Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

From the onset of this morning’s jumping session at MARS Badminton, which comprised places 21-40 on the provisional leaderboard, it was clear that the tightly-packed scoreboard would be put through its paces. Rather than the straightforward Badminton showjumping courses of old, this year’s track continued the trend towards much more jumper-y, testing questions that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, with rollback turns into water trays – a particularly tricksy question for horses who’ve jumped so many ditches the previous day – and three doubles on the course, as well as the optical illusion of a white top rail against the background of the white members’ tent, all of which tempted a loose hoof and the fates along with it.

Of those twenty horses this morning, just one would make the time and leave all the poles in the cups: that was the diminutive, catlike Luthien NRW, ridden by Germany’s Arne Bergendahl, whose extraordinary jump had contributed to a couple of mistakes over Eric Winter’s course yesterday, but which stood her in phenomenal stead today.

Another couple of combinations would manage the clear, though not the clock – but otherwise, a two-rail benchmark was set, with ordinarily strong final-phase performers knocking surprise rails.

When the top twenty came forward, that two-rail average didn’t lessen its grip on the competition. By the time two-phase leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo entered the ring to lay out the final round of the day, their overnight lead of a rail and time had become a comfortable buffer of 10.2 penalties – two rails, comfortably, with time aplenty to set up sensible turns and cruise on home.

It was a generosity of penalties that they didn’t come close to using up. There aren’t many horses and riders – nor many top-level competitions – that produce a dominant feeling of relaxation in a bystander, but that’s where Ros and fourteen-year-old ‘Walter’ raise the bar: each step is measured, each moment considered, every movement decisive and every breath taken in fully. They never hurry; they never panic – and so, even when the pressure reaches its zenith, it’s possible to watch, learn, and enjoy.

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

We talk so much about what the modern era of eventing is, and what it should look like, and how, indeed, we should promote a less rough-and-tumble iteration of a sport that’s always been all about grit and guts. Ros and Walter prove you can have both in spades sans the thrills and spills of old, and in so many ways, they have become the paragon of what forward-facing, modern, and social-license-friendly equestrian sport can look like.

And then, of course, there’s the whole matter of a woman doing it all: riding at the top, winning at the top, prioritising her work while also having a family and doing her utmost to make it all work for her. There’s no doubt it takes a colossal amount of juggling, and plenty of help, but here she is – a three-month-old baby in her arms, six-year-old Ziggy at her side; husband Chris and mum Heather on the periphery; another Badminton trophy on the mantlepiece.

The pair’s clear showjumping round today, which saw them add 2 time penalties to their otherwise faultless score card, doesn’t just earn Ros and Walter their third Badminton victory; it also makes Walter the first horse ever to take this title three times, and secures him his well-earned places in the annals of eventing lore and legend. There’s a very compelling argument to say he’s the greatest event horse of all time – he was second here on his debut as a ten-year-old in 2022, fourth at the World Championships later that year, a winner in the impossibly swampy Badminton of 2023, a member of the gold medal-winning British team at the Paris Olympics in 2024, victorious at Burghley that autumn, top of the leaderboard at Badminton and Burghley alike in 2025, and now, once again, our champion. It’s a crying shame, really, that the Rolex Grand Slam couldn’t have stuck around one more year, because no horse and rider pair has ever seemed so assured of victory in triplicate, and neither rider who had previously won that rarefied title had done so on one horse.

It’s unlikely that the enormously pragmatic Ros is even thinking in those terms, though.

“One day it won’t happen for us – I’m certainly not perfect and I made mistakes even last weekend at a competition, but for now I’m just so lucky,” she says.

“I’m just absolutely stunned, really – it probably won’t sink in for a bit. I try not to let myself get involved in all the things people have been saying about him being the first horse to do it three times, and all the things like that, so I think that will all sink in a bit later. But gosh, I’m just absolutely in awe of how he jumped today. I thought it was probably one of the best rounds he’s ever jumped, and probably one of the best rounds I’ve ridden as well. I’m just delighted we were able to pull it off at the right time, really.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Once Walter had popped over the influential water tray at fence five, Ros laughs, “I could see him clocking the next fence, and he started doing these little grunts like, ‘I’m gearing up for this, mum, I’m gearing up!’ He just loves his job.”

“I can’t put into words how lucky I am to ride a horse like him,” she continues. “People say, ‘oh, but you’ve trained him well,’ but he really makes my job so easy. He loves it, and he’ll be so content tonight. He’s a truly special personality, not just in the way he performs, but the person he is, too. We’re lucky to have him in our lives. He’d be here [at the press conference] slurping everybody’s drinks if he could – he just loves it all.”

Though she came into the competition as the firm favourite from the outset, for Ros, the path to victory didn’t necessarily look quite so clear.

“Coming into this week I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – whether my emotions would cope with it, whether my body would cope with it. But I just love these top-level competitions; they’re the reason I do it,” she says. “It’s incredibly special.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Has anyone so abnormally capable ever been so, well, normal? One moment she’s jumping five-star fences as though they’re sticks in the back garden; the next she’s back on the floor, either holding her new baby or being pulled from interview to interview, rocking back and forth as she answers questions, her body innately looking to lull a tiny person, her instincts as both sportswoman and mother both working overtime all at once. Even, as the case was today, when she’s operating on bugger-all sleep, and any of the rest of us would be falling over ourselves with fatigue.

“Seneh’s normally a very good sleeper, but last night, she was up between 1 and 4 a.m., so I’m pretty exhausted!” laughs Ros. “Chris will drive us home, so hopefully I’ll sleep on the way home, and hopefully she’ll sleep on the way home – and then we’ll celebrate at some point, but it definitely won’t be tonight!”

“You can look at it [as a particular challenge],” she continues, “or you can look at it that we’re extremely fortunate to be able to do this sport as a true family sport – they can all be very much included. Ziggy was in the main arena for the prizegiving; Seneh’s been with me all week. We’re incredibly lucky. Harry’s had three horses to ride all week, which is a massive achievement in itself; Tim’s got a broken shoulder – there’s always something that makes it a challenge to be here.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Perhaps the bigger hurdle overcome, to Ros’s mind, is the extraordinary journey she’s been on as a rider. She’s the first person to acknowledge, time and time again, that she’s neither naturally brave nor naturally quick, and that those – plus the ability to deal with pressure – are skills she’s had to develop.

“For all the young people out there, I just want to say that when I was just starting out eventing I had a go at doing Juniors and things like that, and I really wasn’t very good,” she says. “I’d been told to improve my dressage and I did, and then I went to the Junior National Championships and ended up 2^nd going into showjumping. I was so nervous and couldn’t cope with the pressure at all, so I got a terrible shot to the treble combination, took out the first two parts and had a stop at the last part. I went from second place to about second from last in that round. And so I suppose what I mean is that anyone can learn to deal with pressure. It’s not just about learning to ride well, it’s all the other bits that go with it. So for anyone who does get nervous, if they still have the dream, it’s absolutely possible to do it.”

Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

 After Arne Bergendahl’s clear round inside the time this morning, just one more horse and rider pair would accomplish the feat in this afternoon’s session. That was Tim Price with his 2021 Pau champion, the seventeen-year-old Falco, who Tim described earlier in the week as “a fake event horse”: one who has always been a freak of a jumper, but has had to learn how to be a cross-country performer.

Yesterday, he proved that he’s absolutely learned that lesson, dispensing with the occasional silly 20s – misdemeanours, but never felonies – of his younger years and delivering a fast clear round with just 4 time penalties, which saw him climb from 10^th to 5^th place. And today? Tim could sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride – a ride that boosted the pair up to second place.

“I’ve always said he’s the horse for the final day, and when he was making mistakes at two- and three-star level, this was the thing I was really desperate to get to – the Sunday at a long, and a significant one,” he says. “I’ve had a few now [with him] and he’s just so much fun. We take all the horses for all their qualities; every horse has their issues, but showjumping isn’t one of his.”

He is, he continues, “a fantastic little horse. He’s a small package and I’m a little bit big for him, but his brain is in his feet – he knows exactly where he can take off and he gives me everything he’s got to give. It’s the first time I’ve been at Badminton on a horse I can relax on in this phase and just put my leg on. I really wanted to get to today on him, which made yesterday such a special thing.”

Though Tim is slightly more healed up than he was at Kentucky, where he competed with a freshly operated-on shoulder, he credits his partnership with the elder statesman of his string with helping him make this week work while still not 100% himself.

“He’s my old friend – I’ve had him ten years. If it was another horse it might not have been such a doable proposition,” he says.

Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Harry Meade notched up another five-star podium finish, taking third place aboard the classy but complicated Annaghmore Valoner after knocking a single rail to drop down a spot on the leaderboard.

“I’m delighted; I thought she jumped beautifully, and she went in there and handled the cheers, the atmosphere, and the crowd really well,” he says. “She went in a beautiful, soft way, jumped out of her skin – and she had a rail, which was very, very minor, and I couldn’t be happier with her.”

Harry has been knocking on the door of a five-star win for a long time, but something that’s always been very clear is that as much as he’s a fiercely focused competitor, he’s also a bone-deep fan and student of the sport. That meant that although his time didn’t come this week, his admiration for Ros’s victory – and what it means for the broader story of eventing – was nearly as sweet a feeling.

“People who study the sport might think, ‘oh, well that horse is the most likely one to win,’ but it is so difficult to get a horse to the start line. If, in December, you looked at all the horses who were being aimed at Badminton, [by the time the event comes around], probably 30 to 50% of them don’t get it to the start, either because their form hasn’t been good enough, or they picked up a minor injury… so to get to the start, and then to get to point where you can deliver – and not just deliver, but do it in the style that Ros has done it every single time – is enough for the pundit to be able to say she’s the favourite. But the horsemen, they know that it doesn’t just happen. Ros has already credited Walter, but her technical ability, and her coolness under pressure, means that their achievement of winning three Badmintons will stand the test of time as a legacy, not just for Walter, but for her as an extraordinary competitor.”

Tom Jackson and United 36. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Fourth place went to Tom Jackson and the exceptional ten-year-old United 36, who looks the part in all three phases, and with whom he climbed from first-phase 20^th place after adding just 3.2 time penalties yesterday and 0.4 time penalties today.

“I mean, what a horse,” grins Tom. “He’s just answered every question, everything we’ve asked of him, for the whole time we’ve had him – and yet again, he’s put himself in a brilliant position. I couldn’t be more pleased with him.”

“He’s always been a good jumper, but in the past two four-longs we’ve done with him he’s had a rail, and so we thought maybe he was just a bit on the weak side. So we’ve worked really hard over the winter to get him as strong as possible, and he felt really good out there; it was a tough enough track for him, with the twists and the turns and keeping him balanced, but he really, really delivered.”

Katie Magee and Treworra. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

British Open Champions Katie Magee and Treworra tipped one rail to drop a single place to fifth, completing a climb from 26^th after dressage.

“He jumped brilliantly,” says Katie. “I was a little nervous, and he really looked after me – he’s an absolute superstar. It’s been a brilliant week. I absolutely love it here – it’s horsey paradise.”

Tayla Mason and Centennial. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

The climbers of the week were New Zealand’s Tayla Mason and Centennial, who had begun the competition in equal 40^th place on a 36.5 and leapt upwards to 14^th after a cross-country round that saw them dig deep with an agricultural jump into the MARS Lake, after which they grew in confidence and boldness, weathered a hold on course, and finished looking a picture. Today, Centennial – or Chase, as he’s known at home – was on flying form, very nearly jumping Tayla clean out of the tack over the final fence and securing a clear round with 1.6 time penalties, boosting them up to sixth place.

It was a remarkable round not just for that climb, but for the about-face in form it represents for the gelding in this final phase: he’s jumped clear at the level once before, at Maryland, but has also tipped three or four fences in previous efforts, which Tayla has worked hard to combat.

“We’ve been working hard on the showjumping, and it’s taken a while,” says Tayla. “It takes a long time to get a five-star horse, and then it takes a long time to get the correct system – after all these years, I have a solid one now, and it’s really exciting.”

“His biggest thing is he just doesn’t get high enough, so we’ve been working on gymnastic stuff – we trot to fences in the cross-country training to develop that fifth leg, but actually, it helps in the showjumping as well. Every horse is different, so it’s trial and error in all the exercises you can do, and then whatever works for that horse works. I think that’s why it takes so long. What I do with Chase is not what I do with my other horse; what works with one might not work with the other one, and so it’s taken some time, but I’m really excited that I’ve managed to create a solid system with him.”

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud added another five-star placing to his record with the excellent Zaragoza, knocking one rail but moving up from 12^th overnight to seventh place.

“She jumps very well – she had a cracking round yesterday on the cross-country, and then she jumped well today,” says Gaspard. “We just came a bit close to that double and had one down, but I think that’s more me than her – she really tried for me.”

Felix Vogg and Cartania. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Switzerland’s Felix Vogg was relieved to find his Maryland winner Cartania considerably more rideable today than she had been yesterday, partly thanks to an occasional and tactical tack change: today, he went bitless.

He rides her in the hackamore “three times a year – otherwise she gets used to it! That’s the key at the moment, that she’s rideable and quite nice to ride.”

They, too, had a single rail, but stepped up nonetheless from 11^th to eighth.

Ben Massie and Filao de Perle. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

France’s Ben Massie and Filao de Perle added one rail and 0.8 time penalties to finish their climb from 25^thto ninth, while overnight third-placed Sarah Bullimore and her ten-year-old homebred Corimiro slipped to tenth place with two rails, but demonstrated enormous class in the ring, further cementing the rangy gelding’s status as one of the most exciting young horses at this level.

Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

“I’m chuffed to bits with him,” says Sarah. “I mean, obviously I’m disappointed, because he’s normally an amazing jumper. We’ve changed to a different bit, and maybe that wasn’t the right decision, I don’t know. It’s still a learning curve: he’s just ten, and he’s new to the level, and if you don’t try these things, you don’t know. Maybe we’ll rethink on the bit for next time, but there is always a next time, and he’s got phenomenal future ahead of him.”

Two rails knocked top ten challengers Aaron Millar and Friendship VDL one spot down to eleventh, while three apiece shifted Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint and Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville from 5^th and 8^th to 17^th and 19^th, respectively.

Cosby Green and Jos UFO de Quidam. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Best of the bunch for the US was Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam, who took 22^nd place after a neat and tidy clear just one second over the time allowed, while Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl tipped two rails but added another Badminton completion to their record for 40^th.

Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

And that’s all she wrote – for now, anyway – from MARS Badminton 2026. It’s been a week that’s surprised us in so many ways, but all of us at EN feel so lucky to be reporting through an era in which that great big non-surprise at the top became another chapter in the story of a woman and a horse that the sport will talk about for decades to come. May their reign continue; may the foundations of their success influence us all. Go Ros, Go Walter, and Go Eventing.

The top ten at MARS Badminton 2026.

MARS Badminton CCI5*: [Website] [Tickets] [Live Stream] [Entries] [Schedule] [Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

Sarah Ennis and Grantstown Jackson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The field has further thinned at this morning’s final horse inspection at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials, with five cross-country finishers bowing out of the competition ahead of today’s showjumping finale.

Two horses were withdrawn before the horse inspection, including one from the top ten: that was Will Rawlin’s Ballycoog Breaker Boy, with whom he sat seventh after adding just 5.6 time penalties yesterday. The other morning withdrawal was Kylie Roddy’s SRS Kan Do, who was overnight 40^th, having added 20 jumping penalties at the Mayston Hollow at 26ABC yesterday.

It wasn’t wholly plain sailing for the remaining 43 horses presented to the ground jury of Christina Klingspor, Amanda Miller, and Angela Tucker, either: four were sent to the holding box, and of those, just one ultimate passed and will go on to showjump. The successful party was the USA’s Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl, who had led the dressage on Thursday but suffered a tricky second half of their cross-country round yesterday to sit 45^th overnight.

Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Two horses were re-presented, but ultimately spun: Ireland’s Sarah Ennis and her 2023 European Championships ride Grantstown Jackson, who had sat 19^th overnight with just 3.6 time penalties added yesterday, and China’s Alex Hua Tian and Chicko, 34^th after hitting the frangible device at the Vicarage Vee and adding 14 time penalties, will not showjump this afternoon. The final pair held, Great Britain’s Tom Rowland and Dreamliner – 18^th with 5.6 time penalties yesterday – opted not to re-present, and withdrew from the holding box.

These changes allows for some movement into the business end of the leaderboard – Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and his Maryland winner Cartania, who had a turbulent round for 7.2 time penalties, will now step into tenth place, while Ireland’s Sam Watson and Ballyneety Rocketman and Harry Meade and pathfinder Et Hop du Matz will step up to nineteenth and twentieth places, respectively, putting them into the afternoon showjumping session.

That gives us a neat 40 horses and riders to see through to showjumping today, in two halves: the lower-placed 20 horses and riders will take to the ring from 11.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. EST), while the top 20 will jump from 14.45 BST (9.45 a.m. EST).

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Two-phase leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo have a comfortable lead of 6.6 penalties over second-placed Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner, which gives them a rail in hand plus plenty of time, too, at this stage. From Harry onwards, though, it’s all getting rather tight: a single rail spans second to sixth, while two rails down for Harry at this stage would topple him all the way down to eighteenth. We can expect plenty of movement throughout the leaderboard today after yesterday’s 11:30 cross-country effort – and you can make sure you don’t miss a moment by tuning in on Badminton TV. We’ll be back with the full story at the end of the day’s competition – in the meantime, Go Eventing!

The top ten after cross-country at MARS Badminton.

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Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

About an hour into today’s cross-country phase at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials, it all looked a bit as though the writing was on the wall: the course was too soft, the time too gettable, and the whole day of sport set to be a non-event for the 59 starters and the 100,000 or so spectators on site.

“I was getting,” admits course designer Eric Winter, “a little bit worried.”

Certainly, the course had walked easier than in 2024, when it last ran in this direction. The twisty routes through multi-part combinations of that year had been replaced by much more direct lines through a proliferation of two-parters, and as this pivotal phase loomed closer, the general vibe around the place was a much more relaxed one than it necessarily has been in previous years. Several people even – dare we say it – expressed some amount of underwhelm.

So when the first couple of riders headed out on course and returned home with easy, steady clears – 4.4 time penalties for pathfinders Harry Meade and Et Hop du Matz and 13.6 for US rider Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam – and the third rider, Tom Jackson, added just 3.2 time penalties on the five-star first-timer United 36, and then Holly Richardson and Ballyneety Silver Service, a relatively inexperienced combination in the field, made the time by some twelve seconds, it truly did look as though the writing was on the wall.

But the beauty of a clever Badminton track is in the details that don’t come to the fore until a large enough sample size is on the table for review, and while this year’s course may not have been heaving with technical questions, Eric had made some canny calls in the way he’d used terrain, creating a cumulative effect that shifted horses off their balance and rhythm frequently enough to open the door for costly mistakes – and a time that was tight enough to exert its own influence.

It’s easy to look at seven rounds inside the time as an indicator of a soft clock, but it’s all relative: the horses and riders who caught the time easily were up on the clock early on and could then sustain the rhythm and balance over the variable terrain; those who found themselves playing catch-up were more susceptible to losing their stride pattern and having to take risks or long routes along the way. That, plus the extraordinarily tightly-packed scores after the first phase – overnight leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo very much excepted – created a ripple effect throughout the day that enacted a seismic shift across the board.

“I was watching the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix last week, and I thought, ‘I could drive around that track like Kimi Antonelli [at a normal pace],” says Eric. “But I couldn’t do it at 215mph. When you add the speed into it, it amplifies [the intensity of the track].”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

If you had to watch one ride to see in perfect clarity how rhythm wins out over haste and hustle, you don’t need to go much further than first-phase leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, who added neither time nor jumping penalties to retain their lead and further solidify their bid to hold onto the Badminton title for the second year in a row.

Although Ros hasn’t had, perhaps, the most traditional lead-in to a major event – she had her second child, Seneh, at the tail end of January, and is still breast-feeding – such is the partnership she’s built with ‘Walter’, and so solid is the integrity of her foundations, that from the first fence to the final one, neither horse nor rider looked like they’d missed a day of training.

Though five-star cross-country riding can sometimes be inherently scrappy – it’s a test, after all, of the ability to adapt when things don’t go wholly to plan – there was never a moment in which Ros looked like she needed to over-adjust or make a sea change en route to a fence.

“I’m just very privileged to ride a horse like Walter, because he actually gives me time to set up, even for the normal fences,” says Ros. “There was never a moment where I’m really behind, so I’m able to give him the best version of myself, because he allows me to.”

But it’s easy to look at a round like theirs and see the harmony, the communication, and the framework of sensible training that’s helped the partnership get to that point. What it doesn’t necessarily communicate quite so readily is how much is going on inside a rider’s head, not just in the moments before they’re counted out of the start box, but in each of those achingly long eleven-and-a-half minutes on course.

“There’s a lot of pressure going around on a horse like that. Even coming to the final fence, I was like, ‘please don’t mess it, please don’t mess it up!’ But he’s just an absolute legend, isn’t he? He’s just the most amazing cross-country horse in the way he looks for his fences, but he lets me ride how I need to ride, and he gives himself every chance to clear the jumps.”

It never, she says, “feels [as easy as it looks] while you’re out there. I think there’s pressure not only around riding Walter, because of what he does and what he can do – but I actually haven’t been fast yet properly this year, other than a random intermediate where I still didn’t make the time. So there was pressure from that side today as well. Physically, I’m not up to where I was, but I was very confident that it wasn’t going to be a massive physical battle for me out there, because he makes my job so easy. But mentally, it was a lot of pressure.”

And, of course, “it’s been busy this week. It’s been really busy, having a baby and breastfeeding and all that, too. It was a question to myself: could I do it without having those moments to myself that I normally get? So today, I just woke up and I thought, ‘you know what? You just have to try and believe that even if you don’t put quite so much time into the things you normally do, that you can still do it, that you’ve still got it.’ And he just helped me do that the whole time.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

A rider’s preparation for a cross-country round of this magnitude is relentless in its attention to detail: every moment is accounted for, every stride considered, every practice fence calculated. We see that in action, in all its various forms, throughout the day – the grooms with a lead rope clipped on until the split second their charge needs to leave the box; Emma Thomas sprinting behind Icarus as he’s ponied, riderless, into the arena alongside a hunt horse and only springing aboard the very moment she’s essential to the equation; the ones who hang back as long as possible, keeping away from the intoxicating buzz of it all until they know any further hesitation will risk a penalty.

And so it’s a particularly tricky thing when a hold on course necessitates a red light at the start, and all the work that’s been put in to create a peak of both energy and agreeability begins to unravel. That’s what happened to Ros today, and those spare minutes spent waiting, not knowing how long the wait might go on for, probably felt like the longest of her day.

Once again, though, they became a testament to her horse’s unmatched brain.

“I just thought, ‘well, that’s a bit annoying’ to start with,” says Ros. “And then they said, ‘oh, it’s going to be a bit longer’. But Walter just kind of settled down and wandered around. I was just a little bit concerned that he’d settle down too much, because he’s so comfortable with crowds and things like that, and he was just quite happy. He’d have wandered around there all day — but actually, I picked up canter and gave him a little niggle with my leg, and he responded by pricking his ears. And I thought, ‘no, it’s absolutely fine. He’s not heating up, so we’ll just go with it.’”

With that faultless clear under their belts, Ros and Walter are one enormous step closer to a third Badminton title, which would be a fifth five-star title – they also won Burghley in 2024 and 2025. It’s not a bad CV for a horse who’s only fourteen this season, and it’s also a chance to make some eventing history: no horse has ever yet won Badminton three times. They head into tomorrow morning’s final horse inspection with a 6.6 penalty lead – but Ros remains pragmatic and won’t be moved to buy into the concept of sure things.

“There’s a long way to go before we get to that point,” she says. “The priority at the moment is Walter this evening. We’ll try and look back and enjoy the day today, and then it’s all about getting my head back into gear ready for tomorrow. Anything can happen; I’m a human, Walter’s a horse, and at the moment, I just get to be continually grateful to be the person who gets riding.”

Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Sitting those 6.6 time penalties behind her is Harry Meade, who tackled Eric’s track three times today, with three very different rounds. The first, aboard pathfinder Et Hop du Matz, was a sensible, reasonably steady fact-finding mission that accrued 4.4 time penalties, moving them from 40^th place after dressage to 22^nd after cross-country – “it’s his first Badminton, and he smiled the whole way around,” he says – and the third, near the end of the day’s sport, delivered one of the great shocks of the day when Harry picked up his first ever non-completion in 18 starts at this event.

That came with Cavalier Crystal, the three-time Burghley podium finisher, who’d been fourth here in 2025 and was, arguably, the strongest competitive shout of his three enviable entries. But at the tail end of an exceptional round, she jumped over the small ditch at the first element of fence 22AB, Mike Weaver’s Farm Yard, and stepped on her overreach boot. Had it happened anywhere else, there might well have been space for the catty mare to find her footing and pat the ground to get herself out of the complex, but the angled rail at 22B came up so shortly thereafter that even with her best effort to get cleanly to the other side, the frangible device was activated and Harry was thrown from the tack.

“She’s my most experienced horse, and she was sensational,” says Harry. “She basically pulled herself over that fence, and it’s really sad, because she’s an amazing horse who was desperately trying to do the job. That was my eighteenth ride around here, and I’ve had seventeen amazing rides – but ironically, that was probably the best of them all [until that point]. But that’s the sport – it keeps us all very grounded.”

It’s Harry’s second ride of the day, the 2024 Bramham CCI4*-L champion Annaghmore Valoner, who becomes his best hope for the title this week after finishing nine seconds inside the time to climb from first-phase 11^th to overnight second.

“She was easy-peasy – and I love her,” says Harry, who inherited the ride from Sam Griffiths in 2022. “I’ve always had a real soft spot for her. I said to somebody the other day – maybe this sounds really weird – but she’s the only horse that I am happy to inhale her exhale. I wouldn’t even say that about my wife! That’s how much I love this horse.”

That soft spot has allowed Harry to see through the mare’s complicated interiority to the brave, bold event horse underneath.

“She’s always been a highly-strung, nervous, insecure, lacking confidence, slightly erratic horse. We’ve done plenty of lobbing around, working on relaxed breathing, but now she’s done two five-stars already and been fourth twice at Burghley. She jumped around this very, very easily – it was just a shame the time wasn’t 30 seconds tighter!”

Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

One of the rounds of the day must be that of Sarah Bullimore and her ten-year-old homebred Corimiro, who made his five-star debut at Pau in October with a fifth-place finish, and looked today as though he’d had ten times that amount of experience at the level. He, like the more experienced horses ahead of him, looked unhurried, unruffled, and rhythmical all the way around, adding nothing to his scorecard to move from 19^thplace to overnight third, just 1.8 time penalties behind Harry and Annaghmore Valoner.

“He’s phenomenal,” says Sarah, who bred the gelding from her former Europeans team ride Lilly Corinne, but nearly lost him as a newborn to dummy foal syndrome. “He’s the reason I’m still doing this and the reason I get out of bed in the morning. He’s just a pleasure – every phase is a pleasure. He’s a pleasure to take out hacking – everything he does, he just wants to go and do a good job, and wants to get on with it. He’s always saying, ‘come on, let’s, let’s do the next thing!’ He’s got a great brain.”

 Among his attributes, she says, are “such scope and such range, and just power. I knew maybe find he’d find a couple of distances a bit short. He’s always looking to go between the flags.”

That inclination helped them at the double of hooded corners at 28AB, when he slipped behind and Sarah made a quick decision to do an uncharacteristic addition.

“We hadn’t planned to put the extra stride in at the corners at the end, but with the big slip in the middle, [it was the right move],” she says. “But bless him, he just picked up and went, ‘okay, another one, fine!’ That was literally our only sort of sticky moment, and it wasn’t his fault. It was just quite greasy on the turn, and I hadn’t thought about it.”

Katie Magee and Treworra. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

British Open Champions Katie Magee and Treworra also romped home clear inside the time, moving themselves up the order from 26^th to 4^th – “he’s got such range and scope, hasn’t he?” she beamed – while Ireland’s Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint, second here in 2024, added just 2 time penalties to make a leap from 18^th to fifth, equal in score with sixth-placed Tim Price and Falco, but ahead on the leaderboard because they finished closer to the 11:30 optimum time.

Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

“He’s incredible, and I’m so lucky to be sat on him,” says Lucy. “He really lives for days like this – he’s a pleasure. But I’m actually a little bit frustrated with myself that I was five seconds over, because he had the legs for it today. He felt incredible underneath me, I just didn’t quite meet a little bit of time.”

Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Though it’s a first Badminton for Tim Price’s Falco, it’s not a first five-star: he was second at Maryland in 2024 and won Pau in 2021 – and he was sixth at the Paris Olympics two years ago and a double bronze medallist at the 2022 World Championships, to boot. But he’s also been what Tim wryly refers to as a “fake event horse” – he’s always been a preternaturally good jumper, but has had to learn how to be a cross-country horse.

Today, the seventeen-year-old, who’s owned by London 2012 course designer Sue Benson, proved that that learning is well-cemented – and heads into Sunday in overnight sixth place.

“He’s been quite a good four-and-a-half-star horse around some Paus and some other things,” laughs Tim, “but he was fantastic out there. He jumped super, and he looked after me a couple of times, which is what you want them to do. And he’s pulled up really well, touch wood.”

Will Rawlin and Ballycoog Breaker Boy. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Though he’s never a horse that gives the fences much air, Will Rawlin’s Ballycoog Breaker Boy demonstrated today that an unconventional approach doesn’t necessarily engender an ineffective one. The lanky duo put 5.6 time penalties on the board, and will head into tomorrow morning’s final horse inspection in the same seventh position they occupied after dressage.

“He pulls it out of  the bag for me – he’s such a champ,” says Will, who’s well-supported here by members of his microsyndicate-style WRE Experience. “I’m so lucky to be riding a horse like him. He really just performs on the stage like this – he loves the big stage, and he loves the big tracks. He’s not the biggest jumper over the fences, and it doesn’t get pretty when it gets to the end, when he gets tired, but he will always pick up and get down and carry on galloping.”

Will’s handful of time penalties were accrued in the final few fences on the course, when that bit of leg-weariness began to kick in, and Will made the sensible call to steady up and help his horse in the air.

 “It’s a shame, because we were really on our minute markers – which I was actually quite shocked and surprised about, because I didn’t really look at my time much, but I just kept on talking to him, plugging away,” says Will. “I said, ‘come on, keep going. We’ve got this’. And he kept on going. Over the last three fences he really had to make an effort to jump, but I always knew he was going to get over the fences. Probably from a spectator point of view, they all thought it was a bit hairy. But I’ve got so much trust in him and he’s got so much trust in me, and we’ve got such good partnership that we just support each other wherever we are on the course.”

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Belgian five-star champions Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville – another homebred in our line-up – slip a scant handful of places from third to eighth after adding 6.4 time penalties on course, but a delighted Lara was delighted with another classy Badminton clear after a little hiccup early on.

“We had a scary moment at fence two – I had a forward shot, and she drifted to the left, and she took out the decor on the side; a big barrel,” she explains.

But no harm was done, and the pair made light work of the rest of the course – though, like Will, Lara opted to preserve her horse over the final fences rather than chasing down the time.

“I thought I rode my horse and not the results, which was the biggest achievement for me to happen today,” says Lara. “And she did well; she felt happy, so I’m happy.”

The course, she says, “was turning more than I would have expected. I felt a bit like I was in the Monaco Grand Prix. Then you have some long stretches, but you don’t know how much you want to keep in the tank, but everything came really in front of me and I think we did a pretty good job to achieve what we wanted to today.”

Tom Jackson and United 36. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Tom Jackson was double-handed today, and while his second ride, the former Nicola Wilson mount Hawk Eye, had an educational completion after a similar stumble to Harry Meade’s Cavalier Crystal, his five-star debutant United 36 started his day – and ours – with an impressive, quick clear.

“It’s just quite unbelievable,” says Tom. “He’s just a ten-year-old, and this time last year he hadn’t even done a four-star long. He just ate that up and made it feel like he’d been doing it for however many years before. I’m delighted with him.”

The pair will go into tomorrow’s finale in ninth place, up from 20^th after adding just 3.2 time penalties.

Aaron Millar and Friendship VDL. Photo by Sophie Robins / Girl In The Field.

Aaron Millar rounds out the top ten overnight with another excellent climb, this time from 36^th with the smart Friendship VDL. The pair cruised around without any extracurricular activities and added just 0.4 time penalties, stopping the clock on 11:31.

“I owe it all to the horse,” says Aaron of the . “It’s been  a little bit of a worry, because he’s only done two Open Intermediates early on in the season before he came here, but I’ve always believed in the horse. I know he’s a good horse.”

 It’s a welcome return to the top level for the pair, who jumped clear around Burghley in 2024 and then had an abortive 2025, withdrawing after dressage here and then before the dressage at Burghley.

Those incredible climbs into the top ten were also made possible by a number of surprise mistakes by well-placed combinations: dressage runners-up Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl dropped to 45^th after a shock refusal at the house atop the bank at 18AB, which caused several problems throughout the day, and then two frangible activations later on; Caroline Powell and her 2024 winner Greenacres Special Cavalier also stopped here and then retired, stopping at the neighbouring ice cream van for a treat before hacking back to the stables; Brazil’s Marcio Carvalho Jorge and his first-timer Royal Encounter slipped from 6^th to 27^th after a clear round with 15.2 time penalties when the horse tired late on course and Marcio executed some clever – but very long – long routes; Wills Oakden and Keep It Cooley dropped from 8^th to 43^rd after some green mistakes; Emily King and Valmy Biats swapped 11^th for 44^th when adding 40 jumping penalties for circling between fences at Sustainability Bay and between the parallels at 30ABC. Bubby Upton, too, moved out of the top ten, from 9^th to 24^th, when adding 12 time penalties in a measured round with Cola.

The US contingent had a mixed bag of a day: alongside those heartbreaking penalties for Tiana and Cancaras Girl, there was a retirement for Grace Taylor and Game Changer in the midst of a punchy round; a frightening fall for Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre at Sustainability Bay, after which both are thankfully totally okay; while early-goers Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam had a happier outing with 13.6 time penalties and a climb from 35^th to 29^th.

Next on the agenda? An evening of icing, hand-walking, and polo mints for the horses who tackled today’s track; a pint for the rest of us; and the countdown to tomorrow morning’s final horse inspection at 8.30 a.m. (3.30 a.m. EST), for which 45 horses and riders are currently eligible. We’ll join you then with all the news you need to know. Until then – Go Eventing!

The top ten after cross-country at MARS Badminton.

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In a thrilling about-face after the Friday lunch-break at MARS Badminton, seven horses and riders posted unprecedented sub-22 scores to push Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo right out of – nah, don’t worry, we’re kidding, they’re still in the lead on this morning’s 23.7, to absolutely nobody’s surprise but everybody’s great admiration. (Everybody including Queen Camilla: when Ros joined us in the mixed zone earlier, we were warned to keep our questions quick, concise, and to the point, because she was just moments away from being whisked off to meet Her Majesty. No word back yet on whether she received any more 9s for her curtsey, but we’ll assume so.)

By the by, Queen Camilla wasn’t just here for the day to watch some great sport and meet our current sporting head of state – Her Majesty is Patron of the Ebony Horse Club, a Brixton-based initiative that provides access to horses to young people in south London who may not otherwise have the opportunity to learn to ride and care for them. It’s an incredible effort and has done extraordinary work to diversify riding and create a safe, welcoming environment for riders to flourish when they may not otherwise be able to get a foot in the door, and it was a delight to see some of the Club’s members mounted in the main arena to demonstrate the product of their hard work. You can find out more about Ebony, and support their work if you’re able, here.

So how’s that leaderboard looking? There’s Ros in top spot, of course, and then the US’s Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl, Thursday’s emotional leaders who put a 28.1 on the board yesterday afternoon  and have stayed firmly in the mix ever since.

And in third? A new addition this afternoon, a third flag at the business end of the leaderboard, and another woman who probably couldn’t really love her horse more if she tried.

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville have firmly catapulted themselves into ‘fan favourite’ territory since their victory at Luhmühlen CCI5* in 2024 – Belgium’s first-ever five-star win and the zenith of a storied partnership that began well before Hooney was a foal on the ground. Lara bred the mare, putting her youth championship – and senior World Championships — ride Nooney Blue to the Belgian showjumping stallion Vigo d’Arsouilles, but in a funny sort of way, the significance of Hooney’s parentage meant that Lara struggled under the weight of her own expectations, and it took plenty of time, patience, and the odd bit of turbulence en route to seal the deal as an established, consistently competitive partnership.

Now, though? They’re at the forefront not just of Belgian eventing, but of the broader global sport, too. Today, they hit another milestone, earning a five-star personal best of 28.6 to take overnight third place at the close of the dressage phase.

“If you’re going to do a PB, Badminton is the right place to do it,” laughs Lara. “She felt fantastic in there. She knows she’s in Badminton, and she has been quite a lot to handle when we arrived, but my groom did a fantastic job [keeping her on track] until now.”

Her groom, the FEI Groom of the Year Bettina Cardinael, has “let her graze for about four hours a day,” continues Lara, “to not let her think too much about it all.”

Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

That, and keeping the work to a minimum – a tough ask for a rider who has one horse to focus on all week, when it’s all too tempting to keep oneself busy in the saddle.

“Obviously I want her to be on top form tomorrow, so it’s the challenge of trying to be the good athlete and the good rider, and also taking a lot of time out without the work,” she says. “She knows the work now; she’s thirteen years old and has nothing to learn, so it’s just about keeping her happy.”

“For me,” she continues, “we didn’t have the best preparation – we had a fall [at Kronenberg in March] and she ended up in the stable for ten days because we thought she might have a fracture, but it ended up not being anything, luckily. Then, I wasn’t sure I was going to come here; now, I’m here.”

It is, she acknowledges, “such an accomplishment to be here, and riding in that arena with nothing to lose. I think I’m finally enjoying my time at Badminton, and it not being so stressful. I enjoyed going in there; I felt she was great.”

They did, perhaps, have a slight moment of stress just before the start of their test: “[Ground Jury President] Kiki Klingspor rang the bell really early, so we had to do a bit of running into the arena, but maybe it allowed me to externalise my stress a bit!”

From then on out, it was smooth and sweet – and a rare moment in which Lara didn’t reach for immediate self-criticism.

“I think we made everyone proud – at least myself,” she grins.

Felix Vogg and Cartania. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

It’s a real treat to see such an international top ten at the tail end of the first phase: the top seven after dressage all represent different nations. Fourth-placed among them at this early stage is Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and Cartania, the spicy mare with whom he won Maryland 5 Star last autumn.

The pair posted a 28.7 – just 0.4 higher than their first-phase score when winning Maryland, and their best Badminton score yet. Still, in her fourth visit here – she was eleventh in 2024 and fifteenth in 2023 – fifteen-year-old Cartania hasn’t quite learned to settle into the colossus of buzz that a Friday here conjures up.

“It was a  disaster the last few days, and still out there in the arena she got nervous – but somehow, we always get it done,” says Felix with a grin. “All the way up [from the stables], the atmosphere, the dogs barking, all this stuff – she’s not so used to it.”

Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

2024 Badminton champions Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier have gone to the mid-20s at this level when competing at Burghley last autumn, and so their very smart 29.8 today doesn’t threaten their personal best – but it’s more than good enough for overnight fifth place, and it eclipses, too, the 30 they put on the board en route to winning here two years ago.

“I’m very pleased,” says Caroline. “You know, it’s  tough out there to get a good mark, but she went out and put a game face on, and she, she was very good. I’m very happy.”

At thirteen, ‘Cavvy’ is just coming into her prime, despite already being a five-star winner and with four completions at the level under her belt (girth?) already. Today, it was clear to see how much she’s physically come on over the winter, with her big, athletic frame looking stronger and more engaged than ever before and giving us yet another reason to suspect that Team NZ might just come into their best form yet this summer.

Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Speaking of team NZ, a little bit further down the top ten – past Brazil’s Marcio Carvalho Jorge and Royal Encounter in sixth (29.2), Great Britain’s Will Rawlin and Ballycoog Breaker Boy in seventh (29.3), Wills Oakden and Keep It Cooley in eighth (29.4), and Bubby Upton and Cola in ninth (29.8) is Tim Price and his 2022 World Championships double bronze medallist Falco, who round out our post-dressage top ten on a score of 29.9.

“A sub-30 is good, but I wanted a good, low, proper score in there. Sounds a little bit stupid, doesn’t it?” laughs Tim. “ But he is capable, and he can really put together a great test. It just takes a couple of mistakes, especially a little bit of tension, even though, overall, I think it’s quite relaxed and soft and a nice way of going. But as soon as there’s a little bit of tension, I think it just gets the judges a little bit.”

Tim, who had an operation on his collarbone just prior to Kentucky thanks to an ill-timed incident on an electric bike, still looked a touch tentative in his upper body in the ring today, but when pressed, grins and says, “the shoulders are all good – I’ve still got two of them.”

Two is all you need, we suppose.

Grace Taylor and Game Changer. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

One more US representative took to the ring today: Grace Taylor and Game Changer take provisional equal 15^th place, level with Ireland’s Georgie Goss and Feloupe, after posting a 30.8 this afternoon. That’s a nearly five-mark improvement over the last two years’ Badminton tests.

“I’m really happy with him,” says Grace. “You always want more, but he went really well, and I’m really pleased. Like, it’s a fantastic atmosphere. We all work towards events like this our whole lives, and to go in there and have the crowd cheer you is always amazing.”

Tomorrow, she hopes, will propel them even closer to the top ten finish they’d love to secure at this level.

“This is our seventh five-star, and I think we have four clears from six so far – so I’ll take that average,” she smiles.

That’s a wrap on dressage here at MARS Badminton, but certainly not the end of the line from EN – we’ll be bringing you plenty more before the day’s end, so head on over to our Ultimate Guide to catch up on the coverage you may have missed and stay tuned for lots more to come. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten at the end of dressage at MARS Badminton.

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Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Nothing in life can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and, in this era of eventing, the continued dominance of Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. The reigning MARS Badminton champions come into this week’s competition as firm favourites to win again, and today, it felt like a comfortable certainty that they’d sail into the first phase lead. We can’t speak quite yet to how the results will look at the end of the day – though we feel fairly confident nothing much will change at the tippy-top of proceedings – but as we hit Friday lunchtime, they’re true to form and back on top with a smart score of 23.7. That puts them 4.7 penalties ahead of yesterday’s leaders, US representatives Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl, on their score of 28.1.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” says Ros, who’s mostly been seen this week with second child Seneh, born on January 24, strapped to her even while walking the course.

“I said goodbye to her agood hour and a half before my test because I didn’t want to be anywhere near her,” laughs Ros. “I pumped a load of milk out of the boobs to flatten me out a bit, and then away I go!”

“It’s been a funny few weeks, having just had a baby –– my focus is on a very different thing at the moment, so I’ve had to work really hard the last few days to make sure I’m in the right frame of mind. I was possibly a little bit stressed this morning, but I gave myself a word, had a bit of time by myself, and came out with a real plan. I’m just delighted that it paid off.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Ros and ‘Walter’s’ largely very correct, workmanlike test wasn’t wholly perfect: the flying changes scored very well across the test, and deservedly so, but it was still possible to see a hint of their fragility – a fragility that cost them valuable marks in last year’s test.

“They weren’t [great] this morning!” says Ros. “But that was more me panicking. I think I rode them just how he needs to ride a change. He’s not a horse that really would ever just choose to do a flying change, so I have to change the canter slightly. Last year I had the canter a bit hot, and then I missed the changes. So it’s a really fine balance with him to get to get them relaxed, but on the bridle.”

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

This isn’t Ros’s first rodeo where coming back to the sport after a maternity break is concerned: she did the same in mid-2019 and returned to eventing just one month later.

“I think it’s just been a process. It’s one of those things where, when you’re on a timeframe like I’ve been, you perhaps get on a little bit sooner than you ought to, and then you start worrying that the tummy is never going to knock back into shape, and things like that. And then all of a sudden, it gradually just does – I just haven’t had the time to let it do that and then get back on. I’ve been doing it as part of the process. So it always makes me a bit worried in my head.”

“But physically, I feel good. Mentally, I feel good when I’m on a horse. There’s just lots to do at the moment, and my time is pushed. So it’s just trying to factor in those moments to be a mum and to be an athlete.”

Something that helps enormously, she says, is having a horse like Walter to accompany her through the process.

“I think most people would trust Walter if they got to ride him,” she smiles.  “To be honest, he’s an absolute legend. The more the crowd cheers, the more he enjoys it. Not once did he light up – he stands there and has a scratch, and he thoroughly enjoys being here. So that just means that he has a very rational brain when he’s out on course, and he tends to be very consistent in the way he behaves. And so I tend to know what I’ve got, so that helps me, and then I’ve just got to concentrate on trying to give him a good ride.”

Marcio Carvalho Jorge and Royal Encounter. Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

British-based Brazilian Marcio Carvalho Jorge steps into provisional third place after earning a 29.2 with the five-star debutant Royal Encounter – a score better than their four-star personal best.

“I’m very pleased, really happy,” beams Marcio. “He’s such a nice horse, with such a good brain. He coped really well with this crowd. I think it’s his first time in an environment like this, and he was really such a good boy. His brain is always trying to do the right thing. He has such a good brain. This is, I think, his best quality.”

Marcio bought the Irish-bred gelding by Lancelot as a five-year-old with Annabel,  Alastair, and Ken Vere Nicholl, all of whom have stayed on as owners throughout the horse’s journey to this level. Along the way, that’s seen them jump clear around Le Lion’s Six- and Seven-Year-Old Championships twice, finishing top ten as a six-year-old, and take second place in Millstreet’s CCI4*-L a year ago.

“He’s always had such a nice brain,” says Marcio. “And he’s always been very cute. He sleeps all day. Even here, before his dressage test, he was laying down sleeping. He does this every day; it doesn’t matter if he’s at a competition or at home. It’s so funny, but it’s also good, because he rests his body and his legs.”

While Royal Encounter may be a laid-back sort of chap, Marcio – who trains with William Fox-Pitt – also knew that on his day, he’d be able to deliver a very competitive test to become a challenger in this competition.

“We had the expectation. He’s been doing well in four-stars, but we never know ––competitions sometimes go right, sometimes go wrong, and it’s his first time in an environment like that. I didn’t know how we would be, if he would spook or something, but we always thought, if everything goes well, if there’s nothing wrong, it could be a good result. And thanks to god it was.”

Wills Oakden and Keep It Cooley. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Last night’s runners-up Will Rawlin and Ballycoog Breaker Boy move to fourth on their 29.3, just ahead of Scottish-based Wills Oakden and Keep It Cooley, who slot into fifth on 29.4.

“We rate him highly – we love the horse,” says Wills of the eleven-year-old, who made his debut at the level at Luhmühlen last year, though didn’t complete cross-country after a smattering of problems. Today, the gelding largely looked considerably more experienced than he did last season, though hopes of a better score were dashed by a couple of breaks to canter in the left trot half-pass.

“He’s still young, and he’s immature and inexperienced at this level,” he continues. “So this week’s about just trying to give him mileage and give him exposure in this kind of atmosphere and around that kind of track.”

This, he says, “is just phase one. We’ll see where we are at the end of it, because there’s a lot to do. But we’re delighted with him in his test, other than that one mistake, which is so annoying because it’s normally his best movement, as well. But it is what it is! You take it, you move on. If that’s the worst thing that’s going to happen this week, then that’ll be fine, and we’ll move on. He’s a really nice horse for the future, anyway.”

Thursday morning leaders Bubby Upton and Cola are now sixth on 29.8, while seventh place on the leaderboard is a very cozy little clubhouse indeed: three riders share the spot, all having scored a 30.3 on very different horses.

Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

The first of those to come forward today was the first horse and rider partnership to come into the ring this morning. Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner presented a more uphill, elevated picture than usual, and while that sometimes meant that the Bramham-winning mare’s movement was a touch more conservative than it perhaps could be, it went some way to demonstrating how much physical strength she’s developed over the last few seasons.

“It’s probably been not so much since the end of last season, but the last few years she’s been with me,” says Harry, who’s currently sitting =29^th with yesterday’s ride Et Hop du Matz, and will return this afternoon with Cavalier Crystal.

“With her, it’s all about the softness of her brain, and then allowing everything to come out and up and in front of her,” he continues. “She’s a horse that would naturally have gone into her shell, like a tortoise shrinking back, with a short neck and she’d have gone quickly and breathed heavily. And so for me, it’s all been about filling her with confidence and enjoyment, and never, ever making her feel like she’s done something wrong. When there’s a mistake, you say ‘sorry, that’s my mistake!’ and then do [the movement] again. It’s really important for her confidence that she’s able to exhale and then really grow and come out and travel with that freedom and liberty and flare.”

Today, he says, “I was thrilled with her. She was lovely, just lovely — supple, soft, really accurate. I didn’t think she left anything behind. She’s a horse that I do little and often with. I don’t work her for too long. And ideally,  if she’d not be too early today, it would have been nice to have ridden her one or two more times and just done a bit of poles or something.”

Harry has been hard at work on his own progress in this phase too, and procured himself an upper-level dressage horse to train on at home over the winter.

“I thought I’d just play around a bit over the winter, but actually, I completely enjoy riding him,” he smiles. “I ride him probably two days out of three. I’ve enjoyed working on some of the Grand Prix movements and tempi changes and passage – it’s been good fun. I thought that, having been in this sport for a while, it’s good to mix things up and have a new, fresh thing to work on.”

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Emily King and Valmy Biats are the second horse and rider to sit in that seventh place spot, and while they can hit the mid-20s on their day, their season so far has been a touch stop-start: they had a tricky test at Thoresby’s CCI4*-S early last month, and then a fall from a young horse in the warm-up sidelined Emily for the rest of the week and a short chunk of time thereafter.

“It hasn’t been the smoothest starts of the year, hiccups along the way, but I’m feeling good, feeling strong and healed up, so it shouldn’t hold me back tomorrow,” says Emily.

Their test today represented a marked improvement on that test, and plenty to be happy about as their week gets underway.

“He always goes a little bit anxious with the crowds, and there’s always a balance of keeping him relaxed, but still showing him off enough,” she says. “In the past I’ve tried really showing him off, and then had some bigger mistakes, and then got a bit underpowered, and then had a little bit of an average or lower score. So I was just trying to get that balance with him. But today he did feel really good — in the general work, he felt amazing. He always finds his walk hard, and just wants to gallop, so you have to say, ‘okay, you can in a minute, but you’ve got a little bit to do first!’”

Nadja Minder and Toblerone. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

The last horse and rider before the lunch break are our final pair in that seventh place position: that’s Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and the evergreen 19-year-old Toblerone, who scored 9s for their first and final halts to top-and-tail their test sweetly.

“I’m very proud – he’s an absolute legend,” grins Nadja. “He was quite lit up in the warm-up, like more than usually, but he’s such a professional, and he tries so hard and just knows his job. He’s an absolute chocolate legend, I always say.”

At nineteen, Toblerone is looking better than ever – and, Nadja says, he feels it, too.

“He feels better now than when I got him six years ago. He’s really got more supple through work and everything, and he’s just also an absolute athlete and machine. He also started [his career] quite late, so he’s not as [high mileage] as other 19-year-olds might be. He doesn’t need that much preparation, and he’s super professional, so I can just go from show to show and only do what’s necessary.”

Nadja is now based back in Switzerland, but did a stint last year based with Piggy March – and that working relationship is one that continues to pay dividends this week.

“I arrived on Saturday at her place, and we did the last polish together,” says Nadja. “She helped me over the past couple of days here, too. We understand each other; we speak the same language – sometimes it can be a bit risky if you work with someone just for a big show, but with her, it works totally fine. And she knows Toblerone so well.”

Fiona Kashel and Creevagh Silver de Haar. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl in the Field.

Fiona Kashel and another evergreen competitor in eighteen-year-old Creevagh Silver de Haar round out top ten before our final session on a score of 30.5.

“He’s not an amazing mover, but he’s just so correct,” says Fiona. “He’s 18 years old now, and he just seems to have got better with age. He’s stronger in his body, and I’ve actually been amazed how much he’s come on in the last couple of years, with where he’s at with his strength and how his body is coping with it.”

Today, the marks still aren’t quite being given away: “He was on 28.4 last year, and I would say it was as good a test as he did last year. He always keeps his head; nothing really phases him. He’s actually really spooky at home, which is amazing, because he doesn’t spook anything here, and he’s just not fazed by it.”

We’re heading back into the final session of dressage here at Badminton – but we’ll be back before long with the end of day report and all the stories you need to know. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten at MARS Badminton at Friday lunchtime.

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Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

Every year, at nearly every major event I report on, there’s Tiana Coudray – plugging away, producing her horses, a smile on her face and head groom and business partner Annabelle James by her side. Regardless of the result, regardless of the hurdles that come her way, she keeps on showing up, and always, always does so looking like she can’t quite believe her luck that this is her life; that she gets to spend every day putting in the grunt work of making horses tick and making a business run.

But it’s that latter point that’s so often been her primary heartbreak: to make a business work, without substantial financial backing, she so often finds herself having to sell horses she really believes in – and more importantly, really and truly loves – to make sure the bills are paid, the feed room is stocked, and another season can be undertaken. One such case in point is here this week – Harry Meade’s ride Cavalier Crystal, with whom Tiana won the 2015 Burghley Young Event Horse Five-Year-Old Final, and who she always knew would become the kind of five-star horse who’d pull out clear inside the time after clear inside the time over the toughest courses in the world. Now, bittersweet, she gets to watch that dream come true – but it’s another rider in the irons. Such is life; such is business. But it never gets any easier.

The now-sixteen-year-old Cancaras Girl is one horse who’s never left her stable, despite being bought as an impulse purchase from a Facebook ad, and always intended as a lower-level resale project.

The universe sometimes has a funny way of setting things right. Cancaras Girl – or Nana at home, because she’s like a sweet old lady in her rocking chair – never sold, because she struggled with the first phase and wasn’t a naturally flashy horse. Today, she became the day one leader at Badminton after delivering her personal best across all FEI levels of 28.1.

Even then, Tiana reckons they left a few marks on the table.

“It’s absolutely her best in terms of her strength and the quality of her work,” she concedes, “but to be honest, there were quite a few little mistakes, which is, in a way, disappointing – but it’s also even more exciting, because it should be that much better again. She does keep getting better: year after year, month after month, she gets stronger, she gets more presence.”

Three years ago, she remembers, Nana “was phenomenal and did a career best [a 29.8] here. And I was just so proud of her. But I think she had so much more about her in there today, even with the mistakes.”

Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

A highlight in the pair’s test was the mare’s flying changes, which came up like clockwork and earned her plenty of 8s and even a 9.

“I’m lucky — they’ve always been her highlight,” says Tiana. “So it was a real positive when we got her to Advanced and then to five-star, where she’s got four in a test. Dare I say, we actually sort of messed up our first one a bit today – she locked on to the cross-country jump and came off the aids. So that’s one of the places where potentially she could have another nine. It’s really exciting, and I’m really glad that they rewarded what we felt was was happening.”

Of the diminutive little mare, who makes her sixth five-star start this week, she says, “we call her Nana because she’s just this sort of demure, sweet little girl — she doesn’t need another horse in the world; she barely needs her people, and that’s only to serve her. She’s very sort of happy in herself. Nothing’s a fuss, nothing’s a drama. She’s just a pleasure to have. She shows up here, and she’s the same horse in the stable here as she is at home. She’s as fussy as you like: we do have to really work to keep feed she likes and to tend to her every need, but she doesn’t do drama — she’s just a really good girl.”

Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

No man, nor horse nor woman nor five-star competitor of any variety is an island, and the long journey to rebuild Nana from a lower-level showjumper in Scotland to a five-star event horse has been helped along by a lot of people – and an awful lot of love and patience.

“We’ve had huge help, and we have a phenomenal team behind us – physios, vets, trainers, just developing that strength,” says Tiana, who’s been based in the UK since coming over for the London Olympics back in 2012 with then-top horse Ringwood Magister. “She really pleases me because she proves that correct training does develop a horse. She wasn’t a flashy mover, and no, she didn’t do a good test as a young horse. But if you keep training and keep training, the theory of it is, it’s supposed to make them stronger and more supple and more athletic, and she really proves that. I have huge help behind me to do that, but it’s just been chipping away and chipping away and letting her develop in her own time.”

A lot of time and plenty of effort to get to this: the overnight leader at Badminton today, no matter what happens from here on out.

“You can’t put words to it,” says Tiana, her eyes brimming with tears. “A few years ago when she went into third overnight on Thursday night, I was floods of tears because I couldn’t believe that this little horse had done that. I’m going to cry again! To go in the lead at Badminton is a pipe dream; to be at Badminton is a dream. I had a little tear putting her on the lorry for her third Badminton, thinking that was pretty darn special, seeing as she was only supposed to be a project we were going to sell. There’s no words for it — it’s the sort of stuff you dream of as a kid.”

Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

And what does Nana mean to her? It’s this question that uncorks her – the girl who’s just always loved her horses, and has had to say goodbye to so many of them, and so often, her dreams along with them.

“I’ve had some very special horses, and I hope further in my career I’ll continue to have some really special horses. But I had a long period of not having a top horse and having to sell all my good horses, and I had kind of resigned myself that I might not get back to top level again. And you know, she’s the one that got me back here, and so she will forever be possibly the most special horse, for keeping my career going.”

Will Rawlin and Ballycoog Breaker Boy. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

“I probably would have been slightly pissed off or disappointed if I wasn’t [in the press conference tonight],” laughs Will Rawlin, who met his own expectations with a 29.3 aboard Ballycoog Breaker Boy for second place overnight.

That betters his 30.6 here last year and doesn’t quite beat his 28.8 at Burghley – but the overall picture of the pair’s work looks even better established this year and Will, for his part, now rides with the air of someone who has all the time in the world to enjoy each movement.

“I feel ‘William’ and I are at the stage now where we can start contesting those top positions,” says Will, never once acknowledging the fact that having the same name as his horse is a logistical nightmare for journalists everywhere.

“I’ve been absolutely over the moon with how he’s been working over the last couple of days here – I really feel, even from Burghley last year, we’ve stepped it up again,” he continues. “There’s still even more in there: I thought that he came down the centre line and sort of slightly grabbed hold of the bit. I was like, ‘hey, just relax, breathe’.”

“He’s very sensitive horse, and he can feel me, so if I keep myself relaxed, then I’d like to think it follows through to him,” he continues. “And there are a few things in there, like my first shoulder-in was a bit diabolical, and my last change, but overall, I just felt the picture and the feeling that I had underneath me was fantastic.”

Where’s the eyes emoji when you need it, amiright?

Interviewing Will today was something of a fraught experience: just a couple of meters behind us, his enormous army of supporters was celebrating his excellent test at top volume, making communicating with him through anything other than interpretive dance well-nigh impossible.

“I’m hugely lucky,” he says (we think). “I’ve got something called the WRE Experience [a micro-syndicate style group of eventing enthusiasts], and I’ve got an amazing group of people that come and support us. We’re only forty or fifty minutes up the road, so we’ve got the home team here too, and my sister flew in from Sydney two days ago. So yeah, I’m very grateful, very lucky to have the team that I’ve got here with me.”

Morning leaders Bubby Upton and Cola III remain on the podium in third place on their score of 29.8, while Georgie Goss and Feloupe move from morning second to overnight fourth on their 30.8.

Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

Two years ago, Irish amateur and one-horse rider Lucy Latta became the eventing world’s new favourite character when she blitzed to a surprise second place finish in her five-star debut here aboard RCA Patron Saint.

Now she’s back with a bang, and ready to show off everything she and her longtime partner have learned in the two seasons since – starting with a nearly five-point improvement on the 36.8 they began on in 2024. Today, they finish the day in a smart fifth place provisionally, and on a score of 31.9 that well eclipses their two previous tests at the level.

“I’m delighted,” beams Lucy. “He gave me everything he had in there. He was really rideable, and he handled the atmosphere really well, so I’m really pleased.”

One big change she’s made since her last trip here is the switch from a snaffle bridle in this phase to a double.

“He’s quite a big horse, and then I’m quite a small person, and sometimes he can get a bit worried in the atmosphere, so that just helps to keep him soft,” she explains. “But he really held his cool today. This is his third five star now, so he’s getting more comfortable and familiar with these big arenas – he was super cool.”

When it all comes together, she continues, “he’s really capable and has some lovely changes in him. It’s just about the quality of the canter for him, and towards the end of the test, I slightly lost him a little bit, so the change was off the aid and a little bit late. But he was super for the rest of them, and very rideable. So I’m thrilled.”

Lucy, who’s recently taken a career sabbatical from her marketing job at boozy seltzer peddler White Claw – “it’s probably only for a short time, but this guy is fifteen now, and I wanted to take a bit of time to enjoy him and enjoy a few more five-stars” – is enjoying a relatively straightforward run into her third five-star start.

“He’s in really good nick,” she says. “He’s come through this kind of training block for this five star really, really well. Last year was a tricky year – he had a colic as we arrived at Burghley, so that was horrible. And then he got a bad cut just before Badminton last year [which forced us to withdraw], so he had a bit of a rotten eight or ten months. But since then, it’s been — touch wood — very smooth sailing. He feels really good, muscle-wise, everything-wise, mentally, he’s great, and I’m happy.”

Morning campaigners Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro move to sixth overnight on their score of 32.1, and fellow pre-lunch-breakers (we’ll workshop this) Tom Jackson and United 36 are seventh overnight on 32.2.

Alex Hua Tian and Chicko. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

China’s Alex Hua Tian slots into provisional eighth with the sixteen-year-old former Polly Stockton ride Chicko, with whom he placed in the top six at Pau in both 2025 and 2024, and with whom he started – though didn’t finish – here last year.

That wasn’t through any fault of either horse or rider, mind you: midway through the course, Alex dislocated his shoulder, and despite gamely trying to shove it back into its socket without dismounting, he had to put his hand up a few fences later.

“Last year was a bit of a surprise, because that shoulder hadn’t been out for ages, and I’d had the other one operated on,” he says. “I was probably not quite ready post-op, wasn’t quite strong enough, whereas I feel so much better this year coming into it.”

The last year has looked like “a lot of physio – I changed physios over the winter, and put a lot of work into it. I think I will have to get my left shoulder operated on at some point, but I’m really trying very hard to put that off as long as I can, hopefully until after the LA Olympics, because with the other one it was probably six months before I was riding properly after the operation.”

Yikes! Yuck! No thanks! There were no problems for the pair at Pau in October, though, and certainly no issues today when they put a 32.8 on the scoreboard: yes, technically their PW (Personal Worst, cute!) at the level, but actually a very nice, if slightly conservative test.

“I’m really thrilled with Chico,” says Alex. “He’s such a tryer. He isn’t the most talented in this phase, but he really goes in and tries to do his job – sometimes a little bit too hard. And today I really felt like he was with me; he was trying hard, he was relaxed enough.”

So, he continues, “I’m a little bit annoyed with myself. I could have maybe taken a few more risks and had his ears a bit more up and just gone for it, but I’m happy.”

Kylie Roddy and SRS Kan Do. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

Crowd favourites Kylie Roddy and SRS Kan Do were, like many of their fellow competitors, a mark or two worse off than usual – but their mistake-free 32.9 still keeps them in a competitive ninth place overnight.

“I was really pleased with him,” says Kylie of the now 16-year-old Irish-bred gelding, who she rides for the Fox family. “I just tried to over-straighten the shoulder on the last centre line. Anyway, it is the way it is. But everywhere else, he tried really hard. To be honest, he was listening to me the whole way through – I let him down.”

This is George’s ninth five-star, and his fourth crack at this event – a competition that’s previously been plagued by little bits of bad luck, including the loss of both front shoes on course in 2022, which forced Kylie to retire in the middle of a smart clear round. At the age of sixteen, and with plenty of experience under his belt now, he’s certainly not settling into a same-old, same-old sort of rhythm.

“It’s really difficult, isn’t it? Each year they come here, they kind of know what they’re coming for. So he was wild  at Kelsall Hill — he knew what was happening. I had to get off and take my spurs off in the warm-up for the dressage. But then actually, when you’re at one of these [three-days], we can get enough riding into them. That’s where they start to become more and more ridable with the athleticism.  We can do all of the things that the horses need to provide to be top level athletes. So he feels great – he feels better than ever.”

British Open Champions Katie Magee and Treworra, who were fifth at the lunchbreak, now round out the top ten at the close of play on their score of 33.3.

Cosby Green and Jos UFO de Quidam. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

British-based US rider Cosby Green and her remaining ride, the eighteen-year-old Jos UFO de Quidam – intended second ride Highly Suspicious was withdrawn earlier this week – find themselves in sixteenth place at the end of day one after a workmanlike test earned them a 34.9 this morning.

That bright and early start, before the crowds start to appear, worked out perfectly for the evergreen chestnut, who finished in the top ten on his five-star debut at Luhmühlen last year but isn’t always the most straightforward ride in this phase.

“I think I lucked out on the Thursday morning draw,” says Cosby with a grin. “But [even then], it’s just something so special to be in that arena. There’s just no place like it. It just gives you the chills trotting in.”

Cassie Sanger and Redfield Fyre. Photo by Sophie Robins/Girl In The Field.

Her fellow British-based compatriot Cassie Sanger, who piloted Redfield Fyre to a 37.5 and provisional 21^st, is also doing her best to soak in the magic of competing here – even more so because it’s her debut at this venue.

“It’s hard when I’m on my horse; I try and kind of keep my head down and focus and not start gazing around too much, but I am also trying to enjoy every step,” she says. “I came two years ago to watch when I came over on the European Development Tour with the US. That year, I went to Bramham, but after coming to watch, I’ve kind of had my heart set on coming here ever since.”

Cassie, who’s based with Ros Canter in Lincolnshire, delivered a test today that showed moments of increased elevation and push considerably beyond what the horse has necessarily previously been able to produce.

“I’m thrilled with him,” she beams. “I’ve been working really hard with Ros, and with Ian and Amy Woodhead, on the flat with him, and the quality of his work in the trot work and even the canter has improved so much. The collection isn’t easy for him, but he’s just gotten so much better and so much stronger. In a five-star test like this, with four changes that are still coming along, you can only do so much, but he just tried really hard for me, and I feel like the quality is really going to start to come through.”

Riding at Badminton for the first time – or any time at all, frankly – is the sort of thing that keeps competitors awake at night and overthinking things for weeks in the lead-up, but Cassie hasn’t had that luxury: she’s wrapping up her junior year of a Journalism degree at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and as the clocked ticked down to departure day for the big event, so too did the deadline for her final work of the year.

“I actually just submitted all my finals on Monday night before I got here,” she laughs. “I was really needing to get them done before I came here – I was like, ‘I probably shouldn’t be focusing on too many things!’”

Flying back and forth regularly to work on her degree in the US and her riding career in the UK wasn’t always meant to be the long-term plan, she tells us: “When I first came over to Ros I got the Wilton Fair Grant [from the USEA Foundation], so that’s what enabled me to come over. Then I was really supposed to leave last December, because Richmond does a Study Abroad programme, and I was able to do it online that semester, which allowed me to be over here in that period. [But when it came to an end] I just could not give up this opportunity with Ros, and she wanted me to stay, and I wanted to stay, and so we’ve made it work. She’s helped me then be able to travel back and forth to school. It’s a lot of moving parts!”

It’s doubtless a tough balance to strike, but Cassie views it as a blessing rather than a hindrance.

“My parents are my biggest supporters, and they didn’t make me go to university – it was kind of a choice I made,” she says. “I think you do need a rounded life in this sport, because everyone knows the highs and lows are daily, you can have a great day one day and the next can be awful. My friends and my support crew at school just keep me grounded and give me a different perspective on it all.”

And so we come to the end of day one of dressage at the 2026 MARS Badminton Horse Trials – a sweetener ahead of a busy few days in the pipeline. We’ll return at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow (5.00 a.m. EST), and once again, Harry Meade will get us underway – this time, with the delicious Annaghmore Valoner, with whom he’s twice been fourth at Burghley (and won Bramham’s CCI4*-L two years ago, but who’s counting). We’ll also get an early showing from reigning champions Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, who take to the stage at 10.48 a.m. (5.48 a.m. EST). You can peruse the rest of the running order here and get your viewing sessions blocked out nice and early, and then scoot on over to Badminton TV to ensure you’re ready to go for another day in paradise. We’ll be back with more reporting from the ground – until then, Go Eventing.

The top ten at the end of day one at MARS Badminton.

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Tom Jackson presents Hawk Eye amid record crowds for Badminton’s Wednesday showing. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

As Smash Mouth once sang (kind of), the five-stars start coming and they simply do. Not. Stop. Coming. Adelaide? Kentucky? Completed them, mate, with barely enough time to do some deep breathing into a paper bag before we’re back in business at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials. What a thrill! What a delight! What is sleep, anyway, and who needs it when there’s this much wall-to-wall eventing action to throw ourselves into instead?

We’re back, baby. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

This , though, is a Badminton that’s felt plagued by stage-left exits so far, not necessarily because there’s been more than usual, but because they’ve all been so crammed into the eleventh hour: Ireland saw Susie Berry and Clever Trick and Joseph Murphy and Belline Fighting Spirit withdraw one after the other, two days ago and yesterday, respectively; the USA’s Cosby Green pulled one of her horses, Highly Suspicious, earlier this week; Oliver Townend, in a shock to the eventing-fan ecosystem, pulled joint-favourite Cooley Rosalent from contention on Monday; and then, lord help us, Gemma Stevens announced just a few hours ago that one of her two rides, the five-star first-timer Chilli King, had felt not “quite as I would like for such a tough test,” and would not be competing this week. Excellent horsemanship? Absolutely. A few days of total whiplash for fans and followers. Completely.

Alex Braggs and Quindiva. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

So it was a relief, really, to have a first horse inspection with relatively little stress, because most of us headed down to the lawn of the house firmly expecting to say goodbye to a couple more of our now 61 combinations.

Wouter de Cleene and Quintera. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

In the end, just two horses and riders made a visit to the holding box: Belgium’s Wouter de Cleene and Quintera, and Great Britain’s Alex Bragg and Quindiva, podium finishers here two years ago, both suffered through the stress of re-inspection, but with happy results for both when each horse was quickly accepted into the competition on their second go-round.

Simon Grieve and Autograf. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Jewellers Hi Ho Silver were on hand as usual to present best-dressed awards, though in a departure from form they added a third to the mix. The best-dressed man prize went to Simon Grieve, who brings crowd favourite Autograf forward this week; the best-dressed woman prize was given to Emily King, who presented the stalwart Valmy Biats in an eye-catching blue jumpsuit.

Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A ‘special prize’, too, was awarded to British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud, a man who’s always good for a comedy effort at a trot-up, and who didn’t disappoint with his overt nod to the, um, coq Gaulois.

Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Now we turn our attention to the first phase, which kicks off tomorrow morning at 10.00 a.m. local time (5.00 a.m. EST), with triple-handed Harry Meade first up to bat with Et Hop du Matz. He’ll be followed by British-based US representative Cosby Green, who rides Jos Ufo de Quidam at 10.08 a.m. (5.08 a.m. EST). You can check out the times in full here, and if you want to follow along with all the action from afar, make sure you’ve secured your Badminton TV pass, which gives you all the action – and that of years prior – for just shy of £23.

As always, we’ll be bringing you comprehensive coverage of the competition, plus live updates and plenty of extra tidbits – and you can make sure you don’t miss any of our pieces by checking in with our Ultimate Guide, where we’ll list all our articles and live blogs as they go live. Until next time: Go Eventing!

MARS Badminton CCI5*: [Website] [Tickets] [Live Stream] [Entries] [Schedule] [Scoring] [CrossCountry App XC Maps] [EN’s Coverage]

Laura Collett and London 52 over Badminton’s broken bridge, which returns this year. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

The famous wartime journalist Hal Borland once wrote that “no winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”

Well, sorry Hal, but we’re still smarting over here from those two Badminton-less springs during the pandemic, and course designer Eric Winter seems to be holding on strong to the role he took on in 2017, so while this could have been a really lovely lead-in to a whopping great big course preview, we’re afraid we’re going to have to take the reins ourselves here. Thanks for playing, and apologies.

Eric’s winter, as it were, has been a very busy one: setting fences down, picking them back up again, moving them all around like PlayMobil pieces on a big green carpet. For his efforts, and those of his course building team, we’ve been graced with a big and beefy course that shakes up some long-held ways of designing at this venue.

Every course must be its own unique entity, somehow asking previously unasked questions while making use of largely the same terrain and many of the same fences. Nobody gets a pass for having jumped a similar track in the same direction on another occasion – but despite all that, there are still years that are redolent of previous courses. This year, you could certainly argue that the Badminton track has notes of 2024 about it: it’s similarly very ditchy, with a real intensity to the section of the course that runs along that famous Vicarage ditch line.

But where 2024 used twistiness as a trump card in some of its combinations, this year’s track feels like it uses much more straightforward – though not easy – lines in many places.

That’s not a case of the course designer wanting an easy year, though, and any competitor who heads out of the start box feeling complacent about it all will quickly be found out. Eric has made the interesting call to turn many formerly three-part combinations into two-parters, which offers up a new way to slow horses and riders down, putting them into a near-constant cycle of set-up and approach.

That, he reckons, should make the clock one of the great storytellers of the week.

“We’ve actually got the most combinations we’ve ever had on course – there’s fourteen out there,” he says. Notable two-parters now include the Equidry Huntsman’s Close, which comes early on course this year; the MARS Lake, which will ride as one bigger complex but is actually numbered as two AB combinations; and the INEOS Sunken Road. On the other side of the coin, the ordinarily double-handed Spillers Sustainability Bay is now a behemoth of a three-parter, with more happening in that little pond than we’ve ever seen.

But we’ll get into fence-by-fence analysis soon enough: for now, let’s take a look at the bigger picture.

One of the most important factors in any competition is the going, and this year, Badminton’s ground has benefited from a major change to its off-season management: it’s gone sheepless.

“[Event Director] Jane [Tuckwell] gave the estate a lecture at the beginning of the year and told them that this was a premier sporting site that did farming, not a farming site that runs a premier sporting event,” says Eric. “And since then, they’ve taken a lot of stock off it, and you can really tell, can’t you? It’s made the world of difference, especially out on the Vicarage ditchline.”

The lack of little cloven hooves after a very wet winter may well have made the world of difference, because once the clouds cleared and the sun came out, the track was ready to go considerably earlier than it has been in most of Eric’s previous prep periods here.

“I don’t know why, but the whole track seemed really dry, so we put everything out at the end of February,” he says. “We could drive anywhere on the track and it didn’t make any difference to it. We’ve had a much clearer run-through than normal, in part because we took the stock off it, I think.”

A change in the estate’s staffing also meant that Eric’s own timelines for designing the course were shifted.

“We’ve got a new guy on the estate, Dan, who’s in charge of looking after everything – spraying nettles, mowing, everything else – and he wanted to start mowing the track in July of last year,” he explains. “So it meant I had to come up with the track, and to come up with the track, you need to decide which fences you’re going to use… it’s all lived in my head for a long time. Normally I don’t need to have that idea in place until November, which means I’d start formulating it around August time. But actually, it’s meant we’ve been super ahead all the way through.”

As always, the course has switched directions from last year – and although Eric admits that this way around used to underwhelm him, he’s made enough incremental changes over the years, particularly to the Vicarage ditch field, that he now relishes this route.

“I used to prefer the other way, but now, actually, I don’t mind,” he says. “I think we’ve got it much more level in the up- and downhills, and in how hard they have to work. It used to be that the other direction was considered much harder, because they pull up towards the end and there’s the rough, undulating bit at the start which just shifts them off their rhythm.”

“But now,” he continues, “I think it’s quite good this way. The Vicarage ditch valley area used to be used longways, and I like to use it crossways, and that means we use those little bits of terrain and undulation to create something almost more like Burghley terrain, rather than keeping them on very flat ground the whole way through. It always shifts them off their rhythm.”

And so, after a very long engagement, Eric’s 2026 Badminton course is ready to say its vows. Let’s take a look at what this week’s competitors will encounter out there.

The 2026 Badminton course, via CrossCountryApp.

FENCES: 32

EFFORTS: 45

DISTANCE: TBC

OPTIMUM TIME: TBC

The first three fences are mainstays: the Spillers Starter in the main arena, the Haywain at fence two, and the brush fence on a little knoll at three all simply service to get horses moving and into the air, rather than asking any questions. That little knoll at three is a handy amuse-bouche of terrain, which reminds both horses and their riders that they can, and will, be shifted off their rhythm around the course, and must be prepared to adjust their balance.

The first combination appears at fence 4AB, the HorseQuest Quarry, which is “in over the wall and out over the wall, as they intended when they built the quarry,” says Eric. This is very straightforward, though with a variable stride number because of the dip in the going, and with a long route alternative for the B element that really oughtn’t to be used but will be helpful in the rare case of a tricky landing from the first fence.

While this is really just in situ to serve as a warm-up combination, Eric has made sure to give his riders their fair share of responsibility, as befits the level: rather than putting a bend into the approach to set the horses up, he’s laid a straight approach from fence 3 to fence 4A, so riders will have to adjust the balance themselves.

The Ebony Horse Club Gates at 5AB.

At fence 5AB, the Ebony Horse Club Gates, we’re back on flat ground but with the added pressure of making two clean, calculated efforts, because these upright fences are both MIM-clipped for safety. There’s one stride between them, but no funny business, and Eric doesn’t anticipate issues here; its primary purpose after the quarry, which serves to remind keen horses that there’s sometimes another fence coming up after the first, is to ensure that rideability and adjustment is firmly in place ahead of the tougher questions coming up.

Eric Winter walks the line at Huntsman’s, which has been laid with sizeable brush boxes this year.

The most significant early question on course when we run in this direction is always the EquiDry Huntsman’s Close at fence 6AB. Gone are the open corners and timber oxers of recent years, and the twisting, tough routes under the dappled light of the trees. This year, instead, they’ll run into the close under a new ranch-style gateway – “my little nod to Yellowstone,” grins Eric – and then, on the far side of the close, they’ll meet two brush boxes. They can decide whether to go inside or around a tree; Eric reckons most will go around it, though the course will be wheeled on the more direct inside route, so those with an eye on the time will need to keep this in mind.

“This year, I really wanted to put just two jumping efforts in here, because I wanted to focus on time. Because I’ve split up so many combinations, we’ve ended up with a few more than normal. That means the course will just pull the competitors back a bit, a bit more regularly. I think it’ll put them down on the clock and I think it’ll put them under more pressure.”

This is the first time on course, Eric says, “where riders will need to be on it. The first two combinations really just sort of set you up to get you going.”

Here, he continues, “there’s a bit of ground that just shifts them a bit and lets them know that they’re not at Thoresby or Burnham Market or somewhere intrinsically flat-ish.”

Though at first glance this is a friendlier Huntsman’s, it mustn’t be underestimated: a good ride through will require pace, and the jumpable face of these fairly enormous brush boxes is actually quite small. There are a couple of open doors here, and riders will need to make sure they set their horses up to pick the right one.

The ClipMyHorse cord piles at 7AB.

The largest fences on course come up at fence 7AB, the ClipMyHorse Cord Piles, which have a new home en route to the front of Badminton House.

“This is the only 2m jumpable width on course,” says Eric, who’s put them on a bit of a slope and camber this year, which is, he says, “quite fun.”

Once our competitors reach the lawn of the house, they’ll swing left to meet the Badminton Lake for the first time, popping a brand new fence as they do so. Fence 8, the Beaufort Owl Hole, was built from the remnants of a fallen tree on the estate, and now presents a beautiful – but plenty intimidating – picture in the water. Though we saw it when it was in its birthday suit, it’ll be fully brushed for the big day.

The Beaufort Owl Hole at 8. 

Then, there’s a leg-stretch along the length of the lake before meeting the biggest crowds, and one of the biggest questions, of the day at fences 9AB and 10AB, the MARS Lake.

The first fence is a slightly offset brush-topped fish with a 2m drop, to a skinny arrowhead in the water on four strides – then, they’ll go on to two further skinny fences. One is on the top of the bank, quite close to the scrum of the crowd, and the second is in the water. The one on the bank, says Eric, will be the most important: if riders don’t set their line up early enough, and try to save a second or two with a tighter turn, they’ll encourage their horses to run out.

This complex, he continues, will be a time-sapper – and it’ll be a while before that time can be made back up.

“You have to accept the fact that you’ll come out of here probably 20 seconds down on the clock.”

The MARS Lake at 9AB/10AB.

After the complexity of the Lake, there’s the familiar face of the water-topped table at fence 11, the World Horse Welfare Table, which was famously inspired by a water feature in a restaurant in Oxford, where Eric took wife Lizzel out for dinner while in the middle of designing the 2019 course.

But, he laments, “my tolerance of boredom is very small. I’d like to change it up, but I haven’t thought of anything that works better there.”

At fence 12, the Project Pony Puzzle, we encounter a wide, open oxer with white, slightly offset rails – a common motif around early-season courses this year.

Fence 13 sees the return of the British Eventing Broken Bridge, which was debuted in 2022 as a way to transition into the back half of the course. It’s a straightforward fence in its own right, but it has a knock-on effect on the combination that follows, because it’s a proper run-and-jump fence and horses will land galloping, so if the adjustment back to a controllable canter takes a bit of time, that’ll eat away at the clock.

The KBIS Slalom at 14AB/15 is one of this year’s significant challenges. 

Fences 14AB and 15 comprise the KBIS Slalom, which looks set to be an influential combination, even if the numbering technically allows for a circle before the final element.

The line on the approach here is interesting: the roping will be reasonably tight, and so riders won’t get eyes on their line until quite close to the fence, because there are low-hanging tree branches obscuring it on the approach.

“I think this is quite decent and will have a real influence on the time, because of how much you have to set up to jump it,” says Eric.

The angle you get to 14B is the most important of the three angled brushes.

“You can jump the second and then go around the tree to come back to the third, but the three together is quite tasty,” says Eric. “It would be easy to get to the 14B and jump it quite straight, but then you’re a bit stuffed [and you’ve opened the door for a right-handed run-out]. There’ll be a few that land here and think, ‘I’ve got no chance of getting to 15.”

Playing it safe here also robs you of the chance to set up for a very intense section of the course to come. A good ride here will engender confidence through the major accuracy questions that are coming up swiftly.

The first use of the Vicarage ditch line comes at fence 16, the Vicarage Oxer.

“We have iconic fences, and we have iconic areas, but to be able to pick up and drop fences so that people don’t know what they’re going to get when they get there, or how their horse is going to feel at eight minutes, is the greatest advantage of how we deal with the ground here,” says Eric. “At Burghley, they’re stuck on that track – you can’t really move the Cottesmore Leap. But Jane said to me, she’d looked at where we’d been over the last few years down here, and it really was everywhere through this valley. This, to me, is the one piece of ground where we can hit into those hills and start to use them a bit. It makes it much more like a cross-country course and also more spectator-friendly – you’ve got loads of places where you can sit and watch quite a few jumps.”

With this ditchline, he continues, he has the choice of being “technical – or just brave.” The Vicarage Vee, perhaps Badminton’s most famous fence, and present in this year’s course, is an example of the former, while the Vicarage Oxer, a yawning timber frame spanning the expanse of the ditch, is the latter, and will embolden horses and riders as they enter the hole-in-the-ground segment of this year’s track.

The funny little T-Bar at 17 shouldn’t be underestimated, but also shouldn’t cause issues for combinations who are equipped for the level. 

Fence 17, the Joules T-Bar Log, also uses the ditch line, but this time with a much narrower fence. The ditch here looks twice as wide as the fence is high, but at this stage of the course, if riders can’t find the right line to get over this, it’s probably a sign that it would be best to come back another day, having done a bit more homework.

At fence 18, the LeMieux Village, it all gets a bit Hot Fuzz. There’s a church with a spire, two houses, a little garden – and by the time we see it again this week, there’s no telling how much time Eric will have put into the details.

“I did it years ago for an unaffiliated event, and we spent ages making this village with a butcher, a church, a bakery with lots of little carved loaves of bread,” laughs Eric. “It all cost a bomb and the event only ended up running for a year!”

This time, though, he has a chance to reproduce the idea – sans loaves of bread, for now at least – at the top level. The houses atop the mound are deformable, to encourage softer riding than Eric says he saw previously over this piece of terrain.

Undecorated and unfinished, but a look at the model village-style complex at 18, with its collapsible element. 

Visually, it’s a bit of a fun departure from the rustic timber that Eric prefers for his Badminton courses – but, he says, there’s a line that he’s keen not to cross.

“I think this will look quite smart, but it’s really a balance between something like this and turning the course into a theme park. I had a stand-off about the eggboxes here, which a lot of people said they really liked. But the problem is, if you give a sponsor a custom fence, how do you then stop another from ringing up and saying ‘we want our fence to be washing line full of clothes,’ and before you know it, your whole course is a theme park. To me, Badminton is about these rustic bits of timber, and if we design what we want to design and then allow branding on the fences, that’s much better. It’s the reason I did away with the solar panels, too – I want to design the questions I want to ask, not the aesthetics.”

Fence 19, the Antech Trakehner, is “basically a stopping fence – it’s just a nice fence to restart them over.”

Sustainability Bay is at its busiest this year. 

Up at fence 20ABCD, Spillers Sustainability Bay, there’s suddenly an awful lot to do.

Sometimes, Eric says, the germination of a course can come from a singular idea – even if that initial brainwave doesn’t make it into the final product. That’s certainly the case with this year’s course, which began with a new concept for Sustainability Bay that featured a turn to a corner in the water.

But, he says, “when we went to put it out I thought, ‘no – that’s not going to work.’ We got it in there and it looked absolutely vast. The water wasn’t big enough to allow three or four strides to find a line to it.”

Those bright ideas that don’t quite fit aren’t dispensed with entirely – instead, he files them away for use elsewhere, on another spot in the course or at another venue entirely, wherever the right piece of ground and design challenge might present itself.

When I suggest an alternative Badminton some year – an accumulator format, perhaps, in which Eric sets a course featuring all of his wildest whims, no matter how unjumpable, he wryly replies, “that’s what we did in my first year, no?”

“It’s interesting,” he continues, “walking with Andy [Heffernan, who is assistant designing here for the first time]. I can see me in my first year in him. Everything is bigger, stronger, wider – and I’m like ‘woah, woah!’ The easiest thing in designing five-stars is to go too big.”

Though the original corner concept didn’t work out, it hasn’t been totally abandoned. This year’s interpretation of the pond is the busiest it’s been in a very long time, if ever: six fences in total, with two route options; upright rail to left-handed corner to right-handed corner or rail to rail to corner. The times are fairly close on either route but each will suit a specific horse.

“It’s got the guts of what I wanted to do,” says Eric. “I wanted to make it a bit of an either/or rather than a fast route and a slow route, though the left-hand route is probably very slightly more direct. They just look for different skills: the rails will suit quite a neat jumper and the corners will suit a bold, precise one.”

After this, there’s roughly 50 seconds of galloping, which is a welcome chance to catch up on some time – but we’re also two-thirds of the way into the course now, and so riders can’t go hellbent for leather at the expense of their horse’s energy levels. They’ll need to ride this sympathetically so it refills the lungs and gives them a second wind.

The INEOS Sunken Road at 21AB.

Then, they’ll come to the INEOS Sunken Road at fence 21AB. We’ve previously seen this complex built with rails, and it’s generally been an influential question; this year, it’s made up of brush fences instead, and perhaps a touch more visually inviting.

“I did think about making both of them true bullfinches, but then I thought, ‘it would be good to have a showjumping competition on Sunday, wouldn’t it?’,” laughs Eric.

Now, he says, the question should be more of a speed ramp than a true test of skills.

A side-on look at Mike Weaver’s Farm Yard at 22AB, with its unique terrain question. 

At fence 22AB, Mike Weaver’s Farm Yard, there’s a small ditch in the hollow up to choice of left or right angled rail. The left route is very slightly quicker but features a sharper incline; the right has a slight camber that softens the approach. The rails themselves are quite little but the ground is tricksy here and there will be runouts, particularly as the ditch can be a touch unpredictable and horses can balloon or skip over it. There’s an alternative to the rails if someone has issues, as it’s nearly impossible to approach them in isolation.

This is a good spot to leave your dad for the afternoon, by the way, if that’s a concern you have.

“Mike Weaver’s the guy who owns the hay cart,” explains Eric, who’s decorating this complex with a playpen full of vintage farmyard equipment supplied by the neighbour of the estate. “I got chatting to him and said, ‘you know something, I could really do with a threshing machine for this little corral,’ and he said, ‘oh, I’ve got a threshing machine. But I haven’t got a tractor that goes with the threshing machine, because the threshing machine’s from 1949 and the tractor’s from 1962…’”

“But then he says, ‘actually, I’ve got a mate who’s got a 1962, and then he brought loads of stuff, hay trucks and machines and all sorts. So now we have this little area where we have a really fun and inexpensive way of dressing it up.”

Next, there’s a yawning corner over a ditch at fence 23/24, which is just one jumping effort if they pop that or, if they want to make it a little bit easier, they can jump the ditch at 23 and a different corner at 24, with a circle in between. Then they’ll skip on over to the Holland Cooper Vicarage Vee at fence 25AB – one of the sport’s most famous, and frightening, fences, with its tiny margin for error and its exacting angled trajectory.

“It’s incredible that something that was designed fifty years ago still asks all the questions you’d want to ask for the sport,” says Eric.

Spitting off the edge of the world: the Mayston Equestrian Hollow at 26ABC.

Last year, the Mayston Equestrian Hollow at fence 26ABC caused a number of problems as horses skimmed past the skinny fences on the lip of the quarry, and this year, Eric has moved them back a bit.

“This is probably slightly more simple than in previous years, but I think it did tend to come up big through here,” he says. “This time, I’ve given them a bit more time and made it straighter. It’s a funny distance across here, and if you’re on the lip, it’s a very open five or a very short six. Last year, a lot of them landed [here] and ended up on nothing.”

Now, it’s six strides from the drop to the first brush-topped skinny, and three more to the second of the skinnies.

Then, there’s another long gallop before meeting the Spillers Stables single fence at fence 27, which will get them back up in the air.

Back in the main field, competitors will navigate the colossal, half-owlhole-style corners at fence 28AB, the Rathbones Curve, which are set on an open six strides this time. This, Eric thinks, will be easier than last year, when they featured early on in the course and had a trickier line, causing plenty of problems.

“It’s slightly more open this time. Last year I made them hug the string and turn off it to find the line, and this time it’s much more offered up to them.”

Fence 29, the Countryside Parallel, is a silver birch oxer that offers a tantalising glimpse of the red and white roof of the grandstands – that enduring symbol of the finish at Badminton.

Next, there’s the final combination of the day: fence 30ABC is the Savills Keepers Rails. They can jump this as two fences – a double of timber oxers – or three, a timber oxer to two slightly less imposing uprights. They’re all MIM-clipped, so require careful jumping, and it’s unlikely we’ll see many riders give their horses an extra jumping effort at this late stage.

Then, it’s fence 31, the Keepers Lodge, a stalwart of a brush-topped rolltop, before they head back into the main arena to pop fence 32, the MARS M, everyone’s favourite fence unless you make a silly mistake: you win or you become good television, laughs Eric, who confesses to  secretly loving the drama of reality TV.

So what’s the verdict?

Well, as Eric tells us, sometimes the final product ends up surprising you – and in the case of this year’s course, it’s ended up being a much bigger, bolder track than he necessarily envisaged when he set out to design it.

“Last year, when I was walking around on the Monday, I thought the course had come up a big lighter than I’d thought, but actually it still finished up around a 50% clear rate,” he says. “This year feels like it’s come up slightly bigger than I’d thought it would.”

Big fences, beautiful going, and a chance for a bit of history to be made, if Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo have anything to say about it – it’s a competition that has all the ingredients for a vintage-feeling Badminton. There’s an awful lot to be done en route to winning it, and the vibe at Badminton HQ is wholly positive, despite some baseless concerns winging their way around social media about the slightly smaller field of entries this year.

 “I knew we wouldn’t have the strongest field, because it’s a World Championships year. The year after an Olympics is always a very strong field, because you get the 15 and 16 year olds who did the Olympics and Badminton is a bucket list item their riders want to tick off with a horse who’s probably not going to go to the next Olympics,” explains Eric. “A lot of good horses come out of the woodwork, proper World Championships and Olympic horses. This year, a lot of people will be saving their horses. The UK is slightly different in that a lot of people have reserve horses, but the Europeans will mostly save their best horses for the Worlds.”

“One of my ambitions when I took over here,” he continues, “was to get rid of the waitlist. I wanted it to be the pinnacle and to stay there, whereas with the waitlist, it was a bit up and down. You’d get people bringing nine-year-olds that hadn’t done a 5*, but had gone well at Blenheim. I wanted to get to the point where people wanted to bring a horse here and so they really made a plan and worked towards it, rather than coming just because they’d qualified.”

The waitlist, he tells us with a laugh, hasn’t always been quite the narrative device it has become in recent years.

“When Hugh [Thomas] was still designing and I was TD, we had one year with a massive waitlist. Jane kept ringing people up to offer them a spot – ‘so and so has pulled out, and you’re next on the waitlist’ – and everyone kept saying, ‘oh, I actually only really entered as a joke, I’m not coming!’ Six times, this happened, and it wasn’t until the seventh rider she called that she found someone who actually wanted to come! That was back when we didn’t charge entry fees. We started charging them after that!”

“Vin Jones [breeder of Treworra, entered this year with Katie Magee, incidentally] was the best one. Three times he came here, did his dressage test, didn’t run cross-country, and just hung out and went to the parties for the rest of the event. He kept it thoroughly safe!”

A winning strategy if ever we’ve heard one. For everyone else, there’s wheeling to be done and a lot of lines out there to walk and rewalk. Bring it on.

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