallop, come into a fence slowly, come to a fence quickly – then jumping across country is super-easy. When you have something that doesn’t slow easily, or turn well – and we saw a lot of that today; horses that had a kink in their education that were a little bit found out. All I want to do is look at that education.”

MARS Badminton Horse Trials: [Website] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [Live Stream] [XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

EN’s coverage of MARS Badminton Horse Trials is supported by Kentucky Performance Products. To learn more about Kentucky Performance Products’ science-backed nutritional support products, click here.

Lara de Liedekerke–Meier and Hooney D’Arville. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

There is some sort of a joke about famous Belgians. I can’t actually remember what it is, except that the point is that there aren’t any. Excepting Agatha Christie’s moustachioed maestro, Hercule Poirot, of course.

In eventing, however, there have been several at-least-quite famous Belgians, primarily Karin Donckers and now Lara de Liedekerke-Meier. And team manager Kai Steffen-Meier – himself not a Belgian, but a German – is attempting to increase that number by giving some of the country’s up-and-coming riders the exposure and mileage that only comes from riding at (proper) five-stars.

While Lara is best placed of the Belgians after dressage at Badminton, scoring 31.7 on her Luhmühlen winner Hooney D’Arville, three others have crossed the Channel in search of big-event experience.

Kai, who rode at Badminton twice, says: “We had some plan behind [coming to Badminton en masse]. I really think that we are, let’s say, a growing nation – but I still think that to make the next step, we need to try to make the development into a five-star nation. I want to make it more normal [for Belgian riders] to go and aim for five-star. So over the winter, we’ve really tried to push for that for this year.

“The timeline this year is very good for us with Badminton, because it gives us enough time to regroup and get to Blenheim [for the European Championships] – it’s not one or the other. I think that’s actually helpful – it’s another bit of exposure and a chance to work under pressure.”

It’s always said that it is key to be working “above the level” at which you are competing, so that you are in your comfort zone when the intensity and pressure are dialled up.

He continues: “It’s absolutely also about being able to feel like we’re stepping down for championships, rather than punching up. I’m trying to make it more normal for them to ride a big track and test that out a bit and learn about it here, rather than at the championship itself. I want my riders to get to a championship and say, ‘huh, it’s a lot easier than what I’ve done already.’”

Lara had double-entered her homebred mare at Kentucky and Badminton, but the decision as to where to run was simple: “Money.”

She elaborates: “Even if you finish third, then you still almost don’t have any money after your transport costs. And when I saw the field… it was not a packed field, but it was a really consistent and strong field. She won Luhmühlen, but I’m not arrogant enough to feel like I could do it again, so I thought, ‘I’ll come here to get the experience’. I keep learning every single day. I hope she’s going to enjoy it and I’m not going to regret my choice!

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“I wanted to go to Kentucky because I think it’s a little bit more of a European way of building – Derek [di Grazia] builds a little bit more what she has been used to in the past. Here it’s really big, and she’s really a careful horse, so sometimes she takes a look. I hope she won’t be too careful and lose confidence around the track; I would have maybe liked to do another five star before coming here, but she has surprised me a lot of times in the past, so hopefully she will surprise me again on Saturday.

“It feels really good to be back. I forgot how much atmosphere there is – it’s so special, and I still think of it as the pinnacle of the sport, so I’m so happy to bring her here. It probably wasn’t my first plan – and who has Badminton as a plan B?! Only me, probably! – but she feels really, really good and she tried really hard in the dressage despite having so much stamina right now. I think she’s never felt as fit as she feels here.

“Not that long ago, I wasn’t thinking I was going to win a five-star, and so I’m not thinking about [winning] now. I just tried to do my best, and I could have done better; I don’t think she could have herself. I hope I’ll have nothing to report for myself on Saturday. That’s my mission. It’s a big course for her – it’s another league from Luhmühlen and the crowds are huge. She’s done Le Lion twice, though, and Boekelo, so she can cope with an atmosphere, but nothing beats Badminton. There’s a lot of questions, and we’ll see how she answers them.”

Seppe Vilain and Kawa de la Cour Z. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

Second-best Belgian at Badminton (doesn’t that sound nice?) is 24-year-old Seppe Vilain, an amateur rider who works as a civil engineer. He scored 33.9 on Kawa De La Cour Z for equal 34th place.

“He’s a blood horse, but he stayed very calm, and I was able to ride him as I wanted,” says Seppe. “It was perhaps not our best test, but here I thought it was best to play it safe; it’s not a dressage competition. He did pretty well – I was a bit scared of how he’d deal with the atmosphere. It’s the first time he’s seen anything like this, but he was focused and he did the job. He’s 17, and he knows that once he enters the arena it’s time to do a job.”

Wouter de Cleene and Quintera. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

Wouter De Cleene, a manager with a road construction company, is in 61st place with 38.1 on Quintera. Fascinating fact: Wouter’s uncle, Dirk van Mieghem, was the first Belgian to complete Badminton 45 years ago.

“I thought I rode a good test, but the flying changes came too early, and so I got bad marks and a bad result. I thought they were good, other than being too early, though!” says Wouter.

“The event is amazing – it’s nice to be here, and with all these people, tomorrow will be a special day. For me, the course is big enough, but I wanted to come and so I’ll just get out there and ride it. I have a good horse, I think.”

Senne Vervaecke and Google van Alsinger. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

Squaring off the Belgian quartet is Senne Vervaecke, 62nd with 38.4 on Google Van Alsingen.

“I was very pleased,” says Senne. “She gave me, actually, a really great feeling. The first half of the test went amazing and then halfway through, she got really scared of one of the cameras. It was just really close – halfway, she had seen it and then every time she had to pass it, was like ‘oh, what’s happening here?’ But then we passed there, and she was really well behaved again. So considering the situations, I’m super-pleased.”

He has had the 14-year-old Watch Me mare since she was four.

“She was incredibly difficult to ride and difficult to work with when she was younger. It took us months of training to be able to get out of the stables and get to the arena without landing into one of the fields, stuff like that. I remember the first competition I did with her was like, an 80cm track. We did fence number one and that was good, and then there was a little road to fence number two, and halfway she stopped and turned around and I said, ‘No, no, let’s go back’. And she turned around again, and I said ‘no no, go back’ and tried five or six times, and then halfway when I said, ‘No, turn back’ she turned 90 degrees and was like, ‘I don’t want to go back. I’ll just go this way’. “There was a metal wire fence there, and so she started leaning against it, and I could feel her go to a standstill and she pushes and pushes, and a few seconds later, it goes bang. She goes through it and after that, she was like, ‘I made my point.’ And then I just trotted back to tell the organisers that I broke their field’s fence, and they were like ‘Okay, you can go ahead and continue’.

“All the rest of the course she did perfectly, and she passed that spot like a charm – she just had to make her point that she was the boss and she was going to decide what’s happening.”

MARS Badminton Horse Trials: [Website] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [Live Stream] [XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

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Harald Ambros and Vitorio du Montet. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

Nearly everyone who competes at Badminton puts in very long hours, riding horses at dawn and dusk. Only one of them, this year at least, spent the intervening hours – between sunrise and sunset – telling people politely to “open wide” (in German, natürlich) and peering at their gnashers.

Austria’s Harald Ambros, who scored 34.9 in the morning dressage session on Vitorio Du Montet, works full-time as a dentist.

“Since February, it’s been hard,” he concedes. “I’ve been training at 5:30am, getting everything ready, then starting work at 7:30am and often finishing by 5pm —then training again. I’ve kept my other horses out of competition for the past six weeks to focus entirely on him [Vitorio Du Montet].

The other legendary eventing dentist – I know, remarkable to have found two of them – was Henrich Romeike, who won individual and team gold for Germany at the 2008 Olympics. Famously, after the Germans lost their team gold in Athens, Heini used his dentistry skills to forge his own gold medal – who knows whether he handed back the “real” medal to the IOC, or his own copy…?

Harald, 45, last rode at Badminton 18 years ago, finishing 18th on Miss Ferrari, whom he also rode at the Athens Olympic. Three of the Austrian team that year were called Harald, which still amuses eventing journalists old enough to remember those halcyon days.

Paris 2024 was his fourth Olympics, and his Badminton ride, 16-year-old Vitorio Du Montet, was his choice then. The horse has actually been to Badminton before; he had a tired fall at the final fence with French rider Maxime Livio in 2022. The Lando gelding had a couple of jockeys after Maxime before Harald bought him in 2023.

“In the gap between Maxime and me, a young woman owned him with the goal of qualifying for the Olympics, but she had an accident herself and had to sell him. I bought him and started working toward qualification—and we made it. We competed in Paris last year, and now we’re here at Badminton. The original plan was to aim for the Europeans at Blenheim this year. I know Blenheim well—I rode at the Europeans there in 2005 with my last Badminton horse. But it’s very hilly and strong, and I thought Badminton might actually suit Vitorio better. It’s flatter, and he’s a good five-star horse.”

Harald Ambros and Vitorio du Montet representing Austria in Paris. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

He was fairly happy with his dressage test, saying: “Vittorio is a difficult horse in such big arenas, but he stayed cool, and I was able to ride what was possible. I’m very happy—it’s such an amazing atmosphere in there. The familiarisation yesterday really helped, and we did a lot of dressage work over the past few days. I’m very pleased with him.

“He can do everything technically—flying changes, pirouettes, all of it. But when his nerves kick in, he shuts down. If he gets blocked, he’ll tighten his neck, set his ears back—and you’ll get no points. He needs a clear head.

“At Paris, it was intense. The announcer made a big deal: ‘French horse, French breeding, Maxime Livio,’ and the crowd exploded. You expect it, but still—it’s hard on the horse. You have to prepare them. So now, I do lots of work outside—cantering, showing him the environment, building confidence. We did three sessions yesterday and two today, just making sure he’d seen everything.”

Harald’s last Badminton, 2007, is remembered for the aridity of the weather in the build-up, and the going ended up being firm. “That year was clockwise as well, and the weather was beautiful, just like this year. They’d done a lot of groundwork and sand preparation back then. I much prefer these sunny conditions over rain—it makes a huge difference, and I’m very happy. I think it’s a very fair course; the riders know what to do, and it is clearly presented.”

Asked how it felt to be back at Badminton after such a period of time, he replies: “It’s very special. I’m lucky to have a horse like Vittorio again. I’ve had other horses I could’ve entered, but they wouldn’t have made it through the cross country—not bold enough or not fit enough. They were good for Europeans or World Championships, but this is different. You have to be lucky to have the right horse—and when you do, you give it your best and enjoy every moment.

“When you’re young, you try to catch the time. When you’re older—like me—you’re happy to stay safe, enjoy the ride, and be grateful to be here.”

MARS Badminton Horse Trials: [Website] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [Live Stream] [XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

EN’s coverage of MARS Badminton Horse Trials is supported by Kentucky Performance Products. To learn more about Kentucky Performance Products’ science-backed nutritional support products, click here.

Samantha Cesnik and Graftango. Photo by Cealy Tetley.

The perfect preparation for a first Badminton for Australia’s Graftango, who carried Samantha Cesnik to equal 25th on 36.2 at MARS Badminton on Thursday, was a sun-soaked sojourn in St Tropez.

“She had a glorious winter in the South of France with my dressage coach, Brianna Burgess,” confesses Samantha, 39.

The pair arrived in France from Australia 10 days before Pau last year, and found themselves fairly literally under water.

“It was a big ask – she only had 10 days between getting off the plane and trotting up, and then it rained – proper ‘British’ mud – and she’d never seen anything like it. So it was more a baptism by water than fire!” Samantha says.

They completed, with a slow clear across country and something of a cricket score in the show jumping, and then the 14-year-old Grafenstolz mare was given “a long break”.

“Brianna brought her back into work for me and kept her going until I arrived in February. That decision paid off – we avoided the British winter, and she had a prep that was more like what she’s used to.”

Since February they have been based at Chris Burton’s former yard – now the home of the Prices – Chedington in Dorset.

“This spring has been much better. Everyone says the ground is a bit firm, but for us, it’s perfect. Even the weather feels a bit like home – warm and lovely,” says Samantha. “We’ve had a magical prep. Chedington is a brilliant facility, and luckily, we have similar micro-facilities in Australia. So it meant the horse could keep a very consistent program, which is definitely paying off now.”

Samantha has been training with former Badminton winner Sam Griffiths, a fellow Aussie, and Britain’s Nicola Wilson.

“I’ve known Sam for a long time, and I met Nicola earlier this year in Australia,” she explains. “It’s been amazing to have that kind of support on British soil. It’s really helped me hit the ground running and find my feet.”

She was “really happy” with Graftango’s dressage test at Badminton, saying: “I mean, she’s from Australia – we don’t get crowds like this! So to go in and keep it together is excellent. She’s not always the easiest to stay with, and she hasn’t necessarily put her best foot forward in dressage since arriving in the UK. But today, she gave us a little glimmer of how good she can be, and I’m really proud of her for bringing it out when it mattered. For me, being a first-timer here, it’s a big deal too. We both managed to keep a lid on it, so I’m relieved it’s over, but very pleased.”

Samantha, who spent some time at PSI in Germany and competed to a high level in dressage in Australia before “parking” that sport to concentrate fully on her eventing ambitions, got Graftango as a nine-year-old with the aim of doing some CCI3*-Ls.

“She’s a good jumping horse—not always the most careful or technical—but I needed one to help me get qualifiers and mileage,” she says. “Her breeder had competed a little, but being a breeder, sometimes you don’t always click with what you produce. They never really got along, and she was for sale for a long time. She’s a tricky mare and very particular about her people.

“After about nine months on the market, the breeder called and asked if I’d come try her. I did, and I just felt like we clicked—like she kind of chose me. Then COVID hit, which gave us time to get organised, and we started building from there.

“She’s 14 now but still pretty green. She did her first three-star about two and a half years ago. But she’s a warrior. She goes out and looks for the flags. She tries her heart out.”

Dressage at MARS Badminton continues today, and you can follow along using the link list below.

MARS Badminton Horse Trials: [Website] [Entries] [Timetable] [Timing & Scoring] [Live Stream] [XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

EN’s coverage of MARS Badminton Horse Trials is supported by Kentucky Performance Products. To learn more about Kentucky Performance Products’ science-backed nutritional support products, click here.