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Volcanoes, Unpredictable Distances, and One Heck of a Slide: Catch Up with Pratoni Course Designer Giuseppe della Chiesa

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 9, 2022 2:24 pm -

Being able to balance the gallop, and moderate energy use, down hills is crucial for an economic round at Pratoni. Emiliano Portale heads down to fence 8 with Aracne della’Esercita Italiano. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We’re just a week away from cross-country eve at the 2022 FEI World Championships for Eventing at Italy’s Pratoni del Vivaro, and we know we’re not alone in wondering what on earth might be in store for the 90 competitors making the trip out there. Following a successful trip to Rome in May for the World Championships test event, we caught up with course designer and show director Giuseppe della Chiesa to find out more about his grand plans — and what he hopes to see next week.

The test event, which also served as the opening leg of the 2022 Nations Cup series, allowed Guiseppe to experiment with the lay of the land and many of the routes he planned to use for next week’s event — and, fortunately for him, it all turned out rather as he’d thought it might.

“It all went, I think, a bit as expected — there wasn’t anything that shocked me completely,” says Giuseppe. “Sometimes it does — but this time, it was quite expected, and I was very happy.”

Many of the difficulties came at the first combination at 7ABC, a double of brushes under the trees at the top of the first hill on course, which didn’t quite surprise Giuseppe — nor has it changed his plans for the ‘real deal’ next week.

“There are two things [that happened there]: first of all, light,” he says. “Light is an element of cross-country. And you must appreciate, there were two routes there that were very clear, but one was definitely more difficult than the other in many aspects, one of which was light. The other one was all in the sunshine, so there’s no shadows. I think with the direct route, some riders were a bit quick to it and didn’t give their horses enough time to adjust. The other thing, of course, is that we need to put a combination in early, because these horses are so good that later on in the course, you’ll see them find similar combinations a lot easier.”

The one thing that did surprise Giuseppe was riders’ commitment to the direct route at the first combination, even after it had proved difficult for several top riders. Giuseppe, who made a commitment to building flowing long routes for both his test event and for next week’s Championship track, had expected to see more riders — particularly those on greener horses, or who are inexperienced themselves — opting to go long there.

“It was a bit longer, but it wasn’t that long — but then they kept going straight, so I just said, ‘okay, fine!’ They didn’t change their plan,” he muses.

Spain’s Eduardo via Dufresne and Maribera Pomes 15.6 cross the country late on course at Pratoni. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Though Giuseppe has some of the best hills in the sport at his disposal for next week’s World Championships, he’s firm in his conviction that a truly horse-friendly course must relinquish its terrain element in the final couple of minutes, instead relying on technical questions to keep competitors busy. This, he hopes, will mean that penalties accrued by tired horses will be harmless ones — run-outs at angled brushes, for example — rather than dangerous ones, such as falls at wide tables.

“This venue is a fantastic venue, but you must use it with care because — and this will be very similar at the Championship — you must never finish on a hill,” he says. “A tired horse on a hill will not finish; he just stops. He says, ‘I’ve had enough’. But a tired horse on flat ground, if the rider has a bit of a brain, has the chance of a softer route to bring him home. I didn’t use that so much in the short-format competition, but in the long-format, I will. I’ve always been a big believe that you must do hills early on and finish flat.”

By placing technical combinations in the final two minutes, too, he hopes to minimise the chances of a blind gallop to the finish, which can drain a hard-working horse’s final supply of energy and potentially lead to accidents.

“I want to give them a chance to come home, and I’m quite happy with that, because when you finish on the flat there’s a real risk that the riders will just look at the clock and run. So I have this idea of always trying to keep them a bit busy — in a soft way, but busy on the flat. I think it worked quite well [at the test event], because to the last minute, they needed to have something left. I wanted to challenge the riders without punishing the horses, and I think it worked.”

May’s test event was run as a CCI4*-S, while next week’s competition will be run at ‘Championship level’, which is effectively sandwiched in the middle of CCI4*-L and CCI5*-L technicality and dimensions but over a modified ten-minute track of between 5600-5800m and 38-42 jumping efforts. That’s shorter than we generally see at CCI4*-L (and certainly shorter than CCI5* — Badminton this spring, for example, was an 11:45 track!), but just a couple of efforts less than the roughly 45 we’d expect to see at the top level, which means that there’s a higher number of jumps per 100m and, as such, a much higher level of intensity. The jumps will come up thick and fast, incorporating the terrain as they go — and in order to add in the extra time and distance, Giuseppe has earmarked two crucial pieces of land to add on to his test event course.

The first will come very near the start of the course, and is an iconic feature in the Pratoni landscape: the Pratoni slide is a steep decline with a plateau splitting it in two, which means that shortly after they start, competitors will have an extra hill to climb en route to the top of it, and then a challenging accuracy question as they come back down on fresh horses. The Pratoni slide has been used in every major competition in recent years, and tends to be influential — as you can see in this footage from the 2007 European Championships, which Giuseppe also designed:

“There was never any doubt in my mind that I would use the Pratoni slide,” says Giuseppe with a smile. “The idea is that you start off more or less in the same way [as at the test event]: you go up the hill, you do some things up there, and then you come down the slide and join more or less the same track. Then you do the other big hill, and then you come back down and play a bit on the flat.”

It’s once the competitors reach the lowest part of the course again that they’ll meet their second new addition to the course, a flat loop of land that stretches out back behind the existing water complex and wasn’t touched during May’s test event.

In several places on the course this May, Giuseppe was able to play with shorter, sharper bits of terrain in a way that was appropriate for the CCI4*-S level: there was a coffin on undulating ground, with generous variable distances, and a steep downhill approach to the second water, with an uphill stride or two out of it. These questions, and the manner in which he asks them, will be present on next week’s course — but in order to make the challenge more appropriate for this higher level, he plans to shorten some of the distances, which will remove much of the margin for error if competitors opt for the direct route.

“Coffins like that are seen as quite an old-fashioned eventing question,” he says. “There’s a lot of discussion about this, because some people say they land on the camber and all this — but the problem is actually that a lot of horses here aren’t accustomed to real cross-country. Some of them don’t know how to pat the ground, so they just throw themselves over, but there are some that do a better job of it. For me, a little bit of that should be on cross-country.”

Also crucial to cross-country, Giuseppe says, is cultivating the ability to ride adaptively — and so his distances in combinations such as these can be interpreted a variety of ways, accounting for the fact that some horses might land downhill and bound down to the next question in one stride, while others might put in several tentative shuffling steps.

“I like to have some unpredictability in the course so you learn to ride by the seat of your pants. It’s something we used to do a lot, but sometimes riders have lost it a bit, because they can be a bit stride obsessed. But a horse’s stride can be a meter; it can be several meters. You see different patterns through the day, and that can confuse the riders a bit. There’s so much to play with here that you must be careful not to go too far, but for sure, coming out of the coffin becomes more difficult if you change the stride from a three-to-four distance to a two-to-three.”

For Giuseppe, taking those quiet risks with distances is a safe enough gamble, because he doesn’t just know horses — he also knows these hills as well as he knows himself after a long history among them.

“I have a long history with Pratoni, because I began by riding here,” recalls Giuseppe. “I’ve always lived in Rome, and I started in racing before I moved to eventing. As an eventer living in Rome, Pratoni is your home. You’re training here, you’re competing here — and this famous slide is so interesting, because we always did it with young horses. Our five-year-olds were going down it, walking to start with, and then trotting down, and then you’d add in a little log, and then you jump down and the horses know how to do it. For the horses who’ve never seen it, though, it can be a lot.”

“I first competed here when I was in my twenties — so I know the hills well,” he laughs. His career as a designer here has been similarly long and fruitful.

“The Europeans in 2007 was a major Championship, but I did design here before and after that, including Nations Cups and national competitions,” he says. He received particular support — and insight — from the late Albino Garbari, who designed courses for the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 1995 European Championships and 1998 World Equestrian Games in Pratoni, and was the first director of the Federal Equestrian Centre here.

“He has been a teacher of mine; I did a lot with him, and he really knew these hills well,” Giuseppe says.

While the hills are a real playground for a course designer to enjoy, Pratoni’s most unique feature is arguably its ground, which is made of a mix of volcanic ash and sand and won’t, on a molecular level, clump into mud, regardless of the conditions.

“There is no other place in the world like this. It’s volcanic sand, and you can see that the dust is unique — there’s a special tan that you get at Pratoni,” he laughs, pointing to our — sadly, temporarily — bronzed ankles. “But this powdery sand is incredible for the horses, because whether it’s dry or wet, it’s always the same. The horses love it; they run well on it and they don’t slip, and it’s forgiving. It allows you to do things other places couldn’t do — you couldn’t have the slide anywhere else, because if it rained, they would be really sliding!”

Sweden’s Aminda Ingulfsson and Joystick power through the final water question with its small, intense slope. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Giuseppe has incorporated elements that date back to the 1960 Olympics, including a capacious open ditch that featured in the test event, but interspersed them with modern portable fences, equipped with safety features and demanding considerably more technicality than the courses of old. And, just as his course will mark a meeting of new and old eventing, the type of horse he expects to see excel is a modern competitor with some of the best elements of its forefathers handed down — namely, those ineffable Thoroughbred qualities.

“Clearly, Pratoni is not flat, so you need a horse that has enough blood and ability to gallop without getting too tired. You need the type of horse that, when he gets tired, he doesn’t give up. All horses get tired, but there are horses that get tired and give up, and there are horses that keep pushing and digging. You need that horse, because there will be hills, and it can be hot, and you want to make the time in order to move up.”

Much of the experience and knowledge that Giuseppe brings to his World Championships track comes from the results of a challenging 2007 European Championships effort.

“I was a younger designer then, and it was a bit hot,” he remembers. “There were lots of experts that said, ‘oh, this is too easy, it’s not a championship’ — and then they all went out on Saturday and were like, ‘oh!’ There’s a bit of a hidden difficulty here that you don’t find until you’re out there on your horse, moving up and down. You could count 33 jumping efforts while you’re walking, but there are many more efforts hidden in the ground.”

Sophie Leube and Jadore Moi demonstrate one of the many stride patterns available into the second water. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

As show director for the FEI World Championships for Eventing, Giuseppe was also at the heart of the decision to put the final phase on grass, recruiting legendary pure showjumping designer Uliano Vezzani, himself a major advocate for jumping on grass, to make his eventing designing debut. This decision came down to two factors: using the undulating grass arena adds a level of difficulty to the final phase, and it also commemorates Pratoni’s beginnings as an Olympic venue.

“This venue is an iconic venue for the fact that it was from the 1960 Olympics and it’s still doing the same job,” he says. “There are very few Olympic equestrian venues that are still used for the purpose for which they were made. And that arena is the arena they jumped in at the Olympics. The ground is good, the footing is good, and so we thought — it’s not perfect, but who cares? It’s nice, so why not? At the end of the day, horses are born on grass, they live on grass, and the more we can keep them on grass, the better it is.”

Here, here, Giuseppe. We look forward to seeing the final track in action.

Want more Pratoni news? Head over to our Ultimate Guide to FEI World Championships for Eventing, and be sure to sign up for the #Pratoni2022 Daily Digest email, which will begin delivering to your inbox daily on Tuesday, September 13.

Thursday Video: All the Queen’s Horses

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 8, 2022 4:31 pm -

Much of the UK is in mourning tonight after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away this afternoon at Balmoral at the age of 96.

The Queen was a lifelong horsewoman, and owned horses across the disciplines — as well as her own riding ponies, who she was seen riding just days ago. On her diamond jubilee ten years ago, she was honoured with an extraordinary equestrian display — and on the sad occasion of her death, we want to revisit it in all its glory. A fitting send-off for a woman who would probably have liked to have spent her whole life in the stables, much as any of us would.

The Fantastic Fourteen: Meet the Horses Who’ve Done the Badminton and Burghley Double

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 8, 2022 1:03 pm -

“I can’t quite believe it”: Piggy March adds Burghley champion to her resume with Vanir Kamira. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Last week’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials saw Piggy March take an emotional win aboard Vanir Kamira, which made her just the third mare to win the event — and the fourteenth horse to win both Badminton and Burghley since Burghley’s inception in 1962. And the previous thirteen? Well, they’re a real who’s-who of the sport. Here are their stories.

Anneli Drummond-Hay and Merely-a-Monarch – perhaps the world’s first truly remarkable event horse. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Merely-a-Monarch – Burghley 1961, Badminton 1962

In her early twenties, Anneli Drummond-Hay bought an advert seeking a talented youngster in Horse & Hound, and although she was offered plenty of duds for sale, one response made her look twice. She was mailed a photograph of a two-year-old – a lovely stamp of a horse, she thought, but a year or two younger than she wanted. She forgot all about the horse, but a year later, the owners contacted her to ask if she could post the photograph back to them as they were still trying to sell the horse. This time, she decided to go and have a look herself.

“I fell in love with him immediately,” she recalled. Merely-a-Monarch was ¾ Thoroughbred and a quarter Fell pony and just as classy as he’d been the year prior. Anneli borrowed the £300 purchase price and got to work with the talented, tricky youngster.

By the time he was five, Monarch had won a horse trials at Tweseldown and had also been victorious at the Horse of the Year Show, winning the Foxhunter (1.20m) class, the show hunter division, and the combined training championship. The following year, in 1961, Anneli opted to enter him for a brand new competition: the Burghley Horse Trials, which was opening its doors for the first time.

24-year-old Anneli Drummond-Hay hadn’t actually had much match practice with her remarkable six-year-old, Merely-a-Monarch, before she put in her entry to the new and prestigious event. Though she had plenty of experience herself, having previously won the Pony European Championships and topping the annual leaderboard of British riders three times, this would be an altogether different challenge. Undeterred, she and the horse — with whom she’d largely contested showjumping, and who hadn’t experienced any water more taxing than a puddle in the lane — set out with one goal in mind: simply come home safely. After all, she hadn’t even intended to enter Monarch, but her intended mount was out of action, and so he would have to do.

They would lead the dressage by 30 marks and, drawn last to go on cross-country, they were greeted by the news that everyone else in the field had had at least one fall, many of them at the Trout Hatchery, where a hole had formed in the footing on the landing side of the jump into the water. With this in mind, Anneli nursed her young horse around the course, choosing the less popular log option into the water and coming home with the only clear round of the day. An unsurprising clear round over the poles the next day meant that victory was theirs by an astonishing margin of nearly 34 points. The next year, they would also take top honours at Badminton — this time, by 42 points.

As part of her preparation for Badminton the following spring, Anneli sent Monarch to Ivor Herbert’s gallops for fitness prep. Because Ivor only allowed jockeys to use his track, Anneli had to sign the ride over for the day, and Monarch was sent out to gallop with Flame Gun, one of the most successful two-mile chasers of the time. Monarch outstripped the full Thoroughbred easily.

After taking the Badminton title, Anneli was so worried about her beloved – and now extraordinarily valuable – horse getting hurt that she opted to switch to pure showjumping. Women still weren’t allowed to ride on the eventing team at the Olympics, but had been let into the showjumping squad, and this was another enormous influence on Anneli’s decision.

Captain James Templer on M’Lord Connolly at Badminton, 1964. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

M’Lord Connolly – Burghley 1962, Badminton 1964

Captain James Templer was part of the illustrious King’s Troop when he contested the Open European Championships at Burghley in 1962, taking the victory and the coveted title of European Champion with the excellent M’Lord Connolly. The gelding was later moved to the US, where he was first given to Mike Plumb as a wedding present in 1966, but subsequently passed on to Kevin Freeman after the pair didn’t quite see eye to eye, and became the USEA Horse of the Year in 1969.

Though there’s not a huge amount of information that still exists about this partnership or the game, tough horse who was just the second ever to achieve this accolade, we do know his breeding: he was an Anglo-Arab, and thus the forebear of another, much more famous, Anglo-Arab who would go on to do the double some four decades later.

Jane Holderness-Roddam and Warrior. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Warrior — Burghley 1976, Badminton 1978

Jane Holderness-Roddam (nee Bullen) already had a Badminton win under her belt by the time the excellent Warrior came along — she’d taken the trophy in 1968 aboard the diminutive Our Nobby, with whom she also became the first woman to ever represent Britain in eventing at the Olympics the same year. Though she wasn’t originally particularly taken with Warrior, who she described as a very ordinary sort of mover, and who was sourced from the first-ever Badminton victor, John Shedden, she quickly spotted his innate natural balance, which made him great fun to ride across even the trickiest of terrain.

“He was a very, very good jumper,” said Jane in an interview with Elysian of the gelding, who she rode for an American owner called Suzy Hart. “It’s not that Our Nobby wasn’t, but he was just quick and fast and didn’t think about what he was doing. He just went instinctually. Warrior was very much a thinking horse. I really had to learn to think as quickly as he did because he would never put himself into any dangerous situation. He would stop quite often if everything wasn’t quite right. Thanks to him, I learned to ride properly. I had luck on my side with Our Nobby. However, Warrior was the one that made me into a rider because everything had to be right, and then he would do everything right.”

It was their second five-star win together, at Badminton in 1978, that Jane regards as the ride of her life.

“After the dressage,we were lying third,” she recounted to Horse&Hound. “This was an amazing effort by this horse, who was very correct but uninspiring. On the second day Warrior did a brilliant steeplechase. He flew round within the time and gave me a wonderful ride. He loved the fences on the cross-country course and ate up the ground. He lapped up jumping into the lake and got everything right. A great character, he loved the crowd; the more people and chances to show off the better. We finished that day in second place. The next day he was felt absolutely fine, and he knew how important the show jumping was. He did a superb round and we pipped Lucinda Green and Village Gossip to first place.”

After that, the pair went on to compete at the notoriously tough 1978 World Championships in Kentucky, and went on to Badminton in 1979 and Burghley in 1980 before his retirement from the sport. They also acted as the stunt doubles for the leads in the classic eventing film International Velvet.

Jane, for her part, earned the nickname ‘the galloping nurse’ because, at the time of her first Badminton win, she was working full time as a nurse in London. In fact, the 20-year-old worked seven night shifts back to back leading straight into Badminton. Despite lack of sleep and the rigours of her stressful job, she achieved the maximum possible bonuses on Saturday and delivered the pivotal clear round on Sunday. It was exactly what she needed to win what was deemed in a year with the biggest field yet – 55 entries – and what was, at the time, the biggest and toughest cross-country challenge in the world. Though eventing hadn’t yet reached the peak of professionalism that it has now, it was still unusual for a Badminton competitor to juggle eventing alongside a full-time job – indeed, the only person to win with such credentials since was Captain Mark Phillips, who won while serving as an army officer. In the years since, Jane has been a lady in waiting to Princess Anne, earned herself a CBE while running British Eventing, owns and runs the prolific West Kington Stud, and works closely with equine charities, among her many accolades and accomplishments.

Lucinda Prior-Palmer and George, right, enjoy their win. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

George — Badminton 1977, Burghley 1977

In 1977, then two-time Badminton winner Lucinda Green (nee Prior-Palmer) was back with a bang riding George, the 16.2hh grandson of 1948 Grand National winner Sheila’s Cottage. Though he looked the perfect stamp of an event horse, his competition record was so peppered with falls that Lucinda nearly turned down the ride. But her father had reached the terminal stages of his cancer diagnosis, and life in the Prior-Palmer household was a pretty morose affair, so her parents encouraged her to take the horse on as a welcome distraction. He arrived just a matter of weeks before Badminton and promptly went lame.

Lucinda managed to get him back on the straight and narrow with just enough time to run at a one-day event as practice. To her own great surprise, they won it – and Lucinda began to wonder if she should aspire to more than just survival at their big outing.

She changed her mind swiftly upon starting the second phase. Although George had performed well in the dressage to sit fourth, he set against her hand in the steeplechase and ploughed through most of the fences. But while Lucinda was losing faith, her support team wasn’t – her father even insisted on leading the horse around in the ten-minute box.

“It was their optimism and belief that finally shook me out of my own depths of despondency,” Lucinda recalled.

George responded in kind. As they set out onto cross country proper, he came into his own, jumping around faultlessly to finish within the optimum time and go into the lead. That Sunday was St George’s Day and, as though in recognition of the fact, he jumped yet another foot-perfect clear to secure a third victory for his rider. That autumn, he contested the Open European Championships at Burghley, winning both team and individual gold, and was retired to the hunt field shortly thereafter. Lucinda’s father passed away in the months following her Badminton victory.

Lucinda Green and Beagle Bay. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Beagle Bay — Burghley 1981, Badminton 1984

Lucinda Green’s final Badminton victory — of a record-holding six! — came in 1984 aboard the great grey Beagle Bay, the part-bred Welsh pony with whom she’d won Burghley in 1981. Beagle Bay’s great weakness was his intermittent unsoundness, and Lucinda had been disappointed several times at three-days when she’d found herself forced to withdraw on Sunday morning. He also had a bit of pony brain about him, which meant that he could occasionally stop or duck out of a fence purely, it seemed, for the laugh. His “fat pony tummy,” as Lucinda called it, “must have housed a huge pair of lungs as he had tremendous stamina.”

Ginny Elliott and Priceless. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Priceless — Badminton 1985, Burghley 1983 and 1985

No matter what your barometer for success is, Ginny Elliott’s (nee Leng) Priceless –“the most intelligent horse that has ever looked through a bridle” — surely hits them. He helped Great Britain to team gold medals at the 1981 and 1985 European Championships and the 1982 and 1986 World Championships, as well as team silver and individual bronze at the 1984 Olympics, and he became the European Champion at Burghley in 1985, followed by World Champion at Gawler in 1986, making him one of a very small, elite group of horses to hold both titles concurrently. He also won both Badminton and Burghley, and until Andrew Nicholson’s Avebury came along and did the treble, he was the only horse to win the latter twice. Titles and accolades aside, he also never picked up a cross-country jumping penalty in a three-day, which is pretty remarkable by anyone’s standards.

Ian Stark once said that “in the flesh he looks like a very large pony, and when he wasn’t fit you might have wondered if he’d be capable of Three-Day eventing”, and Ginny herself referred to him as “an awkward chap” — but like so many of the sport’s most beloved horses, it was his quirks that made him great. He would buck, with maximum effort and multiple times, if he felt the tap of a crop, but was athletic enough to find his way out of a combination even if he did so in a tight double — and at Burghley in 1983, Ginny’s watch failed on course, and so in a bid to save time she became the only competitor to go for the straight route at the brandy glass fence. ‘Mr P’ never so much as thought about hesitating.

“He mapped out my life,” Ginny told Kate Green in an interview for Horse&Hound. “I would never have evented at that level without him or gone on to buy other horses. It was his brain, his attitude, his wilfulness and his guts that did it. He did what he did against all the odds. The long format was against him – in fact, it was against most horses – he was just a trooper.”

Tricky, clever, impossible to catch, and rather common, Priceless became the benchmark of the odd horse who comes good at the toughest levels, and Ginny’s novel approach to fitness — she worked in tandem with racehorse trainer Michael Dickinson to get him as fit as possible — inspired a whole host of new ways of producing event horses.

Ginny Leng and Master Craftsman in 1989. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Master Craftsman — Badminton 1989, Burghley 1989

Ginny Elliott did the double for a second time in 1989, winning both titles with the superb Master Craftsman. The precociously talented gelding went to the Olympics at the tender age of eight, and should have gone again four years later, but for an unfortunate bit of bad luck that kept an individual gold Olympic medal out of her hands:

“It was tragic; he was 12, and en route to the Barcelona Olympics,” Ginny told EquiRatings. “We had to go to a different gallop under team instructions. I unfortunately hit a damp spot on the gallop, he knocked himself and the next day he was unlevel but not lame. The day after that, he was marginally better but they were flying the next day and the reserve was waiting in the wings. “There was a week or 10 days until the competition started and you were thinking, ‘how am I going to feel if I get there and he doesn’t pass the third day?’ So we decided we couldn’t go; we couldn’t risk letting anyone down.”

But he certainly did get his moments in the spotlight, and when he took Burghley in 1989, months after winning Badminton, he did so in a year that it also held the Open European Championships — and so a rightfully deserved gold medal, and the European title, was his.

“He was still quite green and I didn’t know if he would be athletic enough for Burghley,” remembered Ginny in an interview with Horse Talk. “But he did a lovely dressage test and a fast cross-country. However, he was a difficult horse to show jump. I am a bit ‘blonde’ so I used to walk the track about 10 times and, of course, this time there was so much at stake. There was a dreadful moment when we landed over a fence and I realised I hadn’t a clue where to go next! Thankfully, it seemed as if a guardian angel had tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Turn right’. I did, and it was the right decision, but it was a nasty moment!”

Though he achieved the same double as Priceless, “they were totally different horses,” says Ginny in an interview with Horse & Hound. “Priceless was barely 16hh, three-quarter bred, and had to put up with me learning on him. He was a fantastic mover – as though he were on springs – but more of a hunter type than ‘Crafty’, who was a beautiful, big thoroughbred. But they were both ‘good soldiers’ – brave and honest, and it didn’t seem to matter what you put them at. Priceless only had one cross-country fault in his life – I fell off him, he didn’t fall – and Crafty didn’t have a single one.”

Mary King and Star Appeal. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Star Appeal — Burghley 1996, Badminton 2000

Marvellous ‘Apple’ was one of the poster boys of the 1990s with Mary King in the irons, and although he was always rather overshadowed by the white-faced 1992 Badminton winner King William, he was an extraordinary competitor in his own right. His wins include Punchestown in 1995, team gold at the 1997 European Championships at Burghley, and a trip to the Olympics in 2000. Unlike King William, he was an excellent show jumper: “He wasn’t as beautiful as King William, but he tried his hardest, which is why he had so much success. You could be so accurate on him, he was brave and a very good showjumping horse,” said Mary in an interview with EquiRatings.

Apple came from the same Newbury dealers’ yard as King William did, and was sourced by Mary and owners the Pinders in 1990.

“Although Apple didn’t strike me as particularly attractive, he had a bold, purposeful outlook and a carefree attitude which I liked. He looked ‘all horse’ and I could imagine him galloping around Badminton Horse Trials,” recounted Mary. “We affectionately call him “Policeman Plod” as he’s unflappable, especially on hacks. He never spooks and always walks in a straight line with his ears forward. Despite his strength, he is a sensitive horse underneath, especially when working at home or competing, and he’s friendly in the stable.”

Remarkably, Apple’s greatest successes came after injuries that could have been career-ending: he broke his leg in the field after sustaining a kick from another horse, and dealt with a serious hoof infection after stepping on a nail, too. But with care, close attention, and the help of Devon’s rolling hills, he made it back to tip-top shape and fitness each time.

Pippa Funnell and Primmore’s Pride. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Primmore’s Pride — Burghley 2003, Badminton 2005

Though his Badminton win in 2005 is the more recent memory, it’s Primmore Pride’s 2003 Burghley win that sticks in most people’s minds — because it was there that the 7/8 Thoroughbred gelding helped Pippa Funnell seal the deal and become the first winner of the Rolex Grand Slam, and the only rider to accomplish it in the old long-format version of the sport. Their Burghley win was their third of the bunch: Pippa had taken Kentucky that spring with the gelding, and Badminton with Supreme Rock. In 2005, when Primmore’s Pride took Badminton, he became the first-ever horse to win three different five-stars.

His career began on a high, with a win in the Seven-Year-Old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in 2000, and would go on to loftier heights still, including an individual bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Grand Slam win helped Pippa become the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, and she made it to the top five in the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, too. Like Priceless before him, he benefits from Ben Faerie Thoroughbred lines — though he’s a grandson, while Priceless was an own son. Still, the toughness and grittiness that was bestowed upon both was plain to see.

“From a youngster he’s had more ability and potential than I ever had,” said Pippa in an interview with The Independent in 2004. “He was bred for it, his dam went twice around Badminton and his sire was ridden by Mark Todd. He’s always had this amazing, scopey jump. He is very, very good, but because he is so big, he needs setting up some time before he jumps. You can’t spin him around like you can a smaller horse. But he’s very fit and he’s quite brilliant.”

Andrew Hoy and Moonfleet. Photo courtesy of Badminton Horse Trials.

Moonfleet — Burghley 2004, Badminton 2006

When Moonfleet helped Australia’s Andrew Hoy to the Badminton victory in 2006, he helped to banish something of a demon from the 47-year-old’s back: he’d been trying for 27 years to nab the title, and had finished in the top ten in his last five runs there. His first attempt had come four years before the birth of third-placed Oliver Townend, a fact that the latter was keen to share with journalists, probably much to Hoy’s chagrin. But what a story, and what a horse: the Irish-bred gelding had been bought by his owner, Sue Magnier, at the Tattersalls Derby Sales as a 50,000 guinea three-year-old, intending to add him to her string of top-class racehorses. But he wasn’t impressive at all as a point-to-pointer, and fell in his second start, after which he was trialled out eventing by junior rider Tom Magnier of the Coolmore Stud. Then, as an eight-year-old, he swapped to Andrew Hoy, who had been training the pair. Three years into their partnership, they won the CCI5* at Luhmühlen, which was followed by a fall at the World Championships an a period of severe unsoundness.

At the point of his career zenith, Moonfleet benefited from a serious secret weapon: Hoy was, at the time, married to German eventer Bettina Hoy, who’s one of the sport’s most accomplished dressage riders and did much of the gelding’s schooling ahead of Badminton in particular, because Andrew was in the States winning Kentucky aboard Master Monarch. “Moonfleet told me he’s going to do a 36,” she said to Andrew when she handed him over for his test — and she was very nearly right. He did a 36.5 (or 24.3 in new money). For Bettina, too, riding the horse was crucial: after a tough few years, which had seen her lose Olympic individual gold on a technicality and suffer the death of a horse in competition, it was schooling the Thoroughbred that helped her stay focused and love her work again.

“Without Moonfleet I wouldn’t be competing any more,” she said to The Age. “He brought a smile back to my face.”

Lucinda Fredericks and Headley Britannia on their way to winning Badminton in 2007. Photo used with permission from Kit Houghton.

Headley Britannia — Burghley 2006, Badminton 2007

Just two mares have managed the double, and the first of those is as unconventional a champion as the most recent. Lucinda Fredericks’s Headley Britannia, who she described as “small but [with] such a huge heart”, was “a true professional and made my career what it is, and without her I wouldn’t be where I am. She was my best friend. She touched so many lives and always brought a smile to everyone’s face. Brit’s competitive spirit, maneuverability, sheer guts and a will to win propelled her to the top of the equestrian sport of eventing.”

And small she most certainly was: at 15.3hh, she looked almost comically small galloping up to Badminton and Burghley’s enormous fences, but she never showed a moment’s fear. In her impressive career, she also won Kentucky — making her the second horse, after Primmore’s Pride, to win three different five-stars — and retired at the age of 19, continuing to compete at the lower levels for another two years before being euthanised after a cross-country schooling accident. Her ashes were scattered on Salisbury Plain, but her legacy continues on in the sport in a different way: her foals, which were born by embryo transfer, are actively competing on the circuit now.

Brit was originally intended to be a sales horse, and was sent to Lucinda in 2002 with that in mind, but nobody wanted to buy the undersized, quirky mare, and so she stayed in Lucinda’s string. That autumn, she won Blenheim, and years later, she went on to win a team silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

William Fox-Pitt and Tamarillo at Badminton in 2011.

Tamarillo — Badminton 2004, Burghley 2008

Many years after M’Lord Connolly flew the flag for Anglo-Arabs, another came along to capture the imagination of the eventing world — and though he passed away seven years ago, you can still see him competing (sort of, anyway!): his clone, Tomatillo, is entered for this month’s Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S with Aaron Millar aboard.

The quirky gelding wasn’t always the most straightforward of partners: “He can be everything all at once — spooky, lazy, sharp, exuberant, sensitive. He’s extraordinary and unique,” said William Fox-Pitt to Horse & Hound. Nevertheless, he placed at the top level a number of times and won medals at European Championships, Olympics, and World Championships across his extraordinary career.

Bred by the Guinness family out of a former Intermediate horse of Lucinda Green’s and by a champion endurance stallion, Tamarillo was tough, clever, and surefooted, but: “he looks more like a seahorse, and the thought of eventing him was a joke,” laughed William. “Apart from being obviously talented with incredible paces and jumping ability, there was nothing to suggest he’d make an eventer — he was like thistledown floating around in the wind. But he’s more athletic than all the horses I’ve ridden put together. You never feel the ground beneath him; he can sail through a bog, making the ground feel like the fairway on a golf course.”

Well into his retirement, Tam’s quirks continued to shine through, and he’d spend his days shying and spinning on his way around the village hack he’d done nearly every day of his career.

“His personality has been both his gift and his Achilles heel,” said William. “He’s probably one of the most talented athletes the eventing world has ever seen, but his career has been one of great highs littered with ‘what ifs’.”

Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam FBW. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.

La Biosthetique Sam FBW — Burghley 2015, Badminton 2016

We’re a lucky bunch to have seen some record-setting horses in the last few years, but it’s hard to argue that any horse has been more successful in our generation than Michael Jung’s La Biosthetique Sam FBW. Though quite ordinary in his conformation, movement, and jump — he memorably crossed his front legs over a fence and was deemed by the stallion licensing committee as “non-descript — his head is too big, he has no presence and a funny jumping technique!”

But few horses have gone on to do for the sport what the gelding, who cost just €10,000, has done. His Badminton and Burghley wins formed part of the second-ever Grand Slam victory, and he was an extraordinary stalwart for the German team, becoming the first horse to ever hold the European, Olympic, and World titles at once. He won his five-star debut at Luhmühlen, too, and between 2010 and 2014, he had 17 FEI top three finishes in a row. When he and Michi secured their first Grand Slam leg at Burghley in 2015, they did so despite a broken ankle for the rider, who zoomed around on a Segway all week and put his faith in his remarkable, clever gelding, who was something of an FOD machine throughout his career.

“We have a little place in Germany where breeders or owners can bring their young horses, and then we can ride them and see what’s there,” said Jung in an interview with the Chronicle of the Horse. “We’re usually there looking for horses who could go to the young horse championships. Sam was quite good as a young horse, but he wasn’t really a special horse from the beginning; he was always just good enough. But then we started to train him, and he just kept going and going, and learning always, and then, after three or four years, he had grown up and kept getting stronger and better. He was always very trainable.”

The gelding, who retired a few years ago, had his quirks, though. He couldn’t be ridden in prizegivings, and Michi actually rode his Badminton lap of honour on a borrowed police horse, and he had to travel loose in a box stall set-up, too: “He doesn’t really like when he doesn’t have much space; he’s very nervous about it,” explained Jung. “With this set-up we found he traveled very easily and was very relaxed. He can get his food from the floor and move around, and if we stop somewhere he has much more space to be comfortable.”

He also wasn’t keen on other horses, but that’s something that seems to have abated in his retirement, and he enjoys his days out in the field with fellow five-star champion fischerRocana and her foal.

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira: Burghley champions at last. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Vanir Kamira — Badminton 2019, Burghley 2022

Has a Badminton winner ever been quite as popular as Piggy March in 2019? It would mark the start of an incredible year for the rider, who had never won a five-star before but who would finish 2019 holding the record for the most international wins in a year. But her journey to superstardom hasn’t been straightforward — a spate of terrible luck before the 2012 Olympics nearly bottomed out her business and sent her spiralling into a black hole that she didn’t believe she’d ever come out of. But the eternal grafter persevered, ditching the detritus of a bad break-up and replacing those who hadn’t believed in her with a circle of supporters and friends who always would, and after a while, everything began to put itself back together again.

That’s partly because Piggy is every inch as plucky as her horse of a lifetime, the now-seventeen-year-old Vanir Kamira who, as a consummate five-star horse, could have lost the best years of her life to the pandemic. But no good woman is kept down that easily, and she’s returned to the Big Bs in as good of form as we’ve ever seen, taking last week’s Burghley title in fine style.

“For these wonderful old horses, to miss two full seasons of their careers, and from being fourteen and running well at Badminton and Burghley… they’re not tennis rackets or footballs; you can’t put them in the cupboard and do nothing,” said Piggy last season at Bicton. “‘Tillybean’ doesn’t run very much; she doesn’t really do one-day events, so I came here just hoping her experience from previous years was going to carry us through. I knew how to get her fit, but still, in the back of your mind you think, ‘I hope she remembers!’ And, ‘I hope I remember how to ride!’”

She needn’t have worried. From the start of the course until the very end, Piggy and Tilly gave a masterclass in accuracy, confidence — and old-school event horse fitness. This has always been the mare’s best quality; she’s learned to put together a mid-20s dressage test through correct, sympathetic training, and her showjumping will always be just a tiny bit scrappy, but get her out on a mountainous eleven-minute track and she’s wholly and completely in her element.

“She was like, ‘come on, mother!’ She puts her snout on the floor and truffle snuffles the whole way around like ‘come on, let’s go!’ – we don’t give anything much height, but we’re flying along,” she says with a laugh. “She looks for the flags and the moment I try to slow her up a bit or think ‘let’s give this a bit more time’, she’s like, ‘nope, we’re going!’ But the confidence you can have in a horse like that who knows her job, and wants to do it — she’s a gritty, hardy little mare.”

“It’s these little horses that make it for us,” said Piggy. “She’s a pain in the ass 362 days a year, and she’s really tricky to manage. She’s not the nicest of things to ride, you know, and she’s difficult, but she’s amazing – I say it all so fondly, because we all love her to bits. She’s a true five-star horse that comes to form at Badminton and Burghley. The rest of the time, she feels pretty ordinary, and you have to work pretty hard for what you can get. She doesn’t find any of it easy, and if I’d built that course at home and practiced it on the same side of the arena, I could do it fifty times and never have a clear round. There’s something about her, and those great little mares that just do enough when they need to. If they’re on your side, they’re just incredible.”

Wednesday Video from Kentucky Performance Products: Understanding Equine Vision with Lucinda Green

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 7, 2022 5:31 pm -

When you’re out on course — or, indeed, out hacking — your horse’s unique way of seeing the world around him becomes hugely important. It’s a driving factor in what he’ll find scary, and also how (or whether!) he’ll tackle a jump. That means that learning to understand his view, and keep it in mind while you’re riding, is hugely important, because it’ll give you the opportunity to offer him a little extra help.

In the latest online lesson from the Lucinda Green XC Academy, the OG queen of eventing is diving into just this topic — and as always, she’s got some fascinating facts and perspectives that’ll change the way you approach your riding. Happy learning, and Go Eventing!

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Tuesday News & Notes from Ocala Horse Properties

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 6, 2022 3:49 am -

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How cool is this? The newest Gatorade advertising spot is a stunning tribute to tennis GOAT Serena Williams, and among its line-up of awe-inspiring sportswomen is eventing’s own Lydia Heywood, who’s helping to break down barriers for riders from diverse backgrounds while pursuing her own international competitive dreams. We love to see it.

Events Opening Today: Flora Lea Farm Mini Event, Tryon Riding & Hunt Club “Morris the Horse” Trials, Windermere Run H.T, Waredaca Classic Three Day Event & H.T., The Event at TerraNova, Ram Tap H.T. – Advanced Pending USEF Approval, Hagyard Midsouth Three-day Event

Events Closing Today: Larkin Hill Fall H.T., University of New Hampshire H.T., Meadowcreek Park H.T – The Fall Social Event, ESDCTA New Jersey H.T., Old Tavern Horse Trials, Twin Rivers Fall International, Stable View Oktoberfest 2/3/4* and H.T.

Tuesday News & Notes from Around the World:

Horse people are, by their very nature, dog people, too — and I certainly fill the dog-shaped void in my life (it’s impossible to have a pup when my job involves so much travel, alas) by ‘adopting’ event riders’ pooches at competitions. My favourite of the bunch is Tim and Jonelle Price’s ineffably silly boxer, Scooby, but I’ve also got a soft spot for sweet, wriggly Australian Shepherd Rio, owned by Astier Nicolas, and baby-faced Labrador Roger, owned by Sweden’s Christoffer Forsberg. Oh, and at Haras du Pin I met the excellent Scofield, a Golden Retriever owned by Cedric Lyard’s mother, who merrily brought me other riders’ socks all week long. I didn’t ask for them, but any gift from a Goldie is a good gift. Anyway, the question of the day over at Heels Down is this: what actually makes the perfect barn dog? [We reckon it’s a total inability to be trained, tbh]

Alongside the fast and furious action of the CCI5*, a celebration of young horses took place at Burghley. The Burghley Young Event Horse finals are some of the UK’s most prestigious showcases for four- and five-year-olds, and we saw some worthy winners and exciting future stars take centre stage in the back rings. Most poignantly? One of Nicola Wilson’s young horses took a big win — but that’s not the only victory her youngsters have taken recently. H&H meets the stable jockey taking charge of Nic’s up-and-comers. [Heartening results around the country]

If you’re anything like me, workouts are the first thing to fall by the wayside when your schedule gets hectic. Like, who has time to fit in a gym session around the absolute chaos of life with horses?! But Laura Crump Anderson is looking to change that, by giving us all quick, effective exercise regimes we can do at home, with no special equipment needed. No excuses, now. [This’ll inspire you to get a couple of crunches in today]

Ocala Horse Properties Dream Farm of the Week:

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I’m not sure I can forgive the OHP team for reminding us that winter is only 111 days away, but if they’ll invite me over to tour this place, with the most gorgeous outside lounge area I’ve seen in a hot minute, I could be persuaded. As a gal with a non-horsey partner who says things like “your gaskets need changing; I’ll do that”, the garage workshop alongside the stunning eight-stall barn appeals to me enormously, because he could disappear to his den of iniquity while I disappeared to mine, and then we could drink cold Sauvignon Blanc around that fire in the evening while gazing at my happy horses. Bliss. Someone lend us a few bucks, would ya?

Watch This:

Relive cross-country day at Burghley with Horse & Hound’s interviews and highlights:

“You Dream it Could Be You, But it Just As Easily Might Never Be”: Piggy March Takes 2022 Burghley Victory

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 4, 2022 4:45 pm -

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It takes a village: Piggy March leaves the arena with husband Tom after taking the Burghley title. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials‘ core team has seen plenty of changes this year: not only is there a new director in Martyn Johnson, who’s previously been at the helm of Burgham International in Northumberland, there’s also a new course designer — Kentucky’s Derek di Grazia, making his English debut — and, finally, a new showjumping designer in Paul Connor, who had the unenviable job of building a track today that would shake up the standings without punishing tired horses.

Of course, this isn’t Paul’s first rodeo:he took the reins at last year’s Burghley replacement at Bicton, and so was well aware of the interplay between tough terrain tests and athletic ability the following day. Still, though, he took the time to get to know Burghley’s uniquely undulating grass arena, siting his fences amongst its gentles dips and mounds in order to up the ante. And up the ante it did: just seven horse-and-rider combinations of the 28 starters would secure a clear round, and just six would do so without adding time penalties.

“The ground was perfect, and we’ve worked hard on that — but actually, when I walked on it firstly it already felt lovely,” says Paul. “The ground itself is very undulating so it’s a little bit up and a little bit down all the way here and all the way there, which is good, because you can use that to help your distances. The field was very good, with some very scopey horses, and a few unlucky poles — but again, I think that’s where the ground does a little bit and it catches the odd person like that.”

That undulating ground and tricky course meant that just one horse and rider of the eight in the morning session turned in a clear round, and though Andrew James and Celtic Morning Star‘s achievement will have given the afternoon’s top twenty some confidence, the seven other rounds made it achingly clear just how tough the task ahead would be. And just as we always say that the measure of a true Burghley is its ability to propel people up the rankings on Saturday, there’s also much to be said for the influence that a serious final-day track can play as well. Paul Connor’s piece de resistance did exactly the job it was meant to do: by the end of the competition, those scant few clear rounds saw their riders rightfully find themselves in the midst of the very best in the world.

Of course, that made for an afternoon session of showjumping that was very nearly unwatchably tense, particularly as we crept towards the business end of the proceedings. The top three after cross-country — Piggy March and Vanir Kamira, Tim Price and Vitali, and Jonelle Price and Classic Moet — are highly regarded for their many inimitable qualities, but it would be hard to argue that showjumping is high on the list for any, and while Vanir Kamira and Classic Moet alike had both previously managed rare clears under pressure to win Badminton, a smattering of poles between them didn’t feel like an unlikely possibility.

For 19-year-old Classic Moet, jumping in third place, that proved the case. She didn’t have a fence in hand over fourth-placed Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift, who had jumped one of the best rounds of the day, and although the round started well, without the mare’s classic tip-tap skimming technique, they took the airy upright out of the first part of the treble at 8ABC, and then added another rail at ten, handing Tom a podium finish. He would move up one more place after Tim Price and Vitali, who have historically struggled in this phase but had one rail in hand to spare, took out the second fence and then the first and final parts of the treble.

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

And so, as overnight leaders Piggy March and Vanir Kamira cantered into the ring, now with two rails and a touch of time in hand, it was with the grimmest of game faces firmly in place. As the seventeen-year-old mare met each fence, she did so with her feet first, clattering her way around the course but somehow keeping the rails in situ — until she came to the first part of the double at 4, which fell with a thud. Now, she had just one in hand, and a tough time on the clock to keep half an eye on, too — but she would need neither. Pole after pole bounced in its cups, but no more fell, and Piggy March crossed the finish line as the 2022 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials champion.

“I can’t quite believe it”: Piggy March adds Burghley champion to her resume with Vanir Kamira. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

“I can’t quite believe it, really, but I’m just so relieved,” she says.”I felt like I put more pressure on myself today than I normally do; I’m usually pretty… well, relaxed might be a strong word, but I definitely understand that what will be will be. Today, though, I just felt so much that this little horse deserves it as much as any horse here does. I just didn’t want to let her down. You’ve just got to go and do your thing, but I was just so desperate for her name to be up there on the plaques at Winners’ Avenue. She’s been a Burghley horse through and through — she’s been second twice, fifth, and has now won, and she’s got a total of 4.8 time penalties across all of those runs. It’s the toughest cross-country course in the world to make the time, and she’s a very special horse for that reason.”

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira: Burghley champions at last. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Now, plucky ‘Tillybean’ — the very model of an unconventional champion with an oversized heart — becomes just the third-ever mare to win this event, and the fifteenth horse in history to win both Badminton and Burghley. For Piggy, who recorded her first five-star win with the mare at Badminton in 2019, it feels every inch as surreal to follow it up at the world’s biggest event.

“It’s really what dreams are made of, and without a doubt, this’ll be one of the best days, if not the best day, along with Badminton for me,” says Piggy. “I’m just so proud; it’s a massive, massive achievement, and even out there taking the trophy pictures with the cars, I can look back on all the pictures of Oliver, of Pippa, of William, and everyone you see in the magazines. You think, ‘oh, that just looks amazing — will it ever be me?’ You believe it in your training, and you believe it going, but it can easily not be. We all know that, and it’s the same in every sport — but you just keep trying and keep believing and you just hope that someday, someone’s looking down and it’s your day. We all know that as sports people and horsepeople; you have your moments every now and then, and someone was looking down today to say it was the moment for me.”

Tom Jackson earns a career-best result with the exciting Capels Hollow Drift. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Tom Jackson is no stranger to the topmost level, nor to great success in the saddle: he rode around Badminton and Pau a number of times, with a top-ten finish to his name at the latter with Billy Cuckoo and a wealth of experience gleaned with his former Junior and Young Rider Europeans medallist Waltham Fiddlers Find. But this trip to Burghley was a first for him — and a top ten placing at the level on home soil, too, had eluded him.

He hasn’t quite had a horse like Capels Hollow Drift, though. The eleven-year-old impressed enormously at Badminton, finishing sixteenth and looking for all the world like a win might be in him one day — and when he pulled out a foot-perfect showjumping round today, he was able to rocket himself and his rider up from fourth to second place, having started the week outside the top ten.

“That horse is just class — to go around the cross-country like he did yesterday, and then to go in and jump as well as he did today,” says 29-year-old Tom. “It makes my job so easy knowing that he’s got that capability, and he always wants to do the right thing. I’m over the moon with him. He jumped really well, but not as well as he can do after yesterday’s efforts — so for him to dig as deep as he did is really pleasing.”

Though Tom hasn’t previously ridden at Burghley, his gelding’s progression throughout the season made him quietly confident that a placing could be on the cards if luck was on their side.

“I’d sort of been thinking in the back of my mind that we could be in the top five, but to be second — especially to Piggy! — almost feels like winning. We’re over the moon with how he’s gone, and how he’s come out of Badminton and stepped up this week. He’s obviously very talented, but one of his best assets is that his brain is so good. He always wants to do the right thing, and he’s always with me and concentrating. That makes my life so much easier.”

Still, though, being conscious of the realistic possibility of a great result and actually achieving it are two different things, and for Tom, a result of this magnitude is an emotional moment that heralds the next phase of his exciting career.

“We dreamt of doing this well, but actually come here and do it is something else,” he says. “We’ve been working quite hard for quite a while, and I hope that a lovely horse like him can keep progressing and get us closer to these teams.”

Pippa Funnell meets Tom Jackson at the in-gate after his round. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Tom, who’s based in the Surrey hills just forty minutes from the Billy Stud, was one of a number of riders mentored by Pippa Funnell this week, and she gave him some simple advice ahead of his round: “She said, ‘just concentrate on what you’re doing and ride like you normally do’ — and hopefully, I did that. He jumped so well for me.”

Tim Price and Vitali come up against it once again in the final phase, but slip just one spot. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

It’s hard not to feel frustrated for Tim Price, who has in Vitali an extraordinary horse with one great weakness at the moment. Like a musical theatre actor who can’t get the choreography quite in time, he’s something of a double threat and a promise — and after tipping the second fence and the first and last parts of the treble, slipping from the runner-up position he held through the week to a final third, Tim had to think of the horse’s long-term prospects to avoid the weight of disappointment that comes with another showjumping round gone awry.

“I’ve got to keep it all in perspective,” he says. “It’s easy to get distracted by the fact that you’re in a very good position, and it was a ‘must jump clear’ day to win — but for this horse, it’s his weak phase.”

That weakness has caught them out previously at the Olympics, where they took three rails, and at Luhmühlen CCI5* this summer, where they did the same — but the partnership, which began in 2021 after the horse had had two years out, is a relatively new one, and the talented but inarguably quirky gelding still has plenty of learning and growing to do as an athlete. And at Burghley? Two out of three phases ain’t too shabby, particularly when you still find yourself in a podium position come Sunday evening.

“Overall, he’s been excellent; he put out a really good performance in the dressage to be right up there, and he just excelled yesterday,” says Tim. “He was superb, but that’s bound to take its toll, especially on a horse that’s never been in this position physically before. It’s an unfortunate three rails, but he actually made a lot of very good efforts, too, so we’ll take that away as a positive and look forward to the next one. He’s class, and what he showed me yesterday has definitely got me excited about the future.”

Jonelle Price and Classic Moet: full of gumption in the final phase. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

If there are two things that run deep in the Price family camp, it’s fierce competitiveness — and pragmatism. Jonelle Price knew when she entered the arena that a clear round on Classic Moet wouldn’t come easily — after all, when the mare delivered one in 2018 to win Badminton, it was her first international showjumping clear in four years. Though it didn’t quite happen for her, with rails falling at 8A and 10, the nineteen-year-old mare and her exceptional rider only slipped one place to fourth, which even Jonelle had to concede wasn’t a bad way to finish the competition — and, potentially, the remarkable horse’s career.

“If you’d given me a top five at the start of the week, I’d have been very happy — but of course, when you’re up there in the mix you dream of a clear round and of what could be. But we’re going to have to be happy with third and fourth today,” she says. “It’s been a phenomenal week for her. She showed why she deserves to still be here, and she felt as good as ever today.”

Alice Casburn and Topspin put a long partnership to good use, finishing fifth in their Burghley debut. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

One of the great climbs of the week belonged to 20-year-old Alice Casburn, who was born just a year before Classic Moet and is the real-life embodiment of every pony novel you ever gobbled up as a child. She and Topspin only began eventing a few years ago, and the homebred Thoroughbred is out of a mare her mother, Caroline evented — and that mare, too, is out of one of her former Advanced rides. But although they’ve had an extraordinary year, with 19th place finishes at Pau last year and Badminton this year, plus an individual bronze and team gold medal at the Young Rider European Championships, and although Alice has considerable experience over much bigger showjumping courses and even Puissance classes with the gelding, she still found the nerves nearly unbearable ahead of her round.

“I was really, really nervous going in — I was quite relaxed in the lorry park, and then I came down and saw quite a few people,” says Alice, who nonetheless delivered a sparkling clear to move up to fifth after a starting position of 30th. “I said to myself, ‘you’re not here — you’re just showjumping at home!’ But then I heard the crowds cheering for everyone else and I was like, ‘no, I really am here.’ My heart started going but then I felt him spook at the plant pot going in, in his usual fashion — and that’s when I know that he’s up for it and wants to have a good crack. And that’s exactly how he jumped.”

Alice Casburn and Topspin celebrate a classy clear. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Though cheerful, ineffably cool Alice is outwardly calm — enviably so, in fact, prompting those of us in the mixed zone to discuss whether we’re too old to try to be friends with her — it’s something she’s had to work at. But that work, and an understanding of how her mind works, is what helps her to refocus and get in the zone ahead of pivotal rounds like these.”

“It never came naturally,” she says. “I saw some of my family friends earlier, and they remembered when I was crying my eyes out, refusing to go into the ring for a 70cm round. I think it’s been about blocking out social media and having a nice small bubble, and I’m kind of just in denial that I’m at places when I there. I’m riding around sort of blanking everything out and imagining that I’m at a training show. So no, I never was that brave, and then I hit the hunting field a couple of times and I got more competitive. My competitiveness and my trust in him overpower the fear. I’m still a nervous person, but it’s like my body registers it and my brain doesn’t anymore.”

Alice doesn’t hunt Spin — “I think I’d end up in Yorkshire from Norwich; he’s quite a live wire!” — but instead hunts a former eventer called Ruby, with whom “I can go with my pockets full of sweets and snacks like I’m seven, and just have a nice time.” But really, is there any nicer time than jumping a double clear to finish fifth at your first Burghley?

“I just feel in shock — when I got off I just stood there shaking for a good couple of minutes! I can’t believe it. To finish like this is phenomenal; I’m so grateful, and he’s been absolutely fantastic,” she says, grinning from ear to ear.

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats earn an excellent placing in the face of disappointment. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Kitty King took sixth place with the exceptional Vendredi Biats after a nearly perfect showjumping round that just suffered from one moment of rotten luck — rather like their excellent cross-country round yesterday, which was looking like their best ever until the gelding misread the width of the wide Fairfax and Favor rails at 19a, hitting a pin and costing Kitty her overnight lead. Had you put a gun to this reporter’s head and asked me to make a bet about her result today, I’d have confidently told you she’d jump a clear round, and it certainly looked as though it was going that way — until the very tidy jumper breathed on a rail to add four penalties.

“It’s pretty bloody frustrating and disappointing, and to be honest, I don’t really like Burghley,” says Kitty with a wry laugh. ” At least I’ve completed this time, I suppose. I’d never managed to complete before, and I really thought this was going to be our week after our start in the dressage, but nothing’s really quite gone 100% to plan. It’s disappointing, and I’m a bit fed up with it all.”

Though their week here has 90% shaken off Kitty’s Burghley demons, the disappointment of being so close to a win and then missing out is palpable — particularly on a horse that jumps with the style that ‘Froggy’ does.

“You see others going around by Braille and they don’t have a rail; he doesn’t touch anything, but touches one and it comes down,” muses Kitty. “And on cross-country he’s foot-perfect, with no hairy moments, but makes one mistake and it’s a pin. We just never quite have a bit of luck on our side. It’s not just been with us this week, but I do hope we win one at some point, because he’s more than capable of achieving it, really.”

Richard Jones and Alfies Clover take the right sort of risks to repeat their 2019 seventh place finish. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

“I didn’t think I was going to get down to the first fence,” laughs local rider Richard Jones, who recorded another seventh place finish with Alfies Clover, despite an inauspicious start. After picking up a good canter on the bell, Richard turned to the first fence and his experienced gelding spooked and sucked behind his leg — at which Richard got into the driving seat and found a committed, gusty stride to the jump.

“It was a bit similar to the round we had at Badminton — it was all a bit all over the shop,” laughs Richard, who finished in the same position here in 2019. “But we leave Alfie quite fresh, because he’s fifteen and he knows what he’s doing. He always comes out fresher on the last day, and I don’t know how that works — it takes a fairly special horse to do what he did yesterday and then come out and be bloody fresh today!”

Many riders would have chosen a more conservative canter into the first after feeling that little wobble in the turn, but Richard and Alfie are long-time partners, and he knew that the gelding would be best served by a gutsy ride to get him off the ground.

“I wouldn’t have any fear moving him up,” he explains. “He’s a jumper, foremost in his brain, and while yesterday I’d have liked him to jump a foot lower in the first half of the course so he could be quicker, today I wouldn’t want to be sat on anything else. I’m over the moon with him — to be honest, I’d liked to think I could have finished in the top five, but I was a little bit slow yesterday. When the course is this way around, with the busy bit early, it takes a little bit of time to get him settled, and he jumps a little bit big to start with. But I’m delighted. It means everything to be back at Burghley.”

Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On earn a second five-star top ten. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Pippa Funnell‘s duo of very different geldings have been playing swapsies on the leaderboard all week: at the end of the first phase, she was eighth with the rangy Billy Walk On and tenth with Mr Consistent Majas Hope, and by the end of yesterday, she’d stepped up to ninth with Majas Hope and down to thirteenth with Billy Walk On. But it was the homebred Billy Walk On who would triumph, jumping out of order as the first of the afternoon session and delivering a sparkling clear that would step him back up to a final eighth place — while Majas Hope took a disappointing four rails to move down to sixteenth.

Tom Crisp and the tiny stylist Liberty and Glory take their second top-ten at five-star. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Just a fortnight ago, part-time firefighter Tom Crisp thought about withdrawing from Burghley, which was to be his first crack at five-star since Badminton in 2019, because a smattering of broken ribs accrued in a cross-country schooling fall at home left him in too much pain to ride as normal. But getting Liberty and Glory back to this level has been a serious labour of love for Tom and his family, who bred the tiny, feisty mare from a former Advanced ride of his wife, Sophie’s — there have been niggling injuries along the way, and false starts, and a pesky little pandemic that have put all those big dreams on hold. Finally, in a fit of hubris and with the memories of their sixth-place finish at Pau in 2018 in his mind, he decided to pack the lorry, and his army of children, and point his horse of a lifetime at her first Burghley.

And what a pay-off the Crisp family has had. Though ‘Lori’ was never going to trouble the leaders in the first phase, she soared up the leaderboard from 39th after dressage to fifteenth after a remarkable cross-country round that saw her add just 10.8 time penalties while pinging every jump like a pony show jumper. Today, she proved that the hard work the family and their home team has put into getting her sound and healthy has been well worthwhile, jumping in fine style — with knees well above nostrils — all the way around Paul’s track, adding nothing and climbing to ninth place.

“You can’t beat a clear round at Burghley on the final day, and to jump as well as she did — she rubbed number two and I thought, ‘oh no, come on!’ and then I don’t think she touched another one,” says a teary-eyed Tom with a smile. “She rose to the occasion and made my job easy; she’s a lovely mare, and she’s had a great event. She’s exceeded expectations; two weeks ago I didn’t even think I was coming, but it’s a magical place and it does wonderful things to you. This week, it was good to us.”

A dream come true: Tom Crisp and Liberty and Glory. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

For Tom, who’s been working away, often out of the spotlight, for many years at five-star, today’s result was an enormous and emotional milestone.

“In my mind, it almost feels like I’ve won it. You ride your own competition, don’t you? For me and her, it felt like a win: I can’t tell you the ups and downs of the last three weeks, of thinking I couldn’t ride and cancelling all my other events. It’s crazy, and to come here and jump a double clear in her first Burghley when she hasn’t had the best time has just been fantastic.”

Though Lori hasn’t always been the most straightforward of partners — a fact that’s sometimes still evident in her dressage tests — Tom knows that the fire in her belly is what makes her so good, in much the same way that the great mares above her on the leaderboard are so good because they’re unconventional.

“You can’t beat a quirky mare,” he says fondly. “When you get them on side, they love their job and they make training them and working with them so interesting and fun. They give a whole lot more, I think, than any other horse. She’s a quirky one, with a heck of a story behind her; she wasn’t easy in the beginning, and used to just lie down in the start box, or wouldn’t go past fence three, and I always said to Sophie, ‘just sell it and get something easier — we’re wasting our time!’ But we stuck with it. She’s always been a talented thing, and she moved and jumped well, but she wasn’t prepared to apply it in the beginning. She’s a crazy thing, but you need a bit of crazy to do this.”

Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8 excel themselves for top ten at Burghley. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

And speaking of quirky mares, it’s only fitting that the top ten is rounded out by one such oddball, who gained an expansive fan club — certainly among the gathered media — throughout this weekend’s jumping phases.

“There’s no other word for it — she’s just an incredible jumper, and she has such heart,” says US rider Cornelia Dorr, who executed an extraordinary climb throughout the week to move up from first-phase 50th place to a final 10th place with Daytona Beach 8 in their first-ever five-star. Though the mare often looked to have just one (admittedly very high) gear across the country yesterday, she’s extraordinarily quick-footed and catty at the combinations, and she and her 24-year-old rider exhibited such gutsiness and trust in one another that their round was a joy to watch. Today’s showjumping round, which saw them deliver one of those six clears inside the time, was also one of the most enjoyable to watch, as the mare looked to barely touch the ground before clearing each fence by generous inches.

Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

For Cornelia, a good experience at her five-star debut would have been enough of a reward — but to finish in the top ten at Burghley has bolstered her faith in her system in a way that looks set to skyrocket her career.

“It’s given me so much confidence — it’s been amazing,” says Cornelia, who will now plan for a move back to the US in November after a fruitful year spent in England with Kevin McNab.

It was Kevin who first suggested that Cornelia aim the former Sandra Auffarth ride at Burghley — an idea she wasn’t convinced about at first. And even as the benefits of tackling the biggest course in the world started to take root, would Cornelia have believed it if someone had suggested she might finish in the top ten?

“Never — I’d have told them they were crazy,” she laughs. “But she has my back so much. She gives me an unreal feeling, and even though she’s a little bit tired, she’s still just so self-aware. She’s amazing; you can’t beat these good mares.”

Cornelia tops the bill of US riders, the remaining three of whom finished in the top 25: Emily Hamel and Corvett looked on springs around the tricky track, adding one rail and 1.6 time to take 20th place, while Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent tipped two and added 1.2 time to take 23rd place.

And that’s all she wrote, folks — for now, anyway. We’ll be looking back at Burghley with our analytical (and emotional) glasses on over the next couple of days, but for now, we’re signing out from what has been an unbelievable week of sport. Burghley: it’s great to have you back. Go Eventing.

The final top ten in the 2022 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.

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The Best of Burghley: Your Big, Bold Cross-Country Day Social Round-Up

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 4, 2022 9:00 am -

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There’s nothing quite like the afterglow of a great day of five-star cross-country — and if you, like us, aren’t quite ready to move on from a big, bold, brilliant Burghley yesterday, you’re in luck! Social media has been abuzz with posts from riders and spectators alike, and we’ve rounded up some of our favourites to keep us in our feelings for a little while longer:

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Two Held – Including One From Top Ten – in Burghley Final Horse Inspection

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 4, 2022 5:43 am -

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Overnight leaders Piggy March and Vanir Kamira sail through the final inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just 28 horses and riders remain in the 2022 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials field, down from a starting line-up of 52, after an exciting and influential day of cross-country saw 21 fall by the wayside and a spate of withdrawals overnight further thinned the field by three.

British five-star debutant Kate Shapland opted to withdraw Uris Cavalier, who had completed the course with an educational 40 penalties to sit 31st overnight, while Michael Owen also pulled his experienced eighteen-year-old Bradeley Law, 21st after cross-country, from contention. Ireland is down to one rider in the field after Cathal Daniels withdrew his 2019 Europeans bronze medallist Rioghan Rua from the lineup, where she sat 17th.

Bubby Upton and Cola, seventh after cross-country, survive a trip to the holding box. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

All that, of course, meant that this morning’s final horse inspection, presided over by New Zealand’s Andrew Bennie, alongside Austria’s Katrin Eichinger-Kniely and Great Britain’s Judy Hancock, was a remarkably swift affair — but it wasn’t without its dramas.

Two horses were sent to the holding box for further inspection by veterinarian Andy Bathe. Bubby Upton‘s Cola, who climbed from eleventh to seventh place yesterday, caused a stir among the assembled crowds when he was held, and the pair earned an enormous cheer when they were subsequently accepted on re-presentation.

Australia’s Sarah Clark and LV Balou Jeanz are also accepted after being held. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Getting held when you’re in the top ten is a seriously stressful experience, but doing so when you’ve travelled across the world, alone in a plane with your horse of a lifetime and without the funds to get back home again, is truly next level. Fortunately for Australia’s Sarah Clark, who recorded a clear round and 32 time penalties yesterday to sit 20th, her plucky partner LV Balou Jeanz was accepted on her second presentation to the ground jury, and the pair will go on to complete their longtime Burghley dream in this afternoon’s final session of jumping.

Angus Smales’s ESI Pheonix is Burghley’s best shod horse. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

A number of additional prizes were awarded at this second horse inspection, recognising the teams behind the scenes that help these horses to thrive at the top level. The Worshipful Company of Farriers prize for the Best Shod Horse went the way of ESI Pheonix, the ride of Great Britain’s Angus Smales, who is shod by Steven Hill.

Fraser Kirby comes forward to accept his prize with charge My Ernie and rider Helen Wilson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Freelance groom Fraser Kirby, who has three decades of experience and is working at his 22nd Burghley this week, was the winner of the Pedens Bloodstock prize for the groom of the week, in recognition of his work looking after Helen Wilson‘s My Ernie, while Ros Canter‘s groom, Sarah Charnley, who grooms alongside working as a building control surveyor, was the runner-up.

And now, our focus turns wholly to the final phase, which will be designed for the first time by Paul Connor. Here’s a look at the top ten as we head into showjumping, which sees our leader and runner up go head to head with less than a rail between them:

The first group of showjumping, featuring just eight horses and riders, will commence from 11.00 a.m. BST (6.00 a.m. EST), while the top twenty will jump in reverse order of merit from 14.30 BST (9.30 a.m. EST). You can check out the full leaderboard, with showjumping times, here. We’ll be bringing you a full report and analysis — plus live updates from the final session — right here on EN, so stay tuned, and as always: Go Eventing!

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Beware the Rides of March: Piggy Takes Over Burghley Lead in Action-Packed Cross-Country Day

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 3, 2022 7:05 pm -

We’ve waited three years for the return of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, and its cross-country day — complete with input from brand-new course designer Derek di Grazia — has certainly lived up to all our expectations, delivering us wall-to-wall action, a new-look leaderboard, and some of the best ground we’ve seen this year, to boot. Traditionally big, bold, relentless Burghley was traded in for something of a new model, with a high-intensity technical section in the first half that read and rode almost more like a short-format, and then a run down through some of the biggest fences in the world in the back half of the track — a design call that meant that anyone who was overfaced was more likely to end their day early on with harmless penalties or a retirement than with a crashing fall near the end of the track.

The field of 51 starters was narrowed down to 31 by the end of the day, giving Burghley a pretty much bang-on-average completion rate of 61%, while 24 combinations — or 47% of the field — recorded clear rounds. There’s been considerable influence throughout the day at every corner of the leaderboard, too, with 11s, 20s, healthy doses of time, and harmless tumbles making their mark on the competition without any unpleasant incidents — but with no shortage of drama. We’ve seen several top contenders fall by the wayside, including overnight third-placed Sarah Bullimore, who opted to retire Corouet on course after a run-out; Oliver Townend, who had an unprecedented run of bad luck, falling at the penultimate fence with ninth-placed Tregilder and at the Trout Hatchery with fifth-placed Swallow Springs; twelfth-placed Zara Tindall and Class Affair, who faulted at the Leaf Pit and retired; fourteenth-placed Susie Berry and Ringwood LB, who fell at the wide oxers at 19; and the USA’s Woods Baughman, who was sixteenth overnight with C’est La Vie 135 but was eliminated for accumulated refusals in the first part of the course.

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira deliver a showcase of gutsiness around the new-look Burghley track. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

No one had come close to catching the 11:20 optimum time when 2019 Badminton winners Piggy March and Vanir Kamira left the start box, and though they didn’t quite manage it themselves, they made 11:21 look almost laughably easy. But then, that’s true to form for the gusty partnership, who also finished a second over the time at Badminton this spring, where they were fourth: across their four Burghley runs together, they’ve collected just a scant 4.8 time penalties.

“She’s a pleasure and she knows her job, so it’s just about me not doing something stupid, to be honest, and just keep her believing like she does,” says Piggy, who strode straight into a provisional overnight lead after cruising around with the ‘truffle-snuffling’ seventeen-year-old. Part of the trick to getting close to the clock? Understanding where her horse’s particular strengths lay, and using them tactically to make up for time lost early on in the technical section of the course.

“She’s fast when she wants to be, especially coming downhill,” she says. “I’d quite quickly lost ten or twelve seconds around the Trout Hatchery at the beginning. In those couple of minutes she wasn’t getting out of second and a half gear, and every time I kicked, nothing happened, so I just had to let her post along. We’re in their hands a lot; we know they’re fit and well, but it’s also about their minds. She suddenly decides ‘yes, okay, I’m going to go; it’s a downhill’ , and then you’ve got to be brave and let them run down the hills and really freewheel — but without taking liberties. You need to be balanced the whole time.”

Piggy’s relatively early draw — she was 14th out of 51 to start — meant that she had minimal time to watch other riders and glean feedback about the course. But over a track like this, trust, partnership, and an innate understanding between horse and rider — and the unique plan that that generates — tend to be more important anyway.

“I watched a couple before I went, which was Tim [Price on Bango] and Pippa [Funnell on Billy Walk On], who are brilliant riders to watch but couldn’t have been on two more different horses doing totally different things throughout,” she says with a laugh. “So I don’t know whether that was helpful or not, apart from that they got to the finish. But other than that, it’s just trusting your instinct and believing in what you’re sat on — and I’ve got absolutely no reason to ever not believe in her. She’s been a true Burghley horse all her life.”

And, in true Burghley horse fashion, she swept her way into the lead, skipping up from the fourth-place spot she held overnight after delivering her best-ever five-star score of 22.6 on Thursday. That puts her in contention to become just the twelfth horse ever to win both Badminton and Burghley – a distinction that feels a bit like kismet for the mare who has become almost emblematic of eventing, with her unconventional build and enormous well of ‘try’.

“She just runs; she’s got such heart and grit and blood,” says Piggy. “These girls are amazing — they’re freaks in another league. They’re so gritty, to want to get back and put their heads down and keep going, and so the whole time home she just kept making up time. I’ve had my best days on her, and this is definitely one of them that’s up there as one of the best.”

Vanir Kamira, who was a fresh-faced fourteen years old when she won Badminton in 2019, is a true long-format horse — and that meant that the long pandemic, with its scant chances for a competition of this calibre, robbed her of two of her best years. For that reason, Piggy and the mare alike have been making the most of every opportunity to what they love best.

“She warmed up very well, and she rose to the occasion coming to the start box; I could feel she knew why she was here, and what she was about to do, and she was very excited to get on and do it,” says Piggy. “That’s a great feeling for us riders, and it’s just brilliant being back here and to come into the main arena and get cheers from the crowd, and just to have our sport back.”

But, she admits: “I can’t actually remember the round, to be honest — [my husband] Tom always says to me, ‘if you’re having a nice time, you’re not going fast enough!’ It’s actually a pretty horrible time until you get to the end, and without any time to think of anything else apart from ‘just keep going!’ and ‘don’t do anything stupid!'”

Tim Price’s Vitali steps up to the plate and grows in confidence around his first Burghley. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

The only rider in the top ten who didn’t move in any direction was Tim Price, who began the day as pathfinder with the experienced Bango, adding 14.4 time penalties to climb from 16th to 12th, and made a second trip out on course with overnight runner-up Vitali, who made his sophomore start at five star today. Though today’s track was an undeniable step up from Luhmühlen, where he debuted and made a top ten finish earlier this year, he excelled himself, adding just 5.2 time to remain in spitting distance of the win overnight.

“I had a lovely time out there with him,” says Tim. “I didn’t know what to expect — he’s an inexperienced horse at this level, and particularly [at a course like] Burghley. I really wanted it to be an experience that I could take forward into future Burghley’s and future five-star competitions. Around every corner it was unexpected how it was going to go for us, but he kept delivering and kept getting in the air and picking up the distances. I’ve learnt a lot, and I can do things differently in the future with him, in terms of leaving out the odd stride and things. But I think it was the right round for him on his first attempt; you’ve got to do that around here, first and foremost, and set them up for the future.”

By the latter part of the course, where the technicality eased up considerably in favour of big, bold, galloping fences, Tim was able to put more pressure on the horse, who stepped up to the plate with aplomb.

“I’m thrilled with the way he came home,” he says. “We were a lot more down on the clock [earlier in the course] than where we ended up, and I think that’s a credit to both of us, actually: in the first half of the course I just let him settle in and gave him time, and then I was really able to ride him home and he just stayed up in front. I’m pleasantly surprised and excited for the future.”

Though Bango’s round earlier in the day proved a useful fact-finding mission — and a great confidence boost for the rest of the field, who watched it closely from the riders’ tent — it didn’t actually have any effect on the way Tim structured his plan with the very different, considerably lighter-feeling Vitali.

“Bango warmed up my upper body and my forearms for me,” says Tim with a laugh. “And he did give me a feel for the course. The ground was lovely, and the terrain, which I hold in almost the highest regard when it comes to riding around Burghley, so I was lucky to have him to get out there and get ready for my next guy.”

Though twelve-year-old Vitali has a number of impressive cross-country rounds under his belt already — including swift clears at the Tokyo Olympics and Luhmühlen CCI5* and CCI4*-S — the final phase has historically been the trickiest. The pair will go into the final phase just 3.5 penalties behind Piggy and Vanir Kamira, who can certainly be prone to a pole, and with a rail in hand ahead of their next closest competition. They may yet need it — but Tim feels confident that the gelding is going in the right direction.

“The thing is that it’s all about partnership at this level, and we’re not even quite two years into this partnership,” says Tim, whose round today was just his fifth FEI cross-country run with the horse. “I’ve learned a lot through the high-profile events we’ve been through together already, and this is the first time I’ve felt I’ve really had him relaxed and happy and healthy into the competition and through the competition. He’s an athlete, but he’s not the world’s greatest jumper, and he’s not a few things, but he’s a very, very good athlete with a lot of ability. I think tomorrow’s going to be a good day for him, and it could be a nice event for him to take forward into the rest of his five-star career.”

Jonelle Price and Classic Moet deliver the only clear inside the time of the day – despite a significant kit malfunction. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Just one horse and rider made the time today, and you’d win no prizes for guessing that it was Jonelle Price and Classic Moet, who have been dubbed the fastest partnership in the sport over their long, fruitful career together. But while coming back three seconds under the time was enormously impressive in its own right, what makes this such a remarkable accomplishment is that they managed it without a stopwatch.

“I guess flat batteries happen, but you hope they don’t happen when you leave the start box at Burghley,” says Jonelle wryly. “It was a bit of shock horror when I looked at my watch and there was nothing to be seen. It kindly beeped for me for the first three minutes, and then it gave up the ghost completely, so I was running blind — but I guess there’s something to be said for getting up into a true rhythm, trying to stay there, and riding some economical lines. I know she’s a quick horse, but I had absolutely no idea when I crossed the finish whether I’d achieved something or nothing, or what I was in for.”

There’s an awful lot to be said for the power of a long-term partnership — and Jonelle’s partnership with the British-bred 19-year-old spans ten five-stars, over the course of which they’ve accumulated just six time penalties and come home inside the time seven times.

“I’m partnered with one of the best in the business, and if I can’t deliver on her, then it’s all on my shoulders,” she says. The strength of their performance today allowed them to shoot up the leaderboard from overnight 25th place to third. “She lives for the Saturday, really, and the rest is always sort of a necessary evil in her mind. But she showed her class again today. It felt like a tough endurance test today, but then she is getting on in years, and maybe that played a little part for me. But she just kept jumping, and kept fighting, and most of all, she kept galloping. That’s what you really need around a track like Burghley.”

Like Vanir Kamira ahead of her, the 2018 Badminton winner is an inauspicious stamp of a horse to look at — but it’s her brain, her gumption, and her irascible toughness that make her one of the horses that’s defined a generation of eventing.

“She’s nothing special in terms of scope or stride or anything — she’s just all heart and determination, and she looks for those flags. She’s so experienced now, and it really is just a pleasure and an honour to partner her. There’s no one else you’d rather be on,” says Jonelle.

Also like Vanir Kamira ahead of her — and Vitali, too — Classic Moet isn’t necessarily a conventional, or even particularly reliable, show jumper, and memorably tapped her way to her first international clear in four years when winning Badminton.

“I’m not as confident walking into the showjumping arena by any stretch of the imagination, but she’s learnt her craft over the years. She’s pretty unique in the way that she jumps; it’s not particularly conventional, and if you see her standing up she’s sort of upside-down and back-to-front, which isn’t the most conducive to dressage or showjumping. But she comes in with the same attitude, and she tries to give it her best — and I know she’ll do the same tomorrow.”

Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift make a serious move into contention. Photo by Libby Law.

Hard-working Tom Jackson has been waiting in the wings for his chance to step into the spotlight at this level, and it feels as though his moment is coming now that the excellent Capels Hollow Drift has come along. The pair looked exceptional at Badminton this spring, where they ultimately finished sixteenth after picking up a 30.3 dressage score, ten time penalties, and a rail — but this week, we’ve seen him excel himself in every way.

“He was just another level today,” says Tom, who stepped up from thirteenth on a 28.9 to fourth after putting just 3.6 time penalties on the board today. “He came out of Badminton having gained that experience during that trip, and I was hoping that would stand him in good stead for here — and it absolutely did. He came home really strong.”

Though much of their round was smooth sailing, ‘Walshy’ had to take the experience he’d gained at Badminton and use it to dig deep at the tough Trout Hatchery at 10ABCDEF, which was the first water complex on the course.

“I saw quite a moving stride at the Trout Hatchery at the corner at the bottom, which meant that my turn was then quite tight to the second element,” explains Tom. “But he was really good there — he jumped in and got through very nicely.”

The pair were held on course just before the colossal complex of rails midway round at the Maltings, which marked the first time the gelding had been pulled up on course — but it also allowed Tom to rejig one of his original plans and give the gelding the best possible experience around the track.

“I’d liked to think that he’d be quite good in that scenario, and he was, luckily. He’s quite a relaxed, chilled out horse, so it gave him a bit of time to recover; then, as soon as I said ‘go’ again, he was off,” says Tom. “I had planned to the big rails to the corner [at the Maltings], but because he was held, I’d walked the hedge to the corner and thought that might be more sensible to get him going again.”

Ros Canter’s Pencos Crown Jewel overcomes her stage fright to step into the top five. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Ros Canter and the impressive Pencos Crown Jewel stepped up from sixth to fifth place after coming home with twelve time penalties — despite a tricky start to their round. They were held at the start while fence repairs were undertaken on the course, which shook the sensitive mare’s focus and meant that Ros had to take longer settling her into the track.

“That’s not ideal for her, because she really dislikes people and horses — and two people finished while I was waiting,” says Ros. “So she came out of the start box and over fences two and three it felt like she kind of nose-dived. So from that point on I was like, ‘hang on, let’s just quit with the speed for a second and just get her settled.’ I knew she wouldn’t enjoy Defender Valley very much, because it’s so narrow and there’s so many people there, so I was fairly careful there. She was quite nervous, looking left and right, but from that point on, she really got into gear.”

That feeling allowed Ros to take a calculated risk: “I got a great shot over the parallel [at 6], and I’d been 50/50 about whether I was going to even try the straight route at the Leaf Pit, but she was like, ‘hang on tight!’ — and from that point, I was hanging on tight! She was off like a rocket.”

With further experience — and a less fraught start box experience — Ros is confident that ‘Jasmine’ will return as a horse who can fight for a fast finish over even the toughest of tracks.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, she has the speed and the stamina to go inside the time, but she’s bum-high in her confirmation, and she’s a bit like a hare going uphill, which means she’s like a hare going downhill, too. She can lose the balance, and so I feel like I have to be a bit careful, because she would throw herself at anything. But in time, she’ll absolutely go inside the time.”

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats suffer disappointment and elation in one round. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Dressage leaders Kitty King and Vendredi Biats will go into tomorrow’s showjumping in sixth place after arguably the best round we’ve ever seen them deliver — but one that was marred by one costly stumble at the Fairfax & Favor Bootrack rails at 19A. Like several other horses before him, ‘Froggy’ didn’t quite make the full spread of the fence and ultimately touched down on the pinned back rail, picking up 11 penalties.

“I’m gutted and thrilled — confusing emotions, really,” says Kitty. “He was absolutely fantastic and gave me a superb ride, but he just made a mistake at the rails. I’m not sure what he did; I think he just misread the rails, which is very unlike him — he’s an incredibly careful horse. But it’s just one of those things. He didn’t deserve it; he’s kind of been unlucky all the way through, and I really thought it was going to be our time. It just wasn’t to be.”

But Kitty, who heads into the final day on one of the field’s best show jumpers, was somewhat mollified by a reminder that she’s in good company: “I spoke to my mother, and she reminded me of Michael Jung’s pin at Tokyo — it happens to the best of them, and I can’t take anything away from the horse. He was absolutely brilliant.”

And Froggy, who has been consistently competitive for two years now after a stint of occasional naughtiness in his younger years, certainly proved that he’s a top-class bit of kit with a top-class jockey on board today.

“He did everything I asked of him, and he was absolutely foot-perfect at the Leaf Pit, which I was pretty worried about,” Kitty says. “He was making it feel so easy, and I was thinking what a nice ride we were having. I’d spoken to Piggy, and she’d said, ‘it feels horrific the whole time, like you’re in a tumble dryer the whole time!’ — so I was galloping up to the Maltings thinking, ‘I must be going way too slow, because Pig told me it’d feel horrific, and this actually feels really enjoyable!'”

Bubby Upton and Cola chase the clock on the home stretch. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

23-year-old Bubby Upton has had her share of learning experiences at five-star since stepping up at the tail end of 2021, and today, the recent graduate of Edinburgh University showed that she’s an excellent student. She and her Young Riders partner Cola, with whom she’s completed Pau and Badminton, looked a picture around Derek di Grazia’s tough track, adding 10 time penalties to hoist themselves from 11th to seventh place going into the final day.

“What a horse,” says an emotional Bubby, who rode with a maturity well beyond her years while navigating the tough combinations on course. “His stride really is enormous, so I have to be careful of who I watch and how many I watch, because whenever anyone else makes a distance look long or doable, I know that he can actually make it easier than that. Having a horse with that kind of stride around here actually makes it a whole lot easier.”

Like many of the younger riders in the field, Bubby sought out advice from one of her fellow competitors, which allowed her to analyse her horse’s performance throughout the round and make decisions accordingly. That meant that Cola crossed the finish line full of running, and visibly recovered in just minutes as we watched on from the mixed media zone.

“I was surprised, because he felt pretty tired coming out of the Trout Hatchery and up that hill,” says Bubby, “but I spoke to Piggy about it and she said that Vanir Kamira wasn’t taking the bridle there, either. So I just thought, ‘I’ll bear with it’, and then he jumped the boot [at 12] and picked up steam to the rails and corner up at the top. He’s only 40% blood, and he’s only 16.1hh, but he’s got a heart of gold, and that’s all that matters.”

Alice Casburn and Topspin add another excellent round to their resume at five-star. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

20-year-old Alice Casburn was born just one year before overnight third-placed Classic Moet, which is a fact we don’t recommend thinking about for too long if you don’t want to feel 180 years old, but she gave us all a chance to feel young again as we cheered her and her homebred, Topspin, around a track she’d been quietly sick on just days before. She needn’t have worried, really; on their five-star debut at Pau last year (when she was just nineteen, and the rest of us were already drowning ourselves in eye creams), they jumped an excellent clear to finish nineteenth, and at Badminton this spring, they did the same to finish in exactly the same position. Today, though, Alice knew that the technical intensity of the first part of the track wouldn’t necessarily suit her big, strong Thoroughbred particularly well.

“He came out a little bit stronger than I would have liked,” says Alice. “At Blair, for example, you’ve got a big hill at the start, and because he’s quite blood, I like to take the edge off him. So I found the first bit quite difficult, but I’m lucky with him that he’s so honest. Some people say they run themselves into trouble, but you don’t mind it if they jump themselves out of it. Once we’d got up the hill after Defender Valley, he was absolutely phenomenal.”

From then on, Alice and the gelding, who only began eventing three years ago, slipped into their familiar rhythms, looking after one another when they needed to.

“I jumped a little bit big into the Trout Hatchery, and I came straight around the corner like, ‘oh, sorry!’ and growling a little bit, but he just popped in and made the distance lovely,” she says. “He’s a serious class of horse, and he’s got the heart as well. I did stick to plan A [all the way around], but I wouldn’t say I sticked to plan A on all the strides I would have quite liked! But he was amazing — I’m so lucky that when I came around the corner and there wasn’t really a stride or a line, he was like ‘hold my beer!’ He took me straight through it, and even at the end, everyone said you’ve got to see if they’ve got that extra bit of run in them, and he really took me.”

Their 6.8 time penalties rocketed them up the leaderboard from 30th to eighth place, and came after a significant five-star personal best of 33.6 in the first phase. Those are hardly Alice’s first major accomplishments of the year: after that excellent Badminton finish, which earned Alice the Glentrool trophy for the highest climb and the under-25 prize, too, she and Topspin headed to the Young Rider European Championships, where they earned team gold and individual bronze.

“I said to mum, ‘I feel like I’m overdue a bad run!’,” she laughs. “I know that sounds awful, but that’s the reality of riding — and so to have a year like this on him, with three five-stars in nine months, is quite something. I’m forever grateful to him, and I can’t quite believe I’m here. I still look back at those weeks and think, ‘that wasn’t me!’ I watch the videos, but it’s like I’m watching someone else in my head.”

But Alice’s run of great results comes after a battle with nerves that she’s learned to accept and work with — with the occasional help and advice of the elder statesmen of the sport.

“It doesn’t get any easier, and I spoke to Pippa earlier and she told me it never gets any easier. But that makes you feel better because sometimes I worry that I’m more uptight than I should be. I was nervous, but it seemed to pay off,” she says. “I’ve had to work quite hard on it. I went through a time in 2019 where I wasn’t quite having the results I wanted, and that was mainly because I came out of the startbox cold, if that makes sense. I’d come out slow and nervous, and then I’d get halfway around and be fine, but obviously the start was never great. So I just sort of found something that worked for me, whether that’s listening to music or having a quiet time, and ever since then, I stick to it and it normally works.”

Pippa Funnell jumps the last with Majas Hope. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Pippa Funnell herself had two excellent rounds, first with the rangy, occasionally shy Billy Walk On, who was second out of the box and slipped just out of the top ten after adding 19.6 time penalties, and then with stalwart campaigner Majas Hope, who stepped up from tenth to ninth with 12.8 time penalties.

“If Piggy was on top, or Tom, or one of those young ones, he’d have made the time, I’m sure,” says Pippa with a grin. “I hold up my hand: I think that’s where experience now means that in those places where I balance, I probably take a little bit of speed away, and the one extra bit of balance coming down to the pardubice or the big box before the last water are the little things that add up.”

But, she concedes, those little things are also part of what ensures she can get two horses safely home around Burghley with clear rounds under their belts.

“It’s exactly that, and I feel desperately sorry for Oliver, because I saw his fall [on Tregilder] and he did nothing wrong — it’s just that he was riding to the clock. I saw that, and it reminded me not to do that.”

Wills Oakden and Oughterard Cooley through the Lion Bridge. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Wills Oakden and Oughterard Cooley made fine work of their Burghley debut, delivering a fast — occasionally blisteringly so — round for ten time penalties, boosting them from 26th place to overnight tenth.

“It was hard work, but bless him, he just kept gritting his teeth and kept trying as hard as he possibly could, and we’re so proud of him for it,” says Wills, who travelled down from Scotland to debut the gelding at his first five-star. “He kept giving his all. He’s normally very quick, and what helped me, probably, is that I was out of control for three minutes! He was going — and he just kept going. Fair play to him, because that was a long way, and a lot of big fences.”

Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8 impress in their first five-star. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

There’s nothing that says Burghley more than a Saturday climbing session, and US five-star debutante Cornelia Dorr certainly made sure she packed her ascenders and carabiners for her round with Daytona Beach 8. Though a disappointing dressage mark of 39 had put them out of the hunt in 50th place, their quick, committed round and 8.4 time penalties allowed them to scurry straight up the cliff face into 16th.

“I’m pretty elated — it was really fun. She just did everything so well that I think I smiled the whole way around,” says Cornelia, who sourced the former Sandra Auffarth ride through Dirk Schrade, and has since made her US team debut with the mare at Houghton Hall this spring. But although that was valuable experience — and an enormous milestone for Cornelia — it wasn’t the main aim of this year’s stint in the UK, where she’s been based with Australia’s Kevin McNab: “I came over in January with the goal of doing a five-star, and Kevin was always making an argument for Burghley, and I was like, ‘oh, we’ll see!’ I made him walk it with me like, six times!”

Though Daytona Beach often looked to have just one gear — sixth — around the course, her fast footwork, quick thinking, and gutsy, clever riding from Cornelia meant that they pulled it off through even the toughest combinations. And even in the exhausting latter stages of the course, the mare kept on running with her ears pricked.

“The Trout Hatchery was chaotic, but she just got it. All the riders that have ridden here said the horses tire around the Maltings, but they pick up a second wind after that, and she really did. She was definitely more tired than I’ve felt her, but she was pretty spritely [at the finish] even still.”

Cornelia, like her American compatriots, is familiar with Derek di Grazia’s course design, and that helped her to make a plan for how best to tackle his first Burghley track.

“Derek sets the course so that if you hit your minutes, you know that you’re in a proper canter for the course — so I just kept it in mind a little bit. But I think I was behind on my minutes for most of the way around, and I guess she had a really good pace. It didn’t feel easy, but what a partner: she picked up where I didn’t and we just had each other’s backs. It’s really surreal — the experience she just gave me was the experience of a lifetime. It was incredible.”

Emily Hamel and Corvett nail a year-end goal with a clear at Burghley. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

Emily Hamel and Corvett were able to leap from 41st to 23rd place after picking up 30.4 time penalties — but upon arriving through the finish flags Emily, who’s been based in the UK with Canada’s Mike and Emma Winter this year, wasn’t sure whether to celebrate or not. She was initially awarded 20 penalties at the Trout Hatchery after making a last minute call to go the long route at the B element when ‘Barry’ delivered one of his characteristic big jumps in, ballooning Emily nearly out of the tack and making the straight route a near impossibility.

“He just jumped into the water funny, and then I pulled out to do the B option,” she says, but: “he was so good — he just kept going and trying, and I’m so glad I’m here with that horse.”

Emily came over to the UK in the spring to tackle Badminton, which she and Barry completed with a 20. Their summer has been spent training and competing in the heart of the sport, which prepared them well to come tackle the biggest challenge of their careers.

“It was tough, and I would say that’s the most tired I’ve been after a cross-country course, but it was really cool to go through the finish flags,” she says. Comforting, too, was the fact that Derek di Grazia had built the course — and Emily and her scopey gelding had previously had success over his five-star track at Kentucky. “It’s very similar — he rewards positive, forward riding, although this was a whole different level of difficulty. It was a real test, but Corvett’s so quick-footed that he just figured it all out — and he tried his heart out.”

Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent make easy work of much of Derek di Grazia’s track. Photo by Libby Law.

Meghan O’Donoghue picked up a frustrating 20 penalties at the Maltings complex after her ex-racehorse, Palm Crescent, jumped her out of the tack over the wide oxer at 14A, making the line to the open corner at B unjumpable. They slipped down ten places to 25th after adding a further 35.6 time penalties in a round that looked otherwise full of positives.

“I got jumped out of the tack over the oxer, and I wanted to get my head up and make it happen and pull off something incredible, but it wasn’t going to happen,” says Meghan. “He was absolutely incredible, though. The beginning comes up at you really quickly, and it’s a bit relentless, honestly — the horses really have to be on your side from the beginning, and there weren’t any places where you were going to make them into a five-star horse that day. That was probably Derek’s point — he didn’t want it to go any other way. Palmer was fighting for me from the beginning, and I’m thrilled to have had this experience. Hopefully I’ll be a better rider from it, and show up a little better from it.”

Tomorrow sees the final horse inspection start an exciting day of action from 9.30 a.m. BST/4.30 a.m. EST. We’ll bring you all the updates you need to know, plus full reports from the showjumping finale, right here on EN. Go Eventing.

The top ten after an exciting, influential day of cross-country at Burghley.

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“I Was Sick by the Joules Combination!”: Riders React to Derek di Grazia’s New-Look Burghley Course

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 3, 2022 6:25 am -

It’s been a long old time that Captain Mark Phillips has been at the helm of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials: over the course of three stints, he’s designed more than twenty courses here across 30 years. In that time, he’s put a real stamp on the place, and Burghley’s reputation as the biggest and boldest of five-star tracks holds fast across the sport — but variety is the spice of life, and this year, we’ve got a new chap in charge. Derek di Grazia certainly isn’t short of experience; he’s been the Kentucky course designer since 2011, and he designed last year’s Olympic track, too.

Of course, there are unique challenges that come with taking on a new course — and plenty of pressure to hit the right tone, too. When a designer has dealt with a piece of land for as long as Phillips did, he brings to each new course an innate understanding of every dip and knoll available to him; for a first-time designer, this is vital intel that’s gained with every track he lays over that piece of land. So for all of us, Derek included, today might be something of a fact-finding mission, but already, we can see his stamp on the questions asked.

Derek di Grazia’s 2022 Burghley course. The bulk of the course’s intensity appears in the first third, with 5ABCDE through to 10ABCDEF acting as the ‘action zone’.

To start with, let’s take a look at the overall ‘feel’ of the course. Here are the vital stats:

Length: 6460m

Speed: 570 mpm

Optimum time: 11:20

One of the major talking points on this year’s course is the sheer length of some of the early questions — two of which have options up to F. Of course, if you choose to take a straight route, this doesn’t mean you’ll jump five separate fences in a combination — those direct fences have two or three letters apiece, so you might pop a corner that’s lettered as a BC element, for example. The potential for confusion comes if you opt to go long at, say, the Leap Pit at 7ABCDEF, because there’s a very real opportunity to get the lettering wrong and effectively jump a letter twice, which would result in elimination. We’ve already seen the lettering changed at one point on the course: the Trout Hatchery water at 10ABCDEF was deemed confusing and verging on unfair by some riders, and the organising team, ground jury, and Derek himself worked swiftly to rectify the options there so that any rider who runs into some trouble can safely navigate out of the question.

From the first turn through Defender Valley (formerly known as Discovery Valley) at 5ABCDE through to the Trout Hatchery at 10ABCDEF we’ve got the bulk of the course’s technical intensity, and this is where we’re expecting to see many of the problems on course today. After that, the fences are typical Burghley: big, bold, and replete with iconic rider frighteners such as the capacious Cottesmore Leap at 20. The Dairy Mound at 18ABC features a sharp incline to the a smallish timber corner at the first element, and though none of the three elements here are particularly big, there’s an interesting striding question, with longish distances to the next elements. This has been a bit of a head-scratcher for riders, and the huge white oxers and open corners at the Joules at the Maltings combination at 14ABC doesn’t look any smaller than it did in 2019, when it was one of the most influential questions on course.

The first combination on course comes at fence 4abc in the main arena, but shouldn’t cause any issues.

Fences 4b and 4c.

Prior to the Defender Valley question, we shouldn’t see any problems. The first few fences are typically friendly — or as friendly as five-star fences can be, anyway — and they’re designed to get horses and riders into a confident rhythm. The first combination, 4ABC in the main arena, isn’t particularly tricky either, but will give riders the chance to get their horses listening and adjusting ahead of the very intense section to come.

The straight route at the first turn through Defender Valley features two elements. Photo courtesy of the CrossCountry App.

Those who opt to go long at Defender Valley add two extra jumping efforts early on — a risky decision when trying to keep gas in the tank for later in this long, hilly course.

Once they reach the first spin through Defender Valley at 5ABCDE, they’ll need to make sure their horses are listening enough to commit to a line: the direct route, a beefy brush corner numbered 5AB and a hefty skinny brush numbered 5CDE will save their horses two valuable jumping efforts, but they’ll need to be on the ball and focused.

The Leaf Pit has a whole new look this year, with elements up to F after the colossal drop in.

The myriad options available through the Leaf Pit.

Each element of this year’s Leaf Pit is dimensionally enormous, adding an extra level of difficulty to the analytical challenge of choosing a route.

The Leaf Pit comes up fast after that, with just a colossal open oxer in between and enough of a gallop to take seriously en route — and once they get there, they’ll be faced with the beefiest set of questions we’ve seen here in a long time. The distance from the famously big drop in has been shortened slightly, so there’s less room to regather the knitting than there once was, and riders will be hoping to nail their plan A, because this is the first time we’ll see alternative routes up to F on course. Three efforts are always preferable to five when you need to save some gas for later on, and the alternative routes here are confusing enough to be intimidating in their own right. Still, there’s an alternative option for those who don’t fancy facing the drop — though whether five-star competitors should be allowed to avoid this iconic question is a contentious point in its own right.

The second pass through Defender Valley features a straight route over the log and right handed to the timber corner just visible on the right edge of this photo, or a longer circuit back to a straightforward narrow fence.

Then, it’s back through Defender Valley for the questions at 8AB, which features a pretty serious right-handed turn but doesn’t look like it’ll cause quite as much chaos as it has in previous years.

The newly renumbered Trout Hatchery adds an extra ‘get out of jail’ option if riders’ plan A goes awry.

The straight route at the Trout Hatchery is easy to follow, if not to execute – after jumping in over a rolltop trailer at A and over a corner at B, they follow the line through over to the left and into the second part of the water…

… and then over the CD and EF elements, which are set on a straight line.

The alternative element CD can be seen on the right hand side of the photo, and after dropping in, competitors will pop over the bank out at E and then over the brush skinny at F.

The Trout Hatchery always poses a serious question, and this year is no different, even after the wise relettering of the alternative routes. Riders will need to tackle the A element, a trailer with a timber rolltop, with gumption, because their horses won’t have got their feet wet yet — and there’s not a lot of room for hesitation once you get into the drink and en route to the brush corner at 10B. Then, they’ll pass over a strip of dry land before jumping another rolltop into the second part of the water and heading straight out over a brush skinny. The alternative route, which serpentines through each point and features a drop into the second part, will add serious time, and features a step out of the second part of the water, which has always historically come up on a bit of a half stride, disrupting the rhythm.

A closer look at the route options through the Maltings complex.

There’s a choice of routes through the Maltings, which was so influential in 2019, and riders can opt for rails or brushes on their way through. Fence 14BC can be seen on the right, looking faintly impossible.

The wide white oxers and brushes at the Maltings question at 14ABC are still big enough to stop your breath for a second, and there’s a choice of routes here this year that’s rather reminiscent of a spin in a tumble dryer, but there’s a choice between oxers and brushes and riders will be able to make a plan that best suits their horses, which should avoid some of the issues we saw in 2019 when several horses met maximum dimension spreads on slightly skewiff strides, paying the price with a tumble.

The Dairy Mound: technical, intense, and inexplicably full of pigs.

The approach to the Dairy Mound’s straight route features a sharp incline to 18A. Photo courtesy of the CrossCountry App.

The corner at 18A isn’t big, but its approach is tricky – as are the open distances to the next elements.

The B and C elements of the Dairy Mound.

We’ve seen plenty of riders walking and re-walking the Dairy Mound at 18ABC and looking a bit puzzled, because the stride patterns here are variable, even though the fences are among the smallest on course. This spot on course has some of the sharpest undulating terrain — a bit of a difference from the long pulls prevalent elsewhere on course — and we could well see a number of good horses darting out to the right of the small, very angled log at 18C, which is on a long stride and will take some agricultural riding. Fortunately, agriculture is kind of the theme of the day at this combination, which is inexplicably decorated with… lots of pigs.

The capacious oxers at 19AB mark the start of the home stretch — sort of.

Once you’re through the Dairy Mound, the Fairfax and Favor Boot Rack oxers at 19AB act as something of a gateway to the latter part of the course, where the technicality eases in favour of big, bold jumps the whole way home. This year, we’re going down Winners Avenue, rather than up it, which takes out the bruising pull that can really sap those last bits of energy late on course.

Arguably the most iconic rider frightener in the world: the Cottesmore Leap at 20.

In a funny sort of way, the Cottesmore Leap at 20 — arguably the most obviously frightening fence in the world, and large enough to park a Land Rover in — will be a bit of a relief for riders, because it’s a real kick and fly sort of question that doesn’t require the mental acrobatics that the prior parts of the course did.

The Voltaire Design Bank to Triple Bar at 22AB presents an interesting visual question that could catch some pairs out.

At 22AB we’ve got an interesting new question in the form of a bank to a triple bar, where we’ll probably see a wide variety of approaches. Who’ll touch down, and who’ll try to jump that A element in one? Whatever they do, it’ll define their approach to the long, skinny triple bar at the B element — but if they run out of room to get it right, there’s an alternative B element further away.

The skinny B element on the direct route at 22AB.

There are two options for the A element at the Boodles Raindance at 26AB, and the one riders choose may well depend on the breeze because of the proximity of the willow decorations.

There’s another interesting question posed at 26AB, which features a choice of two houses at A to a brush-topped fence into the water at B. The question itself should be straightforward enough, but depending on what the weather does, they might have to make a quick call about which A element to choose: there are willows planted close to the fences here, and their long fronds blow right in front of the fences when the wind picks up.

The famous Lion Bridge is on the home stretch.

From then on out? It’s single fences all the way, baby, including the stunning Lion Bridge at 27 and 28, right through to the final question at 30 — but these are Burghley fences, so complacency be damned: they’ll need to ride each and every single one. To get a closer look at every fence, you can check out the course preview on the CrossCountry App here.

Here’s what some of the competitors have to say about the challenge to come:

Kitty King (1st on 21.2 with Vendredi Biats):

“It’s very intense at the start, much more like a short-format, really. It comes up thick and fast, and there’s not much galloping. You kind of think, ‘oh, it’s Burghley, I’m going to be galloping loads’ — but actually, you’re whipping around and heading back on yourself through loads of combinations and with lots of jumping. But I do think if you can get through the Dairy Mound, then it kind of calms down and you can regroup and cruise home. There’s a lot to do out there.”

“There’s so many elements to them, so I really want to know all my ways out if something goes wrong over A or B, that if I pull right or left I’m going to the correct fence to make amends. I’ll have a plan A and hopefully we can stick to that, but it’s cross-country riding and that doesn’t always happen.”

Tim Price (2nd on 21.3 with Vitali, 16th on 29.8 with Bango, 21st on 31 with Polystar I):

“By the time you get up and around the Maltings area, you’ll definitely know how your day’s going. I don’t think I’ve seen the leaf pit as intense as that since before I was riding here and saw people race down there on four or five strides to something. Since then we’ve had a bit more time, so it’ll be exciting. The Trout Hatchery is a real sequence of finding your way through. There’s a lot of places you have to have a good reaction. He’s been clever with the ground in places – he loves ground, you can tell he’s a bit of a merchant for an interesting bit of ground to do something stupid on! It’ll be interesting to see what he does over the next few years as he gets more in sync with the place.”

Sarah Bullimore (3rd on 22.5 with Corouet):

“I’ve been around in a buggy [Sarah injured her knee on Monday by getting studded by a horse at Wellington Horse Trials], and there are big jumping efforts, but so far Corouet has tackled everything with great gusto and almost plays with fences. Here, I’m hoping he won’t be playing with them quite so much — he’ll need to just get on and do the job and save energy. It’s big and bold, and there’s serious questions early on. I think Derek has been really clever with making you commit to a line, and if you’re going straight, you’re going straight. You can’t change your mind halfway. If you do decide to go straight, there’s very few places where you can change your mind and get out of jail by going long.”

Piggy March (4th on 22.6 with Vanir Kamira):

“It’s definitely Burghley. A lot of people have come back to me and said, ‘oh, it’s very clear; it’s all in front of you’, but I think there’s a lot more places where it might be in front of you, but there’s definitely different bits that you’ve got to take note of, like the terrain. They’ve used that slightly differently, and obviously there’s a different course designer this year — and actually, there’s some really sneaky places where you’ve got to think so quickly. I don’t love the Dairy Mound; that’s a sneaky little thing. I don’t like the distance to the log there — I think it walks quite long, when you’re going to have to come up and pop the corner. But it is what it is. I’ll be scratching my head a lot of times walking that. And the fences are enormous – some of them, you walk up to them and think, ‘I hope I get a good shot to that!’ There’s plenty out there to do.”

Pippa Funnell (8th on 26.2 with Billy Walk On; 10th on xx with Majas Hope):

“You come out of the arena and then it’s quite serious between Defender Valley and up to the Leaf Pit — there’s a lot of very big jumps. The Trout Hatchery is always big, too. But it invites us to get out there and attack it, and to be brave and bold, and I think once you’re through the Trout Hatchery, hopefully you can settle into a bit of a rhythm. The Dairy Mound is a little bit of a tricky question up there, and then there’s a lot of big jumps coming home. We’ve always got to remember that the terrain is hugely important as well. Hopefully their minds are on the job and not looking at the crowds — and that the jockey’s feeling younger than ever!”

Rodolphe Scherer (19th on 30.4 with Song du Magay):

“It’s big, technical, and hilly — it’s a tough course. The beginning is twisty, with many combinations, I think — the beginning is very tough. The rest of the course is tough too, but the beginning has so many combinations and fences close together, it’s a little bit like a short-format. After, I think if you make it through well and don’t lose too much energy, you can go into sixth gear.”

Richard Jones (23rd on 31.2 with Alfies Clover):

“It’s a brilliant track, I’d say — it’s very horse friendly. It’s a big track, and it’s always hilly here, and even when you’re on a good galloper like mine, it does take it out of them. It’s a good test. I wouldn’t say it’s more or less technical, but I do think it’s fair to the horses, and whether that relates to it being a little easier, I don’t know. I certainly don’t think it’s easy, and I think the good horses will go well and the rest will be slow. I think it’ll be a good day for the sport.”

“The Leaf Pit is a really big test. It’s not unfair, but it’s a very decent fence. The Dairy Mound is a real test, too, and I think at that stage in the course, even the good ones will feel quite tired. It’s a funny little run up a short slope to a corner that’s not very big at all, but it’s a very serious question.”

Jonelle Price (25th on 32.2 with Classic Moet):

“You never want to say it’s soft, but I think the run home, in my opinion, is a little bit too soft. Once you’ve jumped the Dairy Mound and the oxers thereafter, there’s really nothing that should stop you from getting home if you’ve still got some gas in the tank. I think the first part, from the main ring to the Trout Hatchery, is going to be the action zone. There’s not any real let up — so if you have a good round through to the Trout Hatchery, you’ve got a pretty good chance.”

Alice Casburn (30th on 33.6 with Topspin):

“I was actually sick at the Joules combination! But there’s no change there, because I was actually sick next to the Vicarage Vee at Badminton, so I’m hoping if trends follow, I’m going to have a lovely day! He’s a fantastic jumper, and it’s big, but there’s nothing that I don’t think he can do. He’s phenomenal, and I saw all the horses at the trot-up and thought, ‘well, I’d rather be on mine’. They’re all fantastic horses, but when you’ve had a horse for a long partnership, you know them and they know you and you’ve got to go out with that mentality. I know what he’s going to think four strides before he gets there. He’s a high percentage of blood, too, and he loves to gallop, and he loves hills — so he’s in the right place, it’s just whether everything comes together on Saturday! But I’m feeling good about it.”

Francis Whittington (33rd on 34.1 with DHI Purple Rain):

“He’s built a strong track out there, and it’s definitely not one you can go out there and take lightly. You want a good night’s sleep the night before, and you want to make sure your head is really clear, because there’s so many options and alternatives in there. Before, you could adjust when things didn’t quite go as planned, and now, you have to think, ‘where am I within this combination?’ A couple of years ago when I was last here with Evento, I made an adjustment in a combination and ended up re-jumping a fence I’d already jumped and ended up eliminating myself — and they have something similar in the Trout Hatchery this year. There’s been a bit of discussion between the riders and everyone else, because I’m not entirely sure that the question and the option they put in is fair for the horse or the rider or anyone to understand. So we’ve got to be clear-headed and thinking about the options.”

[Author’s note: since this interview, the numbering on the Trout Hatchery has been changed to reflect the concerns of the riders and provide clearer alternative options.]

“Without being too controversial, it’s not what I’d put down as being our traditional Burghley track. It’s a different twist to it — but that’s the point of having different course designers, so we’re not just riding around similar tracks every time. But Burghley is Burghley — it’s meant to be big, bold, and scary, with rider frighteners and undulations. You’ve got the hills, you’ve the terrain, which creates enough of a question, and that’s half the task: riding the horse at the beginning so you have enough at the end to finish.”

“I’m not a big fan of this whole ABCDEF thing — I run out of fingers for the alphabet when I’m thinking! It all comes up really quickly, so when you’re trying to react when you’ve had a stumble, and find the alternative, you’re assessing the situation, creating a new plan, and enacting the new plan in a second and a half. You don’t have time to think about it, but now we’ve got to think ‘was that a B, a C, or a D?’ You’re not just learning the route that’ll go straight, you’ve got to learn the alternative route from that point for maybe six different scenarios. When you’re trying to assess all that and stop yourself from having a serious injury, all in a second and a half… that’s a lot.”

Padraig McCarthy (45th on 38.5 with HHS Noble Call):

“The last time I walked the course here was in 2018, and it’s a different kind of an animal to then, I think. My feeling is that it starts quite big — the Defender Valley and on to the Leaf Pit is every bit a five-star, but the feeling and philosophy is a little bit different than when Mark designed it. Derek has been very clever about it in how he’s used the stride patterns and the angles. There’s maybe less of the big, bruising jumps that we’ve seen in the past — but that could also be flavoured by the fact that I have a horse who’s a really, really good cross-country horse, and I think that always changes your opinion of how a course walks.”

The Ultimate Guide to Burghley Horse Trials

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 2, 2022 4:00 pm -

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s here: we’re smack in the middle of Burghley week, and the biggest five-star event in the world is back with a bang, a new organising team, a new designer, and plenty of those iconic, enormous fences that make the Lincolnshire, England competition so fearsome. We’ll be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage throughout the week here on EN, and to help you stay up to date with all the info you need, including the latest reports, schedules, live-stream info, form guides, and more, we’ve created a handy guide that you can bookmark and refer to throughout the week. Want to see the latest news? Just refresh and scroll to the coverage section at the bottom of the page for the freshest articles as they’re published. But first: the fine details.

THE COMPETITION:

We’ve waited since 2019, and the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is finally back. The iconic CCI5* competition, which began in 1961, is the third Rolex Grand Slam leg of 2022 — but there’s a fresh slate here, as Badminton winner Laura Collett doesn’t have a horse entered. The dressage test will be FEI CCI5* B, the same used at Kentucky, Badminton, and the forthcoming World Championships.

WHAT’S AT STAKE:

Most crucially? A shot at the highly-coveted Burghley trophy, a slew of extra prizes and awards, and a share of the £323,500 prize pot, which has been off-limits since 2019 due to the pandemic. Beyond that? There’s also a battle for FEI World Rankings points as the likes of the Price family and Pippa Funnell work to topple Oliver Townend from the number one slot.

THE LINE-UP:

Seven nations will come forward to fight for the coveted Burghley title, including a slew of entries from the US and France, an Aussie double header, some very good Irish hands, and a single entry for The Netherlands. In total, we’ve got 57 entries across 53 riders, and you can meet them all in our jam-packed form guide, which is in drawn order for maximum ease of use.

THE OFFICIALS:

There’s a truly top-notch cast of ground jury members on duty at Burghley. New Zealand’s Andrew Bennie will serve as president of the ground jury, while Austria’s Katrin Eichinger-Kniely and Great Britain’s Judy Hancock will work alongside him. The FEI Technical Delegate for the week is Great Britain’s Philip Surl, assisted by Andrew Temkin of the USA. The cross-country course will be designed for the first time by Derek di Grazia, who has been in charge of Kentucky for years and takes over from Captain Mark Phillips, and will be assisted by Adrian Ditcham. On Sunday, the remaining field will tackle a tough course on grass, designed by Paul Connor.

[Times are listed in local time as well as EST, when they pertain to live-streams]

Wednesday 31st August

16.00 (11.00 a.m. EST) Main Arena: First Horse Inspection

Thursday 1st September

7.30: Gates Open

8.00 – 9.30 Members Only: Breakfast served in the Members’ Enclosure

9.00 – 17.30: Shops Open

9.45 – 15.45 (4.45 a.m. — 10.40 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Dressage

12.30 approx. Main Arena: Yogi Breisner Jumping Masterclass

9.00 – 17.00 Ring 2: LeMieux Pony Club Team Jumping Competition

18.00: Showground Closes

Friday 2nd September

7.30: Gates Open

8.00 – 9.30 Members Only: Breakfast served in the Members’ Enclosure

9.00 – 17.30: Shops Open

10.00 – 16.00 (5.00 a.m. — 11.00 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Dressage

12.30 Main Arena: Carl Hester Dressage Masterclass

9.00 – 17.00 (4.00 a.m. — 12.00 p.m. EST) Ring 2: Dubarry Burghley Young Event Horse Final

18.00: Showground Closes

Saturday 3rd September

7.30: Gates Open

8.00 – 9.30 Members Only: Breakfast served in the Members’ Enclosure

9.00 – 17.30: Shops Open

10.30 approx: Shetland Pony Grand National

11.30 – 16.00 (6.30 a.m. — 11.00 a.m. EST): Cross Country

18.00: Showground Closes

Sunday 4th September

7.30: Gates Open

8.00 – 9.30 Members Only: Breakfast served in the Members’ Enclosure

9.00 – 17.00: Shops Open

9.30 (4.30 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Final Horse Inspection

11.00 (6.00 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Showjumping

12.00 Main Arena: The Fell Pony Society Display

12.20 Main Arena: Racehorse to Riding Horse (HOYS) Qualifier

13.55 Main Arena: Military Band

14.30 (9.30 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Showjumping

15.25 Main Arena: Parade of Hounds

15.40 (10.40 a.m. EST) Main Arena: Presentation of Prizes

9.00 – 17.00 Ring 2: BSPS Gold Cup Sports Pony Competition

17.00: Showground Closes (No admittance to Burghley Park after 15.30)

HOW TO FOLLOW:

For the first year, the BBC won’t be broadcasting Burghley — well, not in its entirety, anyway. You’ll be able to watch all the action, including trot-ups, by subscribing to BurghleyTV for a one-off price of £20. This gives you access to the livestream, wherever you are in the world, as well as hours of archive footage from prior events, peaks behind the scenes, course previews, and profiles. If you’re in Britain, you can turn to BBC2 to watch a two hour highlight programme on Sunday, September 4.

You can also sign up for our FREE Burghley Daily Digest email — full of updates, links, photos, and stories — which will begin sending on the evening of Wednesday, August 31. [Click here to sign up]

#lrbht, #burghleyhorsetrials, #burghley, #rolexgrandslam

Accounts: Burghley Horse Trials, CrossCountry App, Horse&Hound, FEI Eventing, and Equestrian Team GBR. Don’t forget to follow EN, too – we’ll be bringing you all the insanity in the middle you could possibly need! (And if you’d like to see the real behind-the-scenes life of an EN journo on tour, you certainly can. #shamelessplug) Want to know the juiciest stats throughout the competition? Make sure you follow EquiRatings.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4:
Burghley Daily Digest: Sunday

“You Dream it Could Be You, But it Just As Easily Might Never Be”: Piggy March Takes 2022 Burghley Victory

One Last Hurrah: The Final Land Rover Burghley Live Update Thread

The Best of Burghley: Your Big, Bold Cross-Country Day Social Round-Up

Two Held – Including One From Top Ten – in Burghley Final Horse Inspection

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3:
Burghley Daily Digest: Saturday

Beware the Rides of March: Piggy Takes Over Burghley Lead in Action-Packed Cross-Country Day

“I Was Sick by the Joules Combination!”: Riders React to Derek di Grazia’s New-Look Burghley Course

It’s Here! Big, Bad Burghley Returns and Here are Your Live XC Updates

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2:

That’s Dressage, Done and Dusted: Friday’s Social Media from Burghley

Burghley Daily Digest: Friday

“I Burst into Tears Like a Baby!”: Kitty King Leads the Way at Conclusion of Burghley Dressage

“He Goes Into Black Horse Mode”: Tim Price Takes Friday Morning Burghley Lead with Vitali

Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials Day 2 Live Updates

Land Rover Burghley Dressage Day 2 Live Updates

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1:

Thursday Morning at Burghley: Reigning Champion Heads up Global Top Five

“He Has Such Belief in Himself:” Sarah Bullimore Takes Day One Lead at Burghley

Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials Dressage Day 1 Live Updates

Thursday at Burghley: A Social Media Recap

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31:

One Horse Held; All Accepted in Ebullient First Horse Inspection at Burghley

Wednesday Video from Kentucky Performance Products: Walk Burghley’s Biggest Questions with Laura Collett

THE ESSENTIALS:

Burghley At A Glance: Meet the Riders of the 2022 Field

Burghley At A Glance: Meet the Horses of the 2022 Field

Back to Burghley: Your Bumper Guide to Every Horse and Rider in the 2022 Field

Burghley’s Back – And Here’s How to Watch It, Wherever You Are

PRE-EVENT COVERAGE:

Oliver Townend Takes Pathfinder Role at Burghley (Again)

Burghley Entry Update: The Return Beckons

Keep Calm and Entry-Stalk: The Burghley List is Taking Shape

“I Burst into Tears Like a Baby!”: Kitty King Leads the Way at Conclusion of Burghley Dressage

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 2, 2022 1:49 pm -

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Kitty King clocks her score – her best-ever at an international – and lets the waterworks commence. Photo by Libby Law.

Yesterday, after Sarah Bullimore and Corouet produced that eye-wateringly good 22.5 to take the lead, those of us holed up in the media mixed zone wondered if we might get anything to write about today.

“Surely no one’s beating that,” we said, before considering a moment and adding, “okay, well, maybe Tim and Vitali can do it, but it won’t be by much.”

And then, of course, the day started with Tim Price and Vitali doing just that, and this time, we really thought we were done and dusted with the day’s headlines — surely, after all, there was no way that a 21.3 could be bested. There were a few that would come close, sure, and we knew we’d see some more entrants into the top ten. But a new leader? No way.

We didn’t reckon for the ferocity of Kitty King‘s point-proving mission, though.

“My aim, to put it bluntly, was to put two fingers up at the selectors and say, ‘you should have taken me!’,” she laughs, moments after producing the best international test of her career to capture the first-phase lead on a 21.2 with Vendredi Biats.

And who can blame her? There are always surprises when team selections are announced ahead of championships, but the absence of Kitty and her now exceptionally consistent gelding from the British World Championships line-up was arguably the most startling omission. To win Burghley, though, would be some consolation prize — and the magnitude of her proximity to that hit Kitty full force as she finished her test and glanced up at the scoreboard, just in time to see ground jury president Andrew Bennie award her a collective mark of 10.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to do it — I’m not going to cry today!’ — but then I saw his last collectives and saw we’d gone into the lead, I burst into tears like a baby,” she laughs. “That’s standard for me — I never cry when I’ve done badly, it’s always when I do well, which is really embarrassing!”

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Libby Law.

‘Froggy’, as he’s known at home, is perhaps the consummate stamp of a Selle Français — not just for his flash and athleticism, but for his quirky, occasionally mercurial nature, which has made him equally exciting and frustrating throughout the formative years of his career. Now, as a thirteen-year-old, he’s been delivering time and time again — but for just a fraction of a second, Kitty wondered if she might be about to experience something of a throwback moment.

“He was really with me all through the test, and he felt really soft and rideable,” she says. “But then he did get a bit behind my leg in the last change, and then he did his little tail slap that he used to do as a young horse before he’d buck, so I was like, ‘don’t buck!’ He likes to slap himself up the bum with his tail and then go, ‘oh! Who the hell hit me!’ and then be naughty. So I’m relieved that he kept control!”

Froggy’s warm-up, too, didn’t necessarily fill Kitty with confidence, particularly as Burghley, unlike Badminton in the spring, has a much more end-of-school feeling of jolly, good-natured chaos to it.

“The atmosphere has got quite intense, and when you’re warming up here, it’s a lot noisier than at Badminton,” says Kitty. “It’s not only the clapping from the main arena — you’ve got vehicles going back and forth, too. He spent the entire time in the warm-up basically tripping over, and every time he tripped over, he’d leap in the air all upset with himself. I was like, ‘just pick up your feet! That’s your job — you’re not a puppet on strings, and I can’t pick each one up for you, so just do your job!’ But he did in the arena, and that’s all you can ask — he was brilliant.”

Kitty King brings flash and function to her test with Vendredi Biats. Photo by Libby Law.

All’s well that ends well, and their test certainly ended well with that perfect ten on the board. From the outset, it’s a classic case of the right place and the right time, but for Kitty, it’s the product of a long journey, a lot of work, and no shortage of faith in a very, very good horse.

“He’s a fantastic horse, and I know he’s capable of that sort of test, but we haven’t always been able to produce it on a big occasion. We had a good test at Badminton, but there were a few mistakes here and there — so for him to come out today and produce what he can do at home was fantastic. I felt like I had lots of time between every movement to set everything up. We’re here to prove a point and he really let me do that today. It’s been a long road and long process, and we’ve been working towards this for a very long time with him. He’s always been capable, but it’s been about getting him focused. It’s just a progression, but he’s really coming into his own now.”

President of the ground jury, Andrew Bennie, roundly praised competitors across the board for raising the standard of eventing dressage over the last number of years: “We’ve seen some lovely tests. Kitty’s test was very harmonious — it was super, and I couldn’t give her anything other than a ten for her harmony,” he says. “We’ve got those two marks – why not use them! The standard overall has got better and better and better. We haven’t had a Burghley for three years, and it’s just so interesting to see the horses. They all looked fit and raring to go, and while there’s obviously some favourites, the top horses looked super well-trained. The standard generally has improved out of sight, and it’s great to see.”

Each of the three members of the ground jury has different priorities and particular interests when they’re judging, but for him, horsemanship reigns supreme: “As a panel, after the guinea pig test we don’t really have to agree as such, because we all have our personal likes,” he says. “I like to see the horses and riders looking harmonious, and riders riding with empathy – they’re not trying to make their horses do anything; it should look easy and they should be supple.”

Oliver Townend moves into the top five with Swallow Springs. Photo by Libby Law.

Tim Price, who took the lead this morning as the first rider in the ring with Vitali, sits second by just a tenth of a penalty going into tomorrow’s cross-country, while day one leaders Sarah Bullimore and Corouet will leave the start box in provisional third place, themselves just 1.2 penalties — or three seconds — behind Tim. A tenth of a penalty behind them are the 2019 Badminton champions Piggy March and Vanir Kamira in overnight fourth, while Oliver Townend feels confident about his chances in fifth place with Swallow Springs, with whom he finished third at Badminton this spring. Their test this afternoon very nearly scuppered Kitty’s lead but for two mistakes in the flying changes — but even with those errors, they were still able to earn a very competitive 23.6, which sees them just 2.4 penalties, or six seconds, off the top spot, and in the possession of a five-star personal best for the gelding, too.

“There’s still more to come, I think, but we’re getting better every international run we’ve done, and hopefully there’s still more progression,” says Oliver, who previously earned the horse a PB at Badminton, where they posted a 25.7. Previously, the fourteen-year-old son of Chillout was piloted by Andrew Nicholson, from whom Oliver has inherited a number of horses and, like new stablemate Ballaghmor Class, has never finished outside of the top five at this level. His two runs at five-star with Andrew aboard saw him finish third here on his debut in 2018 and fifth the following spring at Badminton.

“I’ve ridden a lot of horses after Andrew. Riders always stamp their horses, and it always beautiful to follow him — and this time, he’s given me a good one,” says Oliver with a smile.

Though the loss of the lead after his issues in the changes is undoubtedly frustrating, Oliver is pragmatic about what his position today might mean for the weekend to come.

“It’s Burghley, and normally the winner comes from sixth or seventh,” says Oliver, who also sits ninth going into cross-country with this morning’s ride, Tregilder. “Ballaghmor Class was sixth the last time I won here, so we’re close enough. He’s a very good horse, and he gets the trip. He’s been here before, and tomorrow should be his strength, so fingers crossed.”

Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel impress yet again. Photo by Libby Law.

Reigning World Champion Ros Canter holds sixth place overnight with the on-form British-bred mare Pencos Crown Jewel, who comes forward for her sophomore appearance at this level after taking fourth in Bicton’s Burghley replacement last year. For ‘Jasmine’, Burghley’s tight, close crowds and loud arena wouldn’t be an ideal stage, but the mare has made enormous strides in her strength and confidence over the last year, which allowed her to produce a professional test for a 24.2.

“She’s such a little trier, is Jasmine. She’s not got the biggest step, and she’s a bit croup-high, so bodily she finds it quite difficult, but she just nails it every time in terms of effort. If there was a gold star for effort, she’d win it every time,” says Ros.

The mare’s very good run over Bicton’s achingly tough hills, and her decisive second-place finish at Bramham CCI4*-L this summer, prove that she’s got the chops to tackle Burghley’s stamina questions — and her excellent performances over much more technical short-format tracks at Chatsworth and Hartpury should stand her in good stead to deal with the early part of tomorrow’s track, which has a much more intense and quick-fire feel to it than in previous years. But Ros’s aim for the day isn’t necessarily to fight for a climb into the top spot — it’s to continue producing a tough, gutsy horse who loves what she does.

“I just want her to enjoy it,” says Ros of the mare, who’s a maternal half-sister to Ros’s Badminton runner-up and World Championships mount Lordships Graffalo. “I’m quite protective of little Jasmine. She’s not very big, and she’s taken a bit longer than some to come up through the levels, but she just has a heart of gold. She couldn’t try harder, and sometimes that’s her downfall, so if she comes out of this happy and having had a good experience then that’ll do for me.”

“So far, she’s kind of done any course. She’s certainly got a huge amount of gallop in her — she’s quite Thoroughbred, even if she doesn’t really look it, so I hope she’ll go the distance. It’s just whether I can keep her confident and enjoying it. I think my biggest worry is the crowds, for her. She dislikes people quite a lot; she’s her own woman, and she likes to be left alone in her stable, so just coming up here today was quite nerve-wracking for us. So I just hope she enjoys it — that’s the biggest thing.”

Spicy CHF Cooliser comes into her own with Tom McEwen. Photo by Libby Law.

Tom McEwen may well have the best event horse in the world in his stable in Olympic gold and silver medallist Toledo de Kerser, but the rest of his string isn’t looking too shabby either — particularly the compact sports car of a mare, CHF Cooliser, who makes her third trip out of a five-star startbox tomorrow in overnight in seventh place. She sparkled in the ring this afternoon, earning herself a tidy international personal best of 25.6 for her efforts.

“It was a huge improvement from Badminton,” says Tom, who scored a 34.4 there with the mare this spring after delivering a 29.6 in her debut at Pau last autumn. “I would say [this test] was more Pau-esque, but with a lot more punch and a lot more flow, and a lot better of an outline, and actually, just another year’s maturity.”

CHF Cooliser, who’s often referred to as ‘Queen Elizabeth’ at home for her rather royal demands, is beginning to look like something of an heir apparent to Toledo’s throne — particularly as each top-level outing acts as a fact-finding mission, helping Tom to identify the circumstances she needs to perform at her very best.

“She’s always been much better in the second half of the season, but it’s a shame that it wasn’t hotter today — she loves a bit of sun on her back, and then she’s even better again. But it’s a personal best for her by a long way, so that’s as much as we can ask for.”

An intensive training spree with secret weapon Ian Woodhead has certainly made a major difference to the tough little mare’s performances, too.

“Ian has given me a whole heap of help,” says Tom. “We did team training a few weeks ago and I was like, ‘right, we need to sort this out a little bit!’ She was all over the place and still spooking at absolutely everything, but he really helped us to get her going forward again. She was fantastic today, and she really loved it — she looked like a more seasoned horse, whereas at Badminton, I’d say she was a bit unripened. She was still interested in everything else, but was focused on what she’s meant to be doing.”

Pippa Funnell finishes the first phase with two in the top ten, including tenth-placed Majas Hope. Photo by Libby Law.

Reigning Burghley champion Pippa Funnell, who won here in 2019, goes into cross-country in the enviable position of having two in the top ten: her first ride and Thursday morning leader, Billy Walk On, holds eighth place on 26.2, while stalwart partner Majas Hope holds tenth after delivering one of his best-ever tests to score 28.2.

“He nailed it,” says Pippa, who acted as pathfinder with the fifteen-year-old gelding at the 2019 European Championships. “He got three-and-a-half changes — I don’t think the last one was late, but I know it was a bit unorthodox and a bit of a hop, skip, and a jump. It did come clean, though, and it’s sort of a record for him to do four clean changes! He isn’t easy — he goes in there and he’s shy, so he doesn’t like to show off, but he is learning to show off.”

Although Majas Hope has always been a real cross-country banker of a horse, the first phase hasn’t come particularly naturally to him, and Pippa has fluctuated between trying snaffles and double bridles along the route to the sub-30 scores. Some things, though, will always be a bit trickier than others: “The walk is always difficult, right from when you lead him out of the stable, so I do struggle with that and it is expensive,” she admits.

Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope. Photo by Libby Law.

Now, it’s time for all the riders to focus fully on tomorrow’s cross-country challenge — and for Pippa, who’s always been candid about her battles with her nerves, that can be a particularly fraught prospect. Fortunately for her, she’s installed an enviable support system that’ll help to carry her through.

“I’ve got to get my head arounds things, mentally,” she says. “Tonight’s going to be a difficult night for me, but the nice thing is that both horses are in a competitive enough position. I’ve got the husband coming up, so he can be a shoulder to cry on. I’m a great one for that — in my work with the Wesko young riders, I give them a lot of advice and a shoulder to lean on, but it’s more difficult when you’re trying to talk to yourself!”

Tomorrow takes us into one of the exciting days of the year: cross-country day at Burghley returns, and with it comes a new-look, tough track designed, for the first time, by Derek di Grazia. It’s going to be a day of moving and shaking, with a scant 20 penalties separating the top 50 competitors, and we’ll be back shortly with a closer look at what’s to come, plus riders’ reactions and ride times — but for now, it’s time to raise a glass to the leaders of the day. Go Eventing!

The top ten going into tomorrow’s cross-country test.

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Tim Price Takes Friday Morning Burghley Lead with Vitali

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 2, 2022 8:51 am -

Tim Price and Vitali soar into the lead on Friday morning. Photo by Libby Law.

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When a rather gammy-kneed Sarah Bullimore posted a 22.5 with her tiny homebred Corouet yesterday afternoon, she threw down a gauntlet that could well have been unsurpassable — but today’s dressage got started with a serious bang as Tim Price, the first rider of the day, stormed straight into the lead with his Tokyo mount, Vitali. Their score of 21.3 becomes the third test this week to go into the top five all-time tests at this venue — but although the elegant gelding is always a serious contender on the flat, a great performance in an atmosphere as close and intense as Burghley’s isn’t always guaranteed with this horse. Today, though, he met the crowds confidently, delivering some of the best work we’ve seen from him, and earning Tim his best-ever five-star score in the process.

“He was great — he was very rideable in there,” says Tim. “To be fair to him, he’s a funny horse: when he goes into black horse mode, which is when he sort of loses focus, it’s there right through the session with him, and right through the warm-up. But normally, when he warms up like [he did today], he goes in and delivers, so I’m glad he did that here with such a big stage to put him off his game, but it didn’t. He stayed with me and was on his game, and it was good fun.”

Oliver Townend’s Tregilder rewards his owners’ dedication. Photo by Libby Law.

Much of the top ten remained unchanged this morning, with second, third, and fourth places currently held by yesterday’s one-two-three of Sarah, Piggy March and Vanir Kamira, and Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On, respectively. But a sweet test from Oliver Townend‘s first ride, the twelve-year-old Tregilder, earned them a 27.5 that allowed them to slide into provisional fifth place. For Oliver, who debuted Tregilder at the level in last year’s Bicton replacement for Burghley, it’s a particularly good pay-off for the horse’s owners, who have been among his most stalwart supporters.

“I’m very proud to have him here,” says Oliver. “He’s been with us since he was four years old, so we’ve been through a lot together, and I’m happy to have him here for the Hazeldene family, who’ve been with me for over fifteen years. It’s been a long road of very loyal support by them to get the horse to this level, so it’s special.”

Oliver, who has previously won Burghley on two occasions, has always been a vocal supporter of Kentucky’s CCI5* and its designer, Derek di Grazia, who takes the reins here for the first time with a new-look, technical track — and one that Oliver himself is excited to get stuck into with his two rides.

“It’s obviously still got the undulations, and I’m a huge fan of Derek di Grazia — I’ve had plenty of nice experience around his courses in Kentucky,” he says. “I have 100% trust in him as a designer; there’s no tricks or hidden agendas, it’s there to be jumped. It’s a very fair course, but it is huge, and it’s a seriously technical test — plus the undulations, plus you’re against the clock. It’s going to be tough.”

Bubby Upton learns to embrace the heat with Cola. Photo by Libby Law.

23-year-old Bubby Upton has had a few real ‘nearly’ moments at this level this year, including leading the dressage at Luhmühlen with Cannavaro, but her first Burghley with Cola — and her second CCI5* since graduating from Edinburgh University — has got off to an exciting start, with a 28.3 on the board and a provisional sixth-place standing.

“I wanted to be sub-30, and he was, so I’m really pleased with him,” says Bubby. “There’s still so much more to come, which is so exciting. Like, the right to left flying change is still iffy, but he’s got so much potential. That sounds strange to say about a twelve-year-old, that there’s more to come, but hopefully next year, we’ll see the best of him!”

We last saw Cola, with whom Bubby twice rode at the Young Rider European Championships, at this level back in May, when he contested Badminton — but there, he went flat in the ring, scoring an uncharacteristically high 36 as a result. Today, Bubby opted to shave her warm-up right down, hoping that a soupçon of freshness might solve the issue.

“I think we hit the nail on the head [today], to be honest. He did a really good test at the start of the year at Oasby, and I haven’t been able to get that since; I overworked him at Badminton, because I thought he’d go in and the crowds would lift him, but he couldn’t give a flying monkey’s about the crowds. So today, I said to my trainer, Amy Woodhead, that we were going to have to risk it. We did fifteen minutes in here and then went in, and he was spot on.”

It’s partly due to dressage rider Amy’s influence that Bubby has been able to revolutionise her approach to this phase, particularly after logging some serious miles in the saddle of several of the rider’s upper-level dressage horses.

“Amy’s been great and has really taken me under her wing and let me ride some amazing horses,” says Bubby. “It just makes a huge difference riding those dressage horses, because it makes you realise how much work you’ve got to do to get [the eventers] to that place. I’ve been able to play around with four, three, and two-time changes, and her horses are just so sharp off your aids that you then get on your own horse and expect the same.”

That’s paid dividends, particularly with Cola, who isn’t necessarily built to find this phase easy.

“It’s helped me to get him way more in front of the leg, because actually, he can only really give a maximum of like, twenty minutes,” says Bubby. “He gets really tired, because he’s actually a really long horse — although he doesn’t really look it because most people only see him when he looks pretty in the ring! But he does find it hard to stay short and compact, so it’s made me get him way more fired up. I’ve learned not to be afraid of them being hot. I’m learning to like that.”

Ireland’s Susie Berry demonstrates why she’s the next Piggy March with Ringwood LB. Photo by Libby Law.

It’s been a good day to be a young up-and-coming superstar, and Bubby was joined in the top ten by Ireland’s excellent Susie Berry, who posted a 29.3 for eighth with the former Jonty Evans ride Ringwood LB.

“I’m over the moon with him, to be honest,” she says. “There’s way more to come; he’s a really flash horse and so naturally, out of any of my string, he’d be the one that would find dressage the easiest, but sometimes it takes a bit of persuasion.”

That mixture of a tendency towards laziness and the occasional bolt of sharpness makes ‘Alby’ much less straightforward to ride than he might appear from the outset — but he comes into his own in long-format events, particularly when there’s a buzz about the place.

“He was actually spooking a bit at the clapping and everything, but as soon as I have him into canter and concentrating he really does [cope well]. He’s done a lot of four-stars, so he’s seen a lot of atmosphere, and I do think he grows with the atmosphere. Doing one-day events with him is sometimes a bit of a pain, to be honest — I have to do a lot of kicking and flapping to stay on track! But a little bit of a crowd and atmosphere brings him to life.”

Susie, who made her five-star debut at Badminton this year with John the Bull, and who’ll ride Monbeg by Design at next month’s World Championships, has found her first experiences of Burghley slightly daunting so far.

“The first time I walked [the course] I was like, ‘no, I’m just going to go home; this is ridiculous!’ But when I walked it yesterday with a clear mind, I thought we could give it a good go. But it’s definitely very different than any course I’ve done before,” she says.

We’ve got one session of dressage left to go, with thirteen combinations lined up to try to usurp those at the top end of the board from 13.45 p.m. BST/8.45 a.m. EST. Want to try to catch the highlights? Here are our picks of the bunch:

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats – 14.25 p.m. BST/9.25 a.m. EST
Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel – 15.05 p.m. BST/10.05 a.m. EST
Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser – 15.29 p.m. BST/10.29 a.m. EST
Tim Price and Polystar I – 15.37 p.m. BST/10.37 a.m. EST
Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs – 15.45 p.m. BST/10.45 a.m. EST

We’ll be back with a full end-of-day report — plus, an in-depth look at tomorrow’s cross-country challenge. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top ten at the midway point of day two at Burghley.

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Burghley At A Glance: Meet the Riders of the 2022 Field

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 2, 2022 7:46 am -

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We’re well and truly stuck into Burghley’s 2022 renewal now, but it’s never too late to get a good breakdown of the competitors — and if you’ve already exhausted the limitless depths of our extensive form guide, and caught up with the at-a-glance info on this year’s equine competitors, it’s time to see how the 48 riders in the field stack up. Here’s the need-to-know info…

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“He Has Such Belief in Himself:” Sarah Bullimore Takes Day One Lead at Burghley

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 1, 2022 2:46 pm -

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Sarah Bullimore’s 15.2hh homebred Corouet swaps cockiness for responsibility in a stellar test. Photo by Libby Law.

This morning’s first session of dressage brought us plenty to get excited about, with three tests sneaking below the 30 barrier and a barrage of talent to come — but it’s been the afternoon session that’s really kicked Burghley up a notch. Most thrillingly of all, we were treated to two tests that made it into the top five all-time best Burghley tests — and though they initially tied for top spot, a slight revision in the scores pushed Sarah Bullimore and her diminutive homebred Corouet into the top spot on a 22.5, just a tenth of a penalty ahead of Piggy March and her 2019 Badminton champion Vanir Kamira.

“He was amazing — he actually really listened to me and was on side,” says Sarah, who is battling through a period of unsoundness herself after a fall at Wellington Horse Trials earlier in the week saw her take a stud to the knee. “He actually looked after me. I’ve not come here in the best state to perform, but he was great in there — that’s probably the best test we’ve performed all year. Last year our confidence was on a high and he was pulling it out of the bag, but this year, he came out very cocky and arrogant, and he’s just felt like he thought I was a hindrance to him. And perhaps I was enough of a hindrance to him that he felt he ought to carry me today because I was injured — I don’t know.”

Sarah Bullimore and Corouet. Photo by Libby Law.

Last year’s season of highs saw Corouet, who Sarah bred from her 2015 European Championships ride Lilly Corinne, go sub-20 in a CCI4*-S at Burgham and, most notably, take individual bronze at the Europeans, but this year, he’s had rather more of an educational season. That was compounded in his five-star debut at Kentucky earlier this year, where he sat second going into cross-country but began to go into orbit over the solid fences, eventually picking up a 20 after running out of room in a combination. The precocious gelding has no shortage of talent, though, and it’s not hard to imagine that the experience may have helped to temper and shape his unique case of Small Man Syndrome. For Sarah, who has a wealth of mileage at this level, most prolifically accrued with Reve du Rouet — who shares a sire with Corouet — it’s particularly special to have her homebred at an event like this, particularly because he is so different to his half-brother.

“He knows he’s special, and he just goes in there and says, ‘watch me, everybody!’ He loves the crowd, and he doesn’t actually want to come back out of the main arena — he’s so laid back in there, which is very different from his big brother, who does his test and can’t wait to get out! Corouet has such belief in himself, but he’s always right,” she says. “It’s amazing — I’ve known him since he was born, and that makes it so special. He’s such a huge, massive character, and he doesn’t realise he’s quite small, so he doesn’t feel small when you ride him. He has a huge stride, and so you forget [he’s small] until you leap off and hit the ground sooner than you expect to!”

Now, Sarah is planning to spend her Friday nursing her injured knee, which is getting incrementally better by the hour despite being packed full of iodine-soaked dressing to mitigate any risk of infection.

“Yesterday I couldn’t walk up and down stairs or do rising trot — but fortunately, you don’t have to do that in this test,” she laughs. “It wasn’t the best preparation, but to be fair, I’ve been quite lucky as to where it is — I could easily have fractured something, but there’s luck and then there’s luck, isn’t there? It’s quite stiff and sore at the moment, and very bruised; it looks quite a pretty picture, but it is getting better daily, and we’re just going to keep on icing it and seeing the physio.”

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira hit the first of their goals for the week with a five-star personal best. Photo by Libby Law.

Piggy March came to Burghley with every intention of delivering a big test with her Badminton winner, seventeen-year-old Vanir Kamira, but a five-star personal best of 22.6 was probably beyond the realm of even her own imagination.

“As we came out of the arena I gave her a big hug and a kiss — I just couldn’t really believe it, bless her little heart,” says Piggy. “There’s plenty of pressure that I put on myself for this week, and I was hoping and praying that she’d get a PB because she’s felt great this year. Badminton was one of our best tests and she’s just felt good; she looks amazing, she’s strong, and she’s been working so well that I thought she really deserved it.”

Although ‘Tillybean’ is looking at her very best this season, much rides on the strength of the warm-up — and her preparation for her test today didn’t fill Piggy with confidence.

“Just before I went in, I felt that I hadn’t got her totally where I wanted to,” she says. “She felt quite hot, and she was sneezing quite a lot. She suddenly gets in quite a sweat, even though everyone from the outside would think she looked very calm and nice. But she’s been in these main arenas now a few times for laps of on our and things like that, and it doesn’t take much for them to know it’s an occasion.”

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira. Photo by Libby Law.

After the first movement in the test, though, Piggy and Tillybean rallied — though Piggy confesses that producing the goods today took some seriously hard graft.

“I didn’t love my first centreline; it was straight, but she just went to pull herself up and halt early. That’s something I’ve struggled with all her life, because she’s a mare that half-halts herself and goes a bit swishy and croup-high in every transition, and it takes a lot of attention to detail to stop her doing it. So I thought, ‘oh, balls, I’ve not got her on the button today.’ There’s always such a fine line with her, and I thought I was on the wrong side of that. But then I just thought, ‘get on with it and believe — ears up, sit down, hands together, breathe, ride it, just go through it.’ And she kept on the right side of the line — but for me, personally, it felt like the hardest test I’ve ever ridden on her, because it felt like I was on the edge. Whether that was just a mental thing, because I was so desperate for it to go as well as it can today… I’m not one that normally minds pressure, but she’s getting to the end of her days, so I really was desperate for it to be good.”

Piggy often fondly describes the mare as ‘a pain in the ass 362 days of the year’ or ‘a scopeless yak’, variously, but the gutsy mare is a classic long-format horse: when it really counts, she’s able to overcome her physical hindrances and get the job done, with a little help from her friend.

“She’s got a neck and a backside on her, and as a six-year-old, she couldn’t go on the bit for more than two minutes because of how she’s built. So trying to get her to lift her ears and come up in front, well, you can only manufacture that for so long. It’s just taken that much time and consistent training, but it’s bloody hard. They start to go on their head, and then you start to hold them, and then they’re like, ‘hold me more!’ and then you hold more — my brain’s going overtime the whole time; I felt like I was about to explode, and then I was like, ‘thank fuck that’s over!’ She felt hot enough, but that probably made the changes a bit more expressive, and she kept her rhythm in the medium trots, and it was just good. For Tillybean, a 22 at this level! That could easily be even better, but I don’t care — I’m just so proud.”

Zara Tindall’s Class Affair becomes a man in Burghley’s main arena. Photo by Libby Law.

Zara Tindall‘s sometimes tempestuous Class Affair stepped up to the plate in a major way today, delivering a five-star personal best of 28.4 to take overnight fourth, 2.2 penalties behind third-placed Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On.

“He’s always had the potential, but sometimes his brain takes over a bit — and it did, a little bit, in a couple of the movements [today], but he came back and was much calmer than he’s ever been in there,” she says. “I’m just delighted to be under 30!”

Class Affair comes forward for his third crack at five-star this week after debuting here in 2019 — but ending his day at the Leaf Pit — and then travelling to Maryland last year, where he completed with 20 penalties. There have been hints throughout his career that a very good test might be simmering away under the surface, and it’s now, as a thirteen-year-old, that he seems to be coming into his zenith.

“The last time I came here he was a ten-year-old, so he was very green. We’ve spent a long time with him — he’s pretty crazy in the brain, so he’s quite tricky. He can be really towing you and then just suddenly drop behind your leg, so that’s quite difficult, but he’s been going really well. We’ve just been truing to keep him comfortable, because he gets quite tense, and trying to be consistent with him.”

Zara credits dressage riders Carl Hester and Amy Woodhead with helping her to get the best out of the gelding: “I actually send my horses to Amy in the winter like, ‘please can you get them on the bit?!’,” she laughs. “Amy’s been based with Carl, so she trains how he would, and she’s brilliant. Both of them just make it fun, so it’s not like, ‘oh god, I’ve got to go for dressage lessons.’ They also understand the difference between their horses and event horses — they know that our horses might not be quite as capable, but actually, they can do what they want us to do.”

Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent fly the flag for ex-racehorses with a sparkling personal best. Photo by Libby Law.

There are few horses who so wholly represent the classic American Thoroughbred as well as gutsy, tenacious Palm Crescent, who raced on the flat more than 20 times before starting his second career with the USA’s Meghan O’Donoghue – but his undeniable reliability across the country hasn’t always been matched by a natural inclination to perform on the flat. That all changed today, though, when the pair slipped sub-30 for the first time at this level, producing a sweet, smart test that earned them a 29.6 and put them into fifth place overnight.

“I’m ecstatic with him,” says Meghan. “He was absolutely phenomenal. He’s a performer, so he knows when we’re at a big competition, and we’ve been ticking away at this phase because this would be the hardest bit for him.”

Like many Thoroughbreds, with their busy, clever brains and endless well of effort to give, Palmer is at his best when he’s able to set up shop at a competition for the week, rather than chasing the quick thrills of a short-format: “I think that he’s at a point in his career where he really thrives from the set-up of a big three-day — he comes here, he has his groom, he’s all she thinks about, and he gets all of his things and rises to the occasion.”

Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent. Photo by Libby Law.

Meghan, who made her team debut — and enjoyed her first experience of eventing abroad since her travels with old friend Pirate back in 2013 and 2014 — at CHIO Aachen in July, has stayed put in the UK since in order to prepare for her second crack at Burghley (she started the event in 2014 with Pirate but ended her weekend early on cross country).

“We’ve had an amazing support crew over here; after Aachen, I was able to stay over here at Rebecca Howard’s place near Marlborough [Wiltshire],” she says. While she’s been there, she’s focused on the marginal gains that would steer her sixteen-year-old partner to his best-ever performance on the flat.

“It’s mostly been about the suppleness and where he is in his head, and that would kind of be the case for Thoroughbred horses that have had a relentless beginning. You can’t really blame him for it, because he’s not really built to do it, either,” she explains. Now, with an excellent starting score on the board, she can focus completely on Saturday’s tough cross-country course, on which she hopes to replicate the speedy clears they’ve delivered in all three of their previous five-star runs. This time, she’ll have the added challenge of Burghley’s unique, relentless terrain — but there’s nothing she’d rather be sitting on than a Thoroughbred full of gumption.

“I got to have a run at Hartpury in the four short as his last prep for this, and so I’ve had a little taste of the terrain over here,” she says. “He went super well there, and I have no reason to doubt him — he’s showed up for me every day that I’ve asked him to, so I’ll just do the best piloting job that I can and look after him.”

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Tom Rowland’s ‘cobby’ Possible Mission delivers his best to sit in the top ten. Photo by Libby Law.

Tests from this morning’s competitors make up much of the lower half of the top ten: pathfinders Tim Price and Bango and the USA’s Woods Baughman and C’est la Vie 135 sit in equal sixth on 29.8, while France’s Rodolphe Scherer and Song du Magay hold eighth on 30.4. 25-year-old Harry Mutch and HD Bronze are ninth overnight on 30.8, while Great Britain’s Tom Rowland rounds out the top ten after delivering a five-star personal best of 31.2 with his longtime partner Possible Mission, who’s the sort of horse who wouldn’t look out of place in the hunting field — but nevertheless has jumped clear around both Badminton and Burghley previously. His experience, and his workmanlike nature, meant that he was able to make the best of Burghley’s curious, close atmosphere today.

“He’s fifteen now, and he’s a bit stuck in his ways, but I think we might have got a few more of the flying changes this time than we normally do,” laughs Tom. “But he’s nice to ride in there, because you sort of forget how it goes from being really loud to suddenly really, really quiet. You think, ‘oh, god!’ but actually, he rises to that occasion.”

There’s an old saying in the theatre world that a bad dress rehearsal ensures a good opening night, and that adage certainly proved true for Tom, who took Possible Mission out for a final test earlier in the week that didn’t go wholly to plan.

“I took him to Wellington on Monday to do the Advanced and he did the most horrendous dressage test. He’s a bit of a head shaker, and the arena is down by the trees there,” he explains. “He wasn’t even on the bit — he just threw his head around everywhere, but I thought, ‘no, this is a good thing. He’s got it out of the way.’ And actually, he’s felt really good this week, so I haven’t given him very much work.”

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Emily Hamel and Corvett survive some exuberant moments in their test. Photo by Libby Law.

“I wish he’d have been a little more submissive in the ring, but at least we had pretty good trot work,” laughs US representative Emily Hamel, whose test aboard Corvett upped the comedy ante when the expressive gelding turned one of the flying changes into a colossal series of bucks. They’ll head into Saturday’s cross-country on a score of 37.3, which puts them in 21st overnight. “I always want a little bit better, but overall, I’m really happy with him. He’s going to eat up the course here — I just have to make sure I keep myself in the tack!”

Emily has been busy training with Angela Tucker for this phase — “I’m kind of sad I couldn’t show off our dressage a bit more,” she says — and New Zealand’s Grant Wilson in the showjumping, and comes to Burghley feeling on top form after tackling Badminton this spring just weeks after a serious knee injury.

“I feel more prepared than I did for Badminton, so hopefully that’ll show,” she says. “It’s been a busy summer, and I’ve had a good time, just seeing different events and taking lessons. It’s a cool atmosphere over here.”

To check out the full scores, and times for tomorrow’s test, click here — or, if you want to try to catch the highlights of the day tomorrow, here are some of the biggest tests yet to come:

Tim Price and Vitali — 10.00 a.m. BST/5.00 a.m. EST
Susie Berry and Ringwood LB – 10.40 a.m. BST/5.40 a.m. EST
William Fox-Pitt and Oratorio – 11.31 a.m. BST/6.31 a.m. EST
Bubby Upton and Cola III – 11.39 a.m. BST/6.39 a.m. EST
Kitty King and Vendredi Biats – 14.25 p.m. BST/9.25 a.m. EST
Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel – 15.05 p.m. BST/10.05 a.m. EST
Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser – 15.29 p.m. BST/10.29 a.m. EST
Tim Price and Polystar I – 15.37 p.m. BST/10.37 a.m. EST
Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs – 15.45 p.m. BST/10.45 a.m. EST

The top ten at the end of day one of dressage.

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Thursday Morning at Burghley: Reigning Champion Heads up Global Top Five

By Tilly Berendt on Sep 1, 2022 8:32 am -

2019 champion Pippa Funnell takes an early lead with the first of her two rides, Billy Walk On. Photo by Libby Law.

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Oh, what a beautiful morning; oh, what a beautiful day – and is there anywhere in the world we’d rather be right now than ringside at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials? We think not, particularly after an exciting morning of dressage action.

Reigning champion Pippa Funnell, who won here in 2019 aboard MGH Grafton Street, sits atop the leaderboard at this early juncture after a smart test aboard Billy Walk On. The lanky thirteen-year-old gelding, who led the first phase at last year’s Bicton ‘pop-up’ CCI5*, didn’t quite catch that week’s exceptional 23.9, but his 26.2 today does better this spring’s Badminton mark of 28.5. But for Pippa, the final score wasn’t reflective of the quality of his work in the ring.

“I was delighted with him, but if I’m honest, I’m gutted by one of the judge’s marks being five or six percent out from the other two,” she says, referring to Judy Hancock at E, who awarded her with 70.56%, in contrast to Andrew Bennie’s 76.48% at C and Katrin Eichinger-Kniely’s 74.44% at M. “That, to me, was very disappointing, because I’ve done a lot of tests over the years and I thought it was as nice a test as he’s done at this level. I think I nailed the clear round and yes, he might not be the most elegant of movers, but I absolutely felt he deserved the marks the other judges gave him.”

Coming back to Burghley to defend a title could be something of a stressful situation for a less experienced competitor, but Pippa — who became the first-ever winner of the Rolex Grand Slam when she took the final leg here in 2003 aboard Primmore’s Pride – is wholly pragmatic about the prospect.

“I don’t really feel the pressure, because it’s still got to be jumped,” she says sagely. “I’ve been in the position of going back to Badminton after winning, and when you’ve been in the game as long as I have, you realise that yes, while both horses are scopey and have plenty of ability, it’s also not been the easiest of summers. The ground’s been hard, and it’s been about trying to keep them fresh coming into here while minimising their runs. It’s a balancing act to try to get here in the best shape possible, with the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed.”

Pippa is taking on double duty this week, not just as a two-horse competitor in her own right, but as a coach and mentor: two of the riders who are currently part of the Wesko Equestrian Foundation programme that she leads are tackling their first Burghley this week and one of them, Harry Mutch, also finds himself in the top five at the halfway point of day one. That division of interests, too, is a balancing act.

“I’ve got three riders who I help here, but really, it’s not that tough, because I’ve told them all that actually, this week has to be about me, with having two horses. I’ve got to concentrate on that,” she says.

Tim Price and the experienced Bango sit equal second at the halfway point of day one. Photo by Libby Law.

First in the ring today was New Zealand’s Tim Price, who is the busiest rider of the week with three horses in this year’s field. He set an excellent standard from the get-go, though, putting a 29.8 on the board with the experienced sixteen-year-old Bango, which sees the pair sit equal second at the lunch break. Bango, who has previously finished fifth here in 2019 and tenth in 2018, is perhaps Tim’s most under-the-radar upper-level horse – but he represents part of a strong three-way bid for another crack at the Burghley title, which Tim won in 2018 with the great Ringwood Sky Boy.

Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135 overcome a tough journey to England to take an early second place on the leaderboard. Photo by Libby Law.

To call Woods Baughman‘s journey from the USA stressful might be the understatement of the century – “[C’est La Vie 135‘s] flight was cancelled five times, and mine was cancelled twice,” he says with a faintly traumatised laugh – but there’s no doubt that the high he’s riding right now will be working wonders to ease his pain. He sits in equal second with Tim and Bango on a 29.8 after delivering a sparkling, expressive test with his fourteen-year-old Contendro I son in their second CCI5* — and already, they’re blowing their Kentucky debut this spring out of the water.

“We did our first five-star this spring, and he got very wound up with all the atmosphere,” says Woods, who scored a 39.5 that day. “So I was a little worried about today, and it’s probably lucky that I had a morning draw for him [when it’s quieter]. He’s such a fantastic horse in the first phase that it’s a shame when he does get worked up, because he can pull in really high marks — but when he’s gone tight, he’s lucky to stay in the ring.”

Unlike Kentucky and even Badminton, where the dressage arena can feel like an oasis in an amphitheatre, Burghley’s arena is situated much closer to the grandstand, giving a fishbowl effect that can cow even the boldest of horses. But although a touch of flamboyance crept in and nearly led to a mistake, Woods was able to nurture the horse to a clear round performance.

“He was very, very good the whole way around, but I got a little excited — I started the strike off for the extended trot, and it was really good, so I asked for a bit more and he took one little step and almost broke to canter before I thought, ‘whoops, too much!’ and reined it back in,” explains the Virginia-based rider, who trains with Sharon White. “The rest was clean and good, and definitely much better than our last five-star test.”

Any moments of additional sparkle, though, were welcomed by Woods, who had to carefully manage ‘Contendro’s’ energy levels after his gruelling journey.

“He got here four days later than he was supposed to, because our flights are a little messed up right now. He’s on good form now, but it was a little bit iffy, because he was so flat — he’d travelled for three days, and I felt really bad for him. I couldn’t do much with him at all and it was like, ‘well, great — he’s not working and he’s got to compete next week!’ So I just hacked him twice a day and stretched him out and made sure he felt good while I waited for the energy to come back. And then on Sunday afternoon I let him have a little jump and he bolted with me! After that, he didn’t want to hack anymore.”

France’s Rodolphe Scherer strides into the top five with Song du Magay. Photo by Libby Law.

France’s Rodolphe Scherer got off to an exciting start in his first CCI5* since 2016, when he finished sixteenth here with former championship mount Makara de Montiege. This time around, his ride is the oversized Song du Magay, who competed up to five-star with Rodolphe’s student, South African Olympian Victoria Scott-Legendre, before Rodolphe took the reins in late 2020.

Their 30.4, which puts them in provisional fourth, doesn’t come as a huge surprise after the gelding posted a sub-30 score in his final prep run, but what was particularly interesting was his warm-up: rather than schooling any of the movements in the test or riding in a competition outline, Rodolphe instead trotted the gelding around the outside of the warm-up arena with one hand on the buckle of the reins, letting him stretch his nose down to the ground and stretch over his back. That focus on relaxation was evident as the pair entered the competition arena.

“He’s a good horse with a nice head — he’s very relaxed,” says Rodolphe, who was recently appointed as cross-country trainer for the German team. “It was a little bit of a disappointing intro, though, because I think in the second 10m circle he just touched himself for a moment, and then he had one or two irregular strides, so I lost some points there — but then he did very, very well in the canter.”

A 30.4 puts him in an excellent position to plan for a climb on Saturday, though, and Rodolphe thinks Derek di Grazia’s new look Burghley track will play to his horse’s strengths.

“He’s a cross-country machine,” he says, “and this is a tough course. The beginning is twisty, with many combinations. It’s very tough; the rest of the course is tough, too, but in the beginning, there are so many combinations manifesting so closely that it’s almost like a short-format in its intensity. After that, if you don’t lose too much energy there, you can go into sixth gear.”

Harry Mutch and HD Bronze deliver the personal best in the ring at Burghley. Photo by Libby Law.

25-year-old Harry Mutch rounds out the top five at the lunch break after delivering one of his best-ever tests — and his five-star personal best — with stalwart partner HD Bronze, earning a 30.8. Their recent ascent into the business end of the leaderboard in this phase comes as the result of months spent training with Pippa Funnell as part of the Wesko Equestrian Foundation — a mentorship that’s gone so well that Harry has temporarily relocated from Newcastle to the Funnells’ Surrey base.

“The canter work is probably the best he’s ever given me,” says Harry, who used to lose marks in his canter centrelines when the previously weak, lanky gelding would throw in lead changes — an issue that’s been well and truly nixed after rebuilding the foundations with Pippa. “The trot work got a little bit stuck, so I was a bit like, ‘come on, please pick up again!’, but he just kept it together and was fantastic. I’m thrilled with him.”

Though two pandemic seasons were hardly ideal for horses at this level, Harry, who only began riding at the age of thirteen and made it to Badminton at 21, used the situation to his advantage.

“That sort of put us on hold for two years, but he’s actually matured so much in that time,” he says. “So for me, it wasn’t all that bad! He’s come out of it a much better horse.”

Cornelia Dorr delivers a masterclass in tactful riding with Daytona Beach 8. Photo by Libby Law.

Our second US competitor of the morning, Cornelia Dorr, knew she’d have a job on her hands in this phase: her expressive mare Daytona Beach 8, who, like her rider, makes her five-star debut this week, is notoriously hot and tricky between the boards, despite her abundance of talent. But although their final score of 39 keeps them out of the hunt for now, the work that the former Sandra Auffarth mount delivered in the ring was actually peppered with some of her nicest moments so far this season.

“I’m really happy with her — she tried really hard to stay with me and listen to me,” says Cornelia, who temporarily relocated to England in January to base with Australia’s Kevin and Emma McNab. “Kevin’s helped me get her so much better in the contact, and I can actually put my leg on and ride her now, and she finds comfort in it. That’s been a really big step. It’s pretty ballsy, but I actually just get on her like, ten minutes before my tests and saunter in, because we’ve learned that she has a time limit — after that, she’s like a cat on hot bricks! But today, she kept a lid on it until the crowd clapped at the end, so I couldn’t really ask much more from her. She runs on adrenaline, but she did a really good job.”

For Cornelia, even just riding into the main arena here is a huge milestone. “It’s pretty surreal, and I think I got a little emotional for a second when they rang the bell,” she laughs. “I was like, ‘wow, this is pretty cool!’ I’m just so happy to be here — and with this horse, what makes her difficult in the dressage ring is what makes her amazing out on cross-country.”

We’ll be back this afternoon with a full report from the second session of dressage. Until then: Go Eventing!

The top five at the Thursday lunch break at Burghley.

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Wednesday Video from Kentucky Performance Products: Walk Burghley’s Biggest Questions with Laura Collett

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 31, 2022 5:00 pm -

Our friends at Horse&Hound have really been killing the video game, with news writer Lucy Elder sliding effortlessly into the role of presenter – and their latest series is no exception. Tune in as Lucy joins this year’s Badminton champion, Laura Collett, to discuss the intricacies of some of the toughest combinations on the new-look Burghley track, and find out where we might see some of the major influence come Saturday. Rather them than us, we say!

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One Horse Held; All Accepted in Ebullient First Horse Inspection at Burghley

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 31, 2022 2:02 pm -

Kitty King presents Vendredi Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

We’ve seldom seen such a packed house — and such a vocal crowd — at a trot-up, but a combination of sparkling sunshine and the sheer excitement of Burghley’s return pulled in a bumper crowd for this afternoon’s first horse inspection. They were certainly rewarded for their efforts: throughout the course of the 52-horse presentation, they got plenty of action — in the form of sharp, spooky horses, many of whom insisted they’d never seen a trot strip in their lives and certainly weren’t prepared to trust one now — and more than a touch of country glamour, too, as riders put themselves in the mix for the Hi Ho Silver Best Dressed prizes.

William Fox-Pitt deputises for Sarah Bullimore, presenting diminutive Corouet — much to the crowd’s amusement. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Their joy was palpable and contagious, with each horse and rider receiving a tumult of cheers — particularly if they’d overcome a serious case of the spooks en route to being accepted by the ground jury. The comedy moment of the day, though (if such a thing can exist in a horse inspection!), belonged to William Fox-Pitt, who deputised for an unsound Sarah Bullimore and presented her homebred gelding, Corouet, for her. At over 6’5, William is the tallest rider in the field — and his legs were longer than those of tiny ‘Elfie’, who’s one of two 15.2hh entries in this year’s line-up.

J.P. Sheffield’s Kiltar OBOS is the only horse held during the first inspection. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Just one horse was sent to the holding box by the ground jury, which is made up of president Andrew Bennie (NZL), Austria’s Katrin Eichinger-Kniely and Great Britain’s Judy Hancock. That was J.P. Sheffield‘s Kiltar OBOS, who makes his five-star debut this week, helping his rider return to the level for the first time in a decade. They were subsequently accepted on re-presentation.

There was a tense moment for Sarah Clark, who has travelled all the way from Australia with LV Balou Jeanz. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

There was one ‘nearly’ moment, too: Sarah Clark, who’s made the long journey from Australia to tackle her first Burghley with LV Balou Jeanz, was asked to trot the gelding up again on a looser rein, but although she must have been holding her breath as she did so, her horse was quickly and decisively accepted into the competition after his second trip down the strip.

The holding box vet and ground jury in deep discussion during the afternoon’s proceedings. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Two riders were awarded Best Dressed prizes from jewellery company Hi Ho Silver, who employed Tina Cook to join their judging panel for the day. The Best Dressed Female prize was awarded to American rider Cornelia Dorr, who makes her five-star debut this week with the impressive Daytona Beach 8 after a fruitful summer spent in England with Kevin and Emma McNab.

The USA’s Cornelia Dorr takes the Hi Ho Silver Best Dressed Female prize after presenting Daytona Beach 8 in a classic, tailored dress. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The Best Dressed Male prize went the way of Andrew James, who will debut Celtic Morning Star at the level in this week’s competition.

A nattily-dressed Andrew James takes the Best Dressed Male prize. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

With all 52 horses safely through the first horse inspection, our attention can turn to tomorrow’s first day of dressage, which will start at a very civilised time of 9.45 a.m. BST (4.45 a.m. EST). New Zealand’s Tim Price will be the first rider in the ring with Bango, one of his three rides in this year’s competition, and he’ll be followed by 2019 winner Pippa Funnell, who doesn’t have her Burghley champion, MGH Grafton Street, entered this year, but will ride Barbury runner-up Billy Walk On tomorrow. You can check out the times in full here — or, if you’re hoping to tune in and follow the US contingent this week, their times are as follows:

Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135 – 10.17 a.m. BST (5.17 a.m. EST)
Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8 – 11.05 a.m. BST (6.05 a.m. EST)
Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent – 13.38 p.m. BST (8.38 a.m. EST)
Emily Hamel and Corvett – 14.50 p.m. BST (9.50 a.m. EST)

Stay tuned for plenty more Burghley coverage from EN — and in the meantime, Go Eventing!

: 20-year-old Alice Casburn and her Young Rider bronze medallist Topspin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Angus Smales’s ESI Pheonix. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Bubby Upton and Cola III. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Danielle Dunn and Grand Slam. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Emma Hyslop-Webb puts a sleek twist on a classic silk scarf. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Emma Hyslop-Webb and Darrant. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Felicity Collins and RSH Contend’Or. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Francis Whittington and a fresh DHI Purple Rain. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Helen Wilson and My Ernie. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Jonelle Price and 2018 Badminton winner Classic Moet. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Kitty King’s Vendredi Beats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Kristina Hall-Jackson and CMS Google. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Phoebe Buckley and Tiger Mail. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Piggy March and 2019 Badminton winner Vanir Kamira. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Rosie Thomas and Balladeer Humbel Guy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Sammi Birch’s Finduss PFB gives the trot strip a good look. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Susie Berry’s Ringwood LB is one of several horses to spook heartily at the far end of the strip. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Tim Price and the former Chris Burton ride Polystar I. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Tom Crisp and Liberty and Glory. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Tom Rowland and Possible Mission. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: William Fox-Pitt and Oratorio II. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Woods Baughman’s C’est La Vie 135. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

: Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Burghley At A Glance: Meet the Horses of the 2022 Field

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 31, 2022 1:31 pm -

We know not everyone has approximately 48 hours to dedicate to reading our whopping great big form guide, so we like to keep things easy around these parts — even if you’ve only got five minutes to spare. First up? Our bite-size analysis of the horses we’ll be watching this week.

With just 52 horses in the field, this is one of the smaller Burghley line-ups we’ve seen — but there’s plenty of quality in its ranks. Here’s how the field stacks up by colour, breed, height, and more:

Back to Burghley: Your Bumper Guide to Every Horse and Rider in the 2022 Field

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 31, 2022 8:02 am -

Pippa Funnell raises her silverware at Burghley in 2019. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

I’m not particularly sure what it feels like to walk down the aisle at your wedding, but I imagine the butterflies aren’t far off those you feel when driving up Burghley House’s tree-lined driveway for the first time in three years. There’s a quiet buzz of excitement about the place now, hours before the first horse inspection, that intensifies as you draw closer to the event itself, which is thrumming with the long drone of drills and building works as champagne bars, spectator amenities, and the media centre take shape around us all. What a thrill! What a joy! The pandemic stripped us of so much, but we’re back, and Burghley’s back, and life feels damn good right now. We’ve got plenty of action to come this week — which you can watch along with from home, if you’re not able to make it here — but first, it’s time to get to know the full field of entries at this year’s event. And so, without further ado, meet the Burghley class of 2022 — conveniently assembled in drawn order for your reading pleasure. Go Eventing!

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1. Oliver Townend and As Is

Eleven-year-old Spanish Sport Horse gelding (Meneusekal x Paraca, by Lacros). Owned by John Peace.

Our pathfinder — once again! — is Oliver Townend, who has previously been victorious here in 2009, with Carousel Quest, and 2017 with Pratoni-bound Ballaghmor Class. First out of the box this year, though, will be a new ride and a five-star debutant in As Is, who was previously ridden by Andrew Nicholson. Oliver took over the ride this year, and the pair made their international debut as a partnership in a CCI3*-S at Floors Castle, where they finished eighth. They only have three FEI runs to their name, but in all three, they’ve finished in the top ten.

As Is comes from the same Spanish breeding dynasty as Nereo, and he shares his predecessors penchant for speed and economy across the country. In his 16 FEI starts since 2017, he’s finished in the top ten 10 times, and has made the time seven times. His most promising result, insofar as potential Burghley success goes, is the seventh place finish he earned at Bramham CCI4*-L this year, despite activating a safety device and picking up 11 penalties along the way. He still made it home easily within the optimum time, proving he’s a real stayer. That’s not the first time he’s finished seventh in that class — he did so in 2019, too, with Andrew aboard, and he didn’t add any time penalties on that trip either.

Burghley is a huge step up for a debutant, and Oliver will also be fact-finding the course for his next two rides, but he’s never one to hang around and he knows he’s sitting on a quality animal. We can expect this to be a round that puts some serious pressure on those that follow — and likely one that helps the pair climb after a first-phase score of around 30.

Tim Price and Bango act as pathfinders at Burghley 2019. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

3. Tim Price and Bango

Sixteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Garrison Royal x No Sale, by Don Tristan). Owned by The Numero Uno Syndicate.

“Uno doesn’t really mention it much these days but he comes from a pretty basic Irish bog and clearly spent his early years flogging through the swamp-like mud for food. This has left him with a fantastic ability to go cross-country in the worst of conditions and since he spent a fair amount of time in thick fog as a baby unable to see his mother across the field, he also doesn’t mind being left on his own in the slightest.” So quips Jacky Green, the comic genius behind much of the Kiwi effort and the woman responsible for perhaps our favourite set of totally professional horse descriptions ever.

We at EN rather feel that poor Uno has been overlooked in the past, despite the fact that he’s actually got some serious five-star mileage under his belt. He’s had to endure the shame of taking stablemate Ringwood Sky Boy’s place for the lap of honour here when the latter won in 2018, which surely must have opened him up to some ribbing from his equine pals, and he suffered a real indignity at Badminton in 2019, when Izzy Taylor’s Springpower bolted spectacularly on the strip at the first horse inspection, leaving Uno’s subsequent sashay almost totally stripped of pomp and circumstance. He keeps on showing up and doing the job with a smile on his face, and along the way, someone always marches in with tap shoes on and steals his thunder. Frankly, we’re tired of it. #JusticeForUno, we say.

This time, though, it feels like a bit of a special moment to see the gelding return, partly because we haven’t seen him at an FEI event since Kentucky last year, where he finished 18th after tipping three rails on the final day. Prior to that, his previous FEI appearance was at Burghley in 2019, where he finished fifth. He was also tenth here in 2018, and he always seems to excel over a tough, stamina test of a track. His high 20s to low 30s first-phase score won’t feel competitive, but this is a horse who should climb — and as that Kentucky showjumping round was a real outlier in his performance record, and possibly the first sign of whatever prompted his long competitive break, we feel safe in putting our money on a top ten finish for this pair.

Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

4. Pippa Funnell and Billy Walk On

Thirteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Billy Mexico x Shannon Line, by Golden Bash). Owned by Barbara and Nicholas Walkinshaw.

Dear Feale came so close to winning a big one last year, when he led the dressage at Bicton’s pop-up CCI5* in August, ultimately finishing in second to Gemma Tattersall and Chilli Knight. The rangy, elegant product of the Funnells’ Billy Stud has been a real labour of love for Pippa, who spotted his promise early on and has carefully cultivated a quite remarkable record for the gelding. In 33 FEI starts, he’s finished in the top ten 21 times, and for the first two seasons of his international career, he never finished outside it. That included a second place finish in the 2016 Seven-Year-Old World Championship — an exceptional boost for British breeding — and wins in his first CCI2*-S and his first CCI3*-L.

Since his step up to the top levels in 2017, he’s delivered some exceptional moments for Pippa. He’s had top five finishes in the very tough four-star shorts at Chatsworth and Hartpury, plus a sixth place finish in Blenheim’s CCI4*-L in 2019 and a 13th place finish in that huge, tough CCI4*-L at Bicton last June. This spring saw him make his second visit to Badminton: he made his five-star debut here in 2019, but retired on course after picking up 20 penalties and activating the safety device at the footbridge. His first-phase score of 26.5, though, was very exciting, as was his 23.9 at his second five-star last year. But once again, it didn’t quite go to plan this spring: he ran into trouble at the mirage pond water, refusing at the big drop in, after which Pippa opted to retire on course. His return to form came mid-summer, though, when he finished second at Barbury CCI4*-S, confidently popping the drop into water there.

Expect these two to be well in the hunt after dressage, and, now that the gelding feels more himself, to make it happen across the country. Bicton proved that a galloping, stamina test sort of track really suits him, and he should go the distance. We probably won’t see him catch the time, but the smattering of penalties he’ll pick up shouldn’t do him any harm after what will likely be a very influential day of cross-country. On Sunday, he’s got a 50/50 chance of jumping a clear. If he does, we should be looking at a top five candidate.

Emma Hyslop-Webb and Waldo III. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

5. Emma Hyslop-Webb and Waldo III

Nineteen-year-old KWPN gelding (Faldo x Naomi, by Henzo). Owned by the rider.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Emma’s signature pink colours partnering her unicorn of a gelding around a five-star — in fact, the last time we saw them at this level was at Badminton back in 2019, where they finished 44th after a clear round across the country. Waldo then had most of 2020 and all of 2021 off, and returned to FEI competition at Chatsworth CCI4*-S this spring, where they withdrew before cross-country after a tough 53.1 in the first phase and a rail down over the poles. They then ran in the CCI4*-S at Bramham, finishing 31st, and that’s been the extent of their international outings this season — but this stalwart partnership has experience in its corner. Emma has produced him through since the beginning of his career, which has included runs at both Pau and Badminton. They won’t be here to challenge for a top finish, but they’ve got what they need in their wheelhouse to give Burghley a jolly good go.

Harry Mutch and HD Bronze. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

9. Harry Mutch and HD Bronze

Sixteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Limmerick x Northern Madera, by Toca Madera). Owned by Carole Mutch.

This will be a third five-star for 25-year-old Harry and his self-produced gelding after they debuted at Badminton in 2019, having gained a serious education on the way around. Since then, we’ve seen them jump clear around CCI4*-S tracks at Burgham and Barbury, but they’ve also had some problems at Blair and Bicton, where they tackled the CCI4*-L for under-25s last summer summer but retired on course. That didn’t come after any actual issues, mind you — they made it most of the way around the hilly course in the heat but Harry decided to save him for another day when he was approaching the final combination and thought his much-loved gelding didn’t feel as reactive as normal. Since then, they returned to Bicton for the pop-up CCI5* last year, finishing 18th after picking up 20 penalties on course, and they’ve had quite a good summer this year, with a win in the CCI3*-S at Alnwick Ford and clear rounds in CCI4*-S classes at Barbury, Hartpury, Burgham, Chatsworth, Burnham Market, and Thoresby. Their Bramham under-25 CCI4*-L experience didn’t quite go to plan with a rider fall on course, but they’ve been hard at work training with Pippa Funnell as part of the Wesko Equestrian Foundation programme, and the difference that work is making is palpable. The huge gelding, who used to throw in bonus lead changes on his centrelines, has become much stronger and more balanced, and we’ve seen their scores drop from the high 30s to mid 40s all the way down to the occasional sub-30. Although they won’t be fighting for a top placing in their Burghley debut this week, we could be about to witness Harry’s development in real time, and their partnership should stand them in good stead for a coveted clear around this tough course.

Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.

11. Woods Baughman and C’est La Vie 135

Fourteen-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Contendro I x Anette). Owned by Kim and James Baughman and the rider.

This is a first Burghley for 25-year-old Woods and his excellent German gelding, with whom he became the USEF CCI4*-L National Champion back in November. That’s a pretty good title to carry into a competition of this magnitude, which will be a second five-star start for the pair — Woods, who’s a Lexington native, made his debut at Kentucky this spring, having first visited the three-day when he was just a tiny six-year-old, taking weekly ‘up-down’ lessons and dreaming of life as… a bull rider. His goals have (fortunately) shifted.

These days, Woods trains with Sharon White, who he first started working with when he was part of the Young Rider program, which she coached. His first job away from home was a winter spent in Florida at her southern base, and it was through Sharon that he was able to secure a year-long stint in Germany, where he based with Dirk Schrade. Dirk would help him find C’est La Vie, who was produced to CCI3*-S by Ben Leuwer – a rider responsible for a number of excellent horses, including Clever Louis, winner of the 2019 Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S under Chris Burton.

Just a matter of months into their partnership, Woods and ‘Contendro’, as he’s known at home, won the 2019 CCI3*-L National Championship. It was a brilliant way to close out their first season together, and the stage seemed set for an excellent 2021 -– but it all went pear-shaped when they came to Kentucky for the inaugural, very tough CCI4*-S. Woods fell on cross-country after the gelding hung a leg over a fence, and in doing so, broke two lumbar vertebrae. Though he was back riding within weeks, he and Contendro had to go back to the drawing board with their cross-country performances, which suffered an ebb of confidence and, crucially, control. A major step down to the Preliminary level helped them rebuild and they returned to the upper levels stronger and better than ever. In their last five FEI runs before Kentucky, they were only outside of the top five once — and that was a 12th place finish in the CCI3*-S at Unionville, where they ran steadily. Though they went on to pick up 40 penalties at Kentucky, it was a huge educational stepping stone for them, and they’ll have come on even further as a result.

Now, they come to the UK with big goals — despite a tricky journey to get here. Their goal will be to start the week with a sub-30 score, which they’ve consistently delivered at four-star, though they had a disappointing high-30s mark at Kentucky — and then to attack Derek di Grazia’s course boldly, listening to one another throughout and building their foundations for their very exciting future. Their sensible, educational steadiness will probably keep them from fighting for a placing this time, but Woods knows now that you can make the biggest leaps as a rider by taking it one well-thought-out step at a time. Come Sunday, they should be grinning: they hadn’t had a rail down in an international since 2019… until Kentucky.

Padraig McCarthy and HHS Noble Call. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

12. Padraig McCarthy and HHS Noble Call

Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Fortunas x Noblina, by Cavalier Royale). Owned by Pearl Chaffe and the rider.

It’s a joy to see Padraig come forward for (somehow!) his first-ever Burghley, particularly aboard a horse like this one, who’s proven he’s a real stayer. HHS Noble Call debuted at five-star at last year’s pop-up event at Bicton, which would be a local fixture for the Devon-based rider. They finished eighth there, delivering an excellent performance as the first clear round over the enormously tough terrain. Their mid-to-high 30s dressage (which has peaked in the mid-40s at four-star, and went to 47 in the Advanced at Thoresby this month) and tendency to knock a few rails will make a repeat placing tricky in a field of this strength, though. ‘Ben’ can be an anxious horse, which tends to impact his performance in the ring, though Padraig has been working hard to help him relax over the winter, as he explains to Horse&Hound.

There’s a lot to like about the tough, genuine gelding, who began his eventing career in 2018 after showjumping to 1.30m for his breeder, the Irish Olympic jumper Marion Hughes. Though the dressage was disappointing at Thoresby, they did deliver a clear round in the showjumping there, plus a characteristic efficient clear across the country. Their last international run was at Badminton, where they finished 33rd after a swift clear round, but their low-40s dressage and three rails stopped them from being more competitive on that occasion.

Phoebe Buckley and Tiger Mail. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

13. Phoebe Buckley and Tiger Mail — DEBUTANT HORSE

Twelve-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Jaguar Mail x Little Tiger, by Java Tiger). Owned by Mrs V S Gingell.

Phoebe has high hopes for her five-star debutant, and rightly so: he’s the son of her extraordinary mare Little Tiger who, at just 14.3hh, made light work of five-stars all over Europe. Her best-ever finish at the level was 16th here in 2008, and her son will have enormous shoes to fill as he gives the world’s biggest course a jolly good go. He’s certainly been very consistent since learning the ropes at four-star, and we can forgive a blip at Bramham CCI4*-L, because he was competing in a different bit set-up, which backed him off too much, forcing Phoebe to retire after picking up a 20. He went on to Burgham CCI4*-S after that, though, jumping a gutsy clear in which he powered through a near miss in the water. Like his dam, he’s hungry to get through the flags, and while he still has some things to learn about dressage, in which he’s a high-30s scorer, he should be great fun to watch here with his plucky rider in the irons.

Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

14. Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8 — DEBUTANT PAIR

Twelve-year-old Oldenburg mare (Duke of Hearts x Sandance, by Santander H). Owned by the HCS Syndicate.

Cornelia Dorr makes her hotly anticipated step up to five-star this week riding, perhaps, the feistiest and coolest of mares in the field. Daytona Beach, who originally came from Sandra Auffarth, is a quirky sort of lady, but she’s also tough and gutsy, with one heck of a gallop and jump on her. At the moment, she has a tendency to bubble over and blow up in the dressage, and the big atmosphere of Burghley will probably instigate a bit of interpretive dancing, but Cornelia, who has based herself with Kevin and Emma McNab this year, is pragmatic and realistic about the whole thing and knows that for now, she can enjoy the really good bits while still working away on improving what should one day become a rather nice test. Their high-30s to -40s test will keep them out of the hunt this week, but Burghley — and a five-star debut — is all about Saturday, where they’ll be out to gain a serious education and prove a few points along the way. Daytona has never picked up a jumping penalty across the country at four-star, other than an 11 for activating a safety device at Stable View last spring, and their European campaign so far has included good runs at Burnham Market, Houghton Hall, Avenches, and Kilguilkey four-stars.

Like Woods Baughman, who’ll be the first of the American contingent out of the start box, Cornelia is trained by Sharon White, who’s making the trip over to help her young charges out. With that secret weapon in her pocket, plus the confidence boost of that clear very-nearly-inside the time in her team debut at Houghton Hall this spring, Cornelia should be on her way with springs in her heels and a fire in her belly.

15. Rodolphe Scherer and Song du Magay

Sixteen-year-old Selle Français gelding (Summer Song x Indra, by Hand In Glove). Owned by Catherine Nauleau.

This is our first time seeing Rodolphe at this level since Burghley in 2016, when he finished sixteenth with Makara de Montiege. This time, he returns with Song du Magay, who was previously piloted to CCI4*-L by South Africa’s Victoria Scott-Legendre. This isn’t the first time a horse has swapped between the two riders: Rodolphe was the original producer of Victoria’s Olympic mount Valtho des Peupliers.

Rodolphe, who recently took on the role of cross-country coach to the German eventing team, comes from a real eventing dynasty: his father, Ivan, was reserve for France at the 1980 Olympics and later became a technical delegate for the sport. Rodolphe himself began representing France young, riding at Junior and Young Rider Championships and stepping up to five-star at just 20 years old. He’s twice ridden at the Olympics for France, too, both times finishing in an excruciating fourth place individually.

These days, with wife Aude — also an upper-level eventer — at his side, he runs a busy yard in the Loire, coaching, training, and selling horses. He was also the team coach for the Indian team before taking on the German role.

With Song du Magay, who he began riding in late 2020, he represents a real dark horse shot at a placing here. The horse averages a low-to-mid 30s mark, but went down to 29.4 in his final prep run at Jardy CCI4*-S last month, and he’s seriously consistent and naturally very fast across the country. He’s prone to a rail — and sometimes two — on the final day, which is what kept him out of the placings back at Luhmühlen CCI5* back in 2017, where he was fifteenth and clear inside the time, but Burghley’s influence can be such that a big climb on Saturday leaves some wiggle room for rails on Sunday. We saw that writ large in 2016, when Chris Burton took the win despite taking four rails.

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16. Wills Oakden and Oughterard Cooley — DEBUTANT HORSE

Twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Puissance x Oughterard Sky Cruise, by Cruising). Owned by the rider.

EquiRatings released an interesting stat the other day: 1% of all international eventing wins since 2010 — the first year a Cooley horse ran in an FEI event — have been won by Cooley horses. I say this is an interesting stat, but I did just read it aloud to my totally unhorsey boyfriend and he just sort of scoffed scornfully and said, “that’s shit. If I had horses it’d be like, 73%.” So there’s that, I guess. Your move, Richard Sheane.

Anyway, there’s no denying the extraordinary hold that the Cooley empire has had on our sport, making it one of the most prevalent and coveted prefixes in eventing. Scotland’s Wills Oakden certainly has a fine stamp of a Cooley in this one, with whom he was fourth at Blair Castle CCI4*-L in 2019 and sixth at Ballindenisk CCI4*-L this spring. He did retire on course in Barbury’s CCI4*-S this summer, but bounced back for a good finish in a hot field at Burgham CCI4*-S last month.

Oughterard Cooley hasn’t yet had his big moment to step into the spotlight, and is a little low on mileage after sitting out all of 2021, but it feels like Wills is due his big moment and if the gelding can stick to form, which has seen him deliver consistently quick, clear cross-country rounds and good showjumping performances, he should climb from a mid-30s starting point and make a splash (though hopefully not a literal one) this week.

Andrew James and Celtic Morning Star. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

17. Andrew James and Celtic Morning Star — DEBUTANT HORSE

Eleven-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Chilli Morning x Rebels Riches, by Rich Rebel). Owned by Michelle Harries.

In just his fifteenth FEI event, this son of 2015 Badminton winner Chilli Morning will make his debut at the level over the toughest, most stamina-sapping of courses — but his excellent performances over courses such as this year’s Bramham CCI4*-L, where he was clear inside the time for 20th place, prove that he’s a force to be reckoned with. He could well be the ‘Who Dat?’ hero of the week, which is an accolade I’ve just invented but am now taking very seriously indeed.

These two will likely score in the 40s to start their week off, so they won’t be a particularly competitive entity to start with — but actually, while that’s not really anyone’s dream starting score, it’s not too shabby at all a finishing score. Maybe finishing on it is a bit of a punchy aim for a five-star debut, but this is a horse who’s on the road to being able to make that happen, because he’s quick and consistent. His showjumping lets him down a little bit, though only by a rail or two, but keep an eye on this as an exciting one-to-watch for the future, who could well come good this week.

Francis Whittington and Purple Rain. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

18. Francis Whittington and DHI Purple Rain

Twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Arthos R x Wynona VWG’s, by Niveau). Owned by Ro Audley, Belinda Drummond, Amy Drummond and Beryl Chaplin.

It’s crucial that, whenever we talk about Francis’s five-star partner, we take a moment to hit play on this first.

Okay, ready? Cool. ‘Prince’, as he’s known at home (obviously), stepped up to four-star back in 2019 before the world fell apart, and since then, he’s had three runs at CCI4*-L and eight at CCI4*-S, and he made his five-star debut at Bicton last season. Though many of his runs have been educational, rather than competitive, he didn’t run into any trouble until last season, when he hit a couple of stumbling blocks: first, he retired on course at Bicton’s CCI4*-L, though that was due to a tack malfunction late on the track. Then, he picked up an uncharacteristic 20 penalties in his next outing, Burgham’s CCI4*-S, but then rallied for a great clear at Hartpury’s CCI4*-S. His Bicton CCI5* run was excellent, and he finished 14th — though it was more down to the four rails he pulled on Sunday that he didn’t sneak into the top ten. His clear round proved that he can go the distance over tough terrain, which stands him in good stead for Burghley, and he’s been getting more and more competitive since, with a fourteenth place finish at Burnham Market CCI4*-S, thirteenth at Houghton CCIO4*-S, and tenth at Barbury CCI4*-S. Francis will be aiming to keep the starting score under 35, and then we’ll expect a clear with some time to add. It’s Sunday that’ll have us all holding our breath: he’s been clear in his last two outings at internationals, but historically takes two or three poles.

Izzy Taylor and Ringwood Madras. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

19. Izzy Taylor and Ringwood Madras

Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Tinarana’s Inspector x Ringwood Rajah, by Rame Z). Owned by Sarah Van Vegchel.

We’re kind of thinking of this as a five-star debut for this smart mare, because although she went to Pau last year, she had an early runout at the influential angled brushes at 5 and Izzy opted to put her hand up and save her legs. She’d left the startbox on a 31.2, which wouldn’t be too shabby a score to start her Burghley campaign on, but actually, she’s been really nailing the first phase this year and hasn’t been out of the 20s since Pau. Her most recent FEI outing, at Burgham CCI4*-S, saw her dip all the way down to 25.4, although Burgham always seems to deliver low outlier scores year on year.

In any case, this is an exciting addition to Izzy’s string, and she’s quietly been proving herself since joining the Oxfordshire rider’s line-up early last year. Previously, she’d been produced to CCI4*-S and the Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old class by Ben Way, and in just her second international run with Izzy, she took fourth place in her CCI4*-L debut at Blair Castle last summer. That proved she can cope with tough terrain and stamina questions, though she did add 12 time penalties, and she coped well with the distance at Bramham CCI4*-L this year too, despite the 20 penalties and 11.2 time she picked up along the way.

At just eleven, this is a big milestone in her career and Izzy will be thinking of her as a useful asset for the future, so while she won’t aim to win it, expect to see her put the pressure on the young mare and then give her the grace and space to step up to the plate. This will be a really fun pair to watch in terms of production around a tough course.

Angus Smales and ESI Phoenix. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

20. Angus Smales and ESI Phoenix

Thirteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Clover Echo x Catina, breeding unknown). Owned by Diana Birch and Charlotte Straker.

This’ll be the first time we’ve seen experienced competitor, course designer, and keen hunting man Angus at Burghley since 2017, and he makes his return with a horse part-owned by loyal owner Charlotte Straker, who began providing rides for Angus just after he’d left school. Previously a stable jockey for Oliver Townend, Angus has had plenty of success at the top level and is an intuitive, gutsy cross-country rider who should do well over a track like Bicton’s.

This is just Phoenix’s thirteenth FEI start, as Angus only tends to aim him at a couple of internationals each season. He made his debut in 2017 and within a year, stepped up to four-star. He’s jumped around Blenheim clear and Bramham with an activated frangible penalty, and his only international cross-country jumping penalty came at Burnham Market CCI4*-L in 2020, when he had a 20. He should score in the low-30s, which won’t put any pressure on the top end of the leaderboard, but will keep him in close enough contention to climb, though he’s not naturally a particularly quick horse and Angus isn’t likely to put that extra pressure on him. He was sixteenth and very steady, with 60.8 time penalties, at Bicton CCI5* last year, so Angus will play to his strengths and hope the course is tough enough that a slower round doesn’t count against him.

Piggy March and Vanir Kamira. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.

22. Piggy March and Vanir Kamira

Seventeen-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Camiro de Haar Z x Fair Caledonian, by Dixi). Owned by Trevor Dickens.

“Vanir Kamira is going to win a five-star one day, but it won’t be Badminton – she’s a Burghley horse through and through.”

Thus spake (though did not write) the journalist in charge of this form guide, who was inordinately happy to concede that she might not know all the things about all the things, and who cried like a happy, milk-drunk baby when the duo did just what she (I?) said they wouldn’t. And what a long time coming it was – Piggy has been refreshingly candid about her struggle to get to the top and stay there without driving herself into a seriously dark place along the way. Badminton wins always sort of seem to add that fairytale something, don’t they? After all, if you wrote a novel in which the plucky heroine and her ‘scopeless yak’ – Piggy’s words, not ours – jumped two perfect clear rounds, and then won because the heroine’s ex-boyfriend added just one time fault too many in his showjumping round, it would be slated for overuse of deus ex machina. But that’s just what happened.

It did rather feel as though we’d been referring to Piggy and ‘Tillybean’ as the reigning Badminton champions for a solid decade, though, didn’t it? The length of the pandemic comes into sharp focus when you consider that Tilly won as a fourteen-year-old in 2019 and returned for the first time since as a seasoned seventeen-year-old this spring. It’s been tough to watch horses like this — proper, gutsy five-star horses that aren’t CCI4*-S winners or championship-style rides — sit out the lost seasons, but there’s no doubt her fire is still lit, as a win in Hartpury’s CCI4*-S this month showed.

And what a joy for Piggy to leave the startbox on Saturday aboard one of the world’s greatest cross-country horses. That’s what you want when you’re heading out to tackle a course of this magnitude — and the gritty little machine of a mare has every chance of adding another title to her roster, too, with her mid-to-high 20s dressage score and her excellent and very quick cross-country performance. The tricky bit for Tilly is showjumping: they had three rails at Bicton’s CCI4*-L last year and two at the five-star there, and tend to be nearly guaranteed one down, which is what made their Badminton clear and subsequent win even more of a fairytale finish. This year, they knocked one rail, but still finished fourth in what was arguably the best Badminton line-up we’ve ever seen.

Burghley relies heavily on big fences and stamina-sapping terrain, which will make it tough for many but plays well to Tilly’s strengths. For those of us who love slightly ordinary, quirky mares who have enormous hearts and deep wells of try, there’ll be plenty of reason to cheer for her on her way around.

“She’s a pain in the ass 362 days a year, and she’s really tricky to manage,” said Piggy when she won in 2019. “She’s not the nicest of things to ride, you know, and she’s difficult, but she’s amazing – I say it all so fondly, because we all love her to bits. She’s a true five-star horse that comes to form at Badminton and Burghley. The rest of the time, she feels pretty ordinary, and you have to work pretty hard for what you can get. She doesn’t find any of it easy, and if I’d built that [showjumping] course at home and practiced it on the same side of the arena, I could do it fifty times and never have a clear round. There’s something about her, and those great little mares that just do enough when they need to. If they’re on your side, they’re just incredible.”

Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

23. Meghan O’Donoghue and Palm Crescent

Sixteen-year-old Thoroughbred gelding (Quiet American x Edey’s Village). Owned by William Duhring and the rider.

Meghan O’Donoghue has had a whirlwind season, spending time in Europe getting her first taste of the global eventing scene at some of the most prestigious events. That’s included Aachen, where she made her US team debut with the ex-racehorse Palm Crescent, and although they had a hugely uncharacteristic 40 penalties across the country, it was a useful educational step. They followed it up with a very convincing clear at the Burghley prep event at Hartpury CCI4*-S, finishing 28th in a big field.

It was a circuitous journey that brought Palm Crescent to Virginia-based Pony Club alum Meghan O’Donoghue, who became a fan favorite when she debuted her mighty off-the-track Thoroughbred, Pirate. After a three-year racing career during which he raced 12 times, “Palmer” was placed with CANTER MidAtlantic, and after transitioning from track life under the watchful eye of Allie Conrad, the bright bay gelding eventually was purchased by and started his eventing career with Jan Byyny. He was later purchased by the Shipka family, who would go on to own the horse as a ride for Meghan as he showed his prowess at the upper levels. Meghan has since taken on ownership, but she’s always quick to reflect back on all of the wonderful people who helped her find this next shining star.

Palmer made his Kentucky debut last year, finishing 23rd, and they cracked the top twenty for 17th place on their sophomore run at Maryland in October. This year, they returned to Kentucky and took eleventh place, flying the flag for ex-racehorses and looking every inch a vintage American partnership.

They’re usually low-to-mid 30s scorers – their Kentucky test earned them a 32.8, while Maryland saw them score a 35.8 – but they did earn a serious outlier of 40.7 at Kentucky, and in any case, their talent lies in the climb. Though Palmer’s speed average is brought down by his slower runs at short-format internationals, he’s actually among the quickest in the field at the long format, where he’s able to settle into a high-octane cruising speed and eat up big, long, tough tracks. But like many classic, golden-era-style event horses, he doesn’t always have the easiest time on the final day, and is prone to a rail or two. He’s just once gone clear in the showjumping at this level, but if he can this week, we could see them make a bold bid for the top fifteen.

Danni Dunn and Grandslam. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

24. Danni Dunn and Grandslam

Seventeen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Sandro B x Foxy Dora, breeding unknown). Owned by Anne Chapman and the rider.

It’ll be a second outing at five-star for Grandslam, who debuted at Pau last year, completing with a 20, and then went to Luhmühlen this year but didn’t complete after some issues on course. Danni herself has a bit more experience at this level with former top ride Zocarla, including a completion at Pau and starts at Badminton, but the five-star clear has thus far eluded her and will be top of her goals list this week. Grandslam, who was originally produced to CCI4*-L by Tyler Cassells, looks like the horse that could do it: he was very convincing in his final prep run at Hartpury CCI4*-S, finishing clear inside the time for seventeenth place, and he’s picked up a handful of placings at CCI4*-S and CCI4*-L since joining forces with Danni in 2016. He does have blips on his record, but when he’s on form, he’s very quick and goes inside the time more often than not. Even with a 20 at Pau last year, he finished with just six time penalties. His showjumping is generally good too, and he rarely pulls more than one rail if he pulls any at all, but their high-30s dressage will serve to keep a bit of pressure off them so they can focus on keeping that score card clean come Saturday.

Tom Crisp and Liberty and Glory. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

25. Tom Crisp and Liberty and Glory

Fifteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse (Caretino Glory x Little Runnymede xx). Owned by Robin and Patricia Balfour and Sophie Crisp.

Liberty and Glory, or Lori, is our dark horse pick of the week: she is, after all, quite literally a dark horse. But she’s also one of those classic, feisty little mares, fuelled by rage and opinions, and frankly, her first-phase performances don’t even MATTER when she produces the goods on Saturday. We saw her at her very best at Pau in 2018, where she climbed an absolutely ridiculous 54 places to finish sixth, delivering an emotional five-star best for Tom.

Lori is truly a family horse, ridden by a family man: she’s out of a full Thoroughbred mare who Tom’s wife Sophie competed through Advanced, and Sophie’s parents Robin and Patricia not only bred the mare, but continue to part-own her. The Crisp family at large – including sons Hugo and Harry, and youngest child Hermione – can be seen out in force at events, with everyone chipping in. Harry, who’s just hit his teens, is already jumping well around Novice (US Prelim) tracks, so we’d be unsurprised to see him trying to cadge the ride on dad’s mega mare before long.

Born on the fourth of July and given a patriotic moniker to match, Lori probably won’t dazzle in the dressage – she’s a high-30s scorer, although Tom has been working hard on her flatwork and her tempestuous nature. It’s Saturday that’ll really have you paying attention – despite the fact that she spent her early years enacting elaborate protests that included lying down in start boxes, 16hh Lori is yet to face any course she considers difficult. Her penalties at her five-star debut at Luhmühlen came as a result of enthusiasm and a subsequent genuine inability to get herself to the next element. She’s been largely out of action with some niggling bits and bobs over the last couple of years, so watching her come back and have a jolly time around this big track will be as fun for fans as it is for her.

Richard Jones and Alfies Clover. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

26. Richard Jones and Alfies Clover

Fifteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tajraasi XX x Aoifes Clover, by Clover Hill). Owned by Sandra Martin, Dinah Jones, and the rider.

Everyone loves a comeback kid, and good-humoured Jones has, perhaps, one of the more unusual comeback stories in the field. In 2017, he and Alfies Clover were on track to achieve the best result of Jones’ career in the CCI4*-L at Bramham, where they posted a 35 and one of the top cross-country rounds of the weekend to sit in 11th place going into the final phase. After their round, however, disaster struck – Jones slipped while stepping out of the living area of his lorry and caught his wedding ring on the way down. He ended up losing his finger.

But he’s not stopped easily – this is a man who, the year prior, had to have a foot completely rebuilt – and we saw the pair at Burghley a mere three months later. They finished in 22nd place, despite the constant pain and lack of grip in Jones’ left hand. That was the 11-year-old gelding’s first five-star, and Jones’ first since 2014. The following year they returned, added just 2.8 time penalties to their 34.2 dressage, and finished seventh. It’s all been a bit of a rollercoaster since then: they retired on course at Badminton in 2019 and then finished fourth at Bramham CCI4*-L, which is a big, tough, hilly track, and then had a 20 at Burgham and finished the year with a Burghley retirement. Then they sat out the entirety of the 2020 season. With just Burgham’s CCI4*-S under their belt to get them back into the swing of things last year, though, they jumped clear around the CCI5* at Bicton, adding 8.8 time penalties across the country and 6.2 total penalties in showjumping to their first-phase score of 33, giving them a very good sixth place finish.

When it’s good with this pair, it’s very good, and when it doesn’t quite come together, Richard puts his hand up and calls it a day – but Bicton certainly knocked some rust off and they looked committed and straight the whole way around. They followed that up with tenth at Badminton this spring, with just 2.8 time penalties across the country and a clear showjumping round. They’re here to work on another top ten finish, and a top five wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility, either.

2018 Badminton winners Jonelle Price and Classic Moet. Photo by Kit Houghton/Mitsubishi Motors.

27. Jonelle Price and Classic Moet

Nineteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse mare (Classic x Gamston Bubbles, by Bohemond). Owned by Trisha and Sophie Rickards and the rider.

At nineteen, ‘Molly’ is the oldest horse in the field — but we wouldn’t advise you call her a geriatric to her face, because she’s also probably among the fiercest competitors here. The 2018 Badminton victors return with a vengeance after two productive trips to the US last year, where they finished in the top ten at both Kentucky and Maryland, and a winter spent showjumping at Vejer de la Frontera, where they won a CSI4* accumulator class. That’s pretty good going for Molly, whose one and only weakness would be the final phase: in 30 FEI eventing starts, she’s had 10 clear rounds and when she won Badminton, it was after showjumping by Braille and praying to the eventing gods for none of those rails to fall. They didn’t, and the fairytale came true, but they’ll be grateful for having schooled for an extra few inches of airtime over the off-season — particularly after two rails at Badminton this spring pushed them to a faintly frustrating eleventh place.

Is Classic Moet the fastest horse in the world? It’s very possible – particularly when paired with her very, very quick rider. That’s what makes Classic Moet such a, well, classic contender for the likes of Burghley and Badminton – though her dressage has certainly come a long way over the last number of years, she’s not a first-phase leader. Instead, she climbs and climbs, and the tougher the time or the cross-country test, the better it suits our Molly. This weekend’s forecast — currently set for an 80% chance of thunderstorms — will play right to her strengths.

“She’s so unspecial that she’s incredibly special,” says Jonelle. “There’s nothing fantastic; she’s quite an ordinary mover, a bit of an unorthodox jumper, but she’s got a ginormous heart. She’s got a huge will to be an event horse and she’s fierce and courageous.” There’s no doubt that Jonelle wants her exceptional mare to have a big result to close out her career with, and they’ll put up a great fight this week with one of the rounds of the day on Saturday.

Alice Casburn and Topspin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

28. Alice Casburn and Topspin

Fourteen-year-old British-Bred Sport Horse gelding (Zento x Capriati). Owned by Caroline Casburn.

Just as at Badminton this spring, 20-year-old Alice finds herself right after Jonelle and Classic Moet in the draw — but that won’t intimidate her. She’s the youngest rider in the field but has had one of the most exciting seasons of any of our competitors: after making her CCI5* debut last autumn at Pau, jumping her way to a top twenty finish with a super clear on cross-country and the first faultless showjumping round of Sunday, she returned to the level this spring and was excellent at Badminton, finishing nineteenth again and winning both the Glentrool Trophy for the biggest climb of the week and the under-25 prize. She and Topspin then went to the Young Rider European Championships, finishing in individual bronze medal position and taking team gold, too.

Together, she and Topspin are a family legacy writ large: Alice’s mother, Caroline, rode at five-star herself, competing Topspin’s grandmother, mother, and then the gelding himself in the early stages of his career. Although he’s a whopping 17.2hh and petite Alice is whippet-slim, she took over the ride earlier in her teens and together, the pair have learned the sport and climbed the ranks quickly and competently. How quickly, exactly? Well, they made their FEI debut — a debut for both of them individually, not just as a combination — at the very end of the 2018 season. Yeah, they’re effectively three years into this game.

But what a three years it’s been. They’ve picked up six top-five international placings, including super second place finishes in two of their pre-Pau runs last year, the CCI4*-L at Blair Castle and the Pau-style CCI4*-S at Little Downham, and before this season, they’ve represented Great Britain on a Junior European Squad, finishing 16th at Maarsbergen in 2019. That Blair run was particularly impressive: it’s a seriously tough track over mountainous terrain, and the nearly full Thoroughbred gelding never looked like running out of steam for a moment. It was also the first chance for him to see significant crowds, which he’ll have to face this week, and though Alice was nervous about how he’d cope with them, she was delighted to discover that he loved seeing his fans at close quarters. When he faced the vocal and enthusiastic French crowd at their five-star debut at Pau last autumn, he responded similarly, and the pair delivered an excellent clear with 8.4 time penalties that had us all in our pony novel feelings.

The first phase is still the weak spot for this pair, who will likely post a mid-to-high-30s score — but with a course like this, there’s reason to leave the start box even if you’re near the bottom of the pack after the first phase, because so much will change on Saturday. Alice and Topspin are naturally quick, helped enormously by the fact that the gelding is polite and doesn’t pull, so Alice rarely needs to spend much time on set-up, and their long partnership and huge amount of trust means that the gelding is happy with a long or a short stride and will often make a last-minute adjustment himself to get the job done. On Sunday, they’ll be in their element: Alice has contested puissance classes with the gelding and jumped 1.40 classes, so they always feel confident coming into the ring.

Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.

29. Emily Hamel and Corvett

Fifteen-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Corrido x Tina XII, by Clearway). Owned by Black Flag Option, LLC.

Emily and her great grey Corvett were one of a slew of five-star debutants at Kentucky last spring, and they added to their growing fan club by jumping two impressive clear rounds and finishing 21st. If you don’t think you’ve spotted Corvett out on course before, cast your mind back: do you remember seeing a sparkling white, eager-eared bolt of lightning clearing each fence with about two feet of extra air? That’s Corvett, whose unique, gravity-defying approach to cross-country jumping makes him almost as much fun to watch as he is to ride.

Resale fail ‘Barry’ and former Wisconsin-based 4H grad Emily joined forces at Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm, where they’ve both learned the ins and outs of their trade in tandem. That included a successful trip to the American Eventing Championships, where they finished fourteenth in the $60,000 Adequan Advanced Final.

While Emily and Corvett won’t put the pressure on in the first phase with their mid-to-high 30s score, they shine in the jumping phases and embrace the spirit of the climb (thank you, Miley Cyrus). While they have the odd blip on their FEI record, including an educational 20 at Badminton, their runs at Kentucky and Maryland proved that they can gobble up tough tracks in tricky conditions, and they should be very capable of another sterling performance this week. They hit a major milestone in cracking the top 15 at Maryland, where they finished fourteenth in great company, and while that’ll be a tough result to recreate here, this track will offer big-jumping Barry lots of fun challenges. They won’t be among the fastest finishers, and have picked up 8, 10, and 33.6 time penalties, respectively, in their three five-stars so far, but they’ve also jumped clear on the final day in two of the three, so there’s lots of ground for them to make up on the leaderboard over the course of the weekend – and we can guarantee that they’ll pick up plenty of new fans in the process with their gumption and pizzazz.

Emily has made this dream come true with a bit of creativity and a lot of help from her friends, family, and supporters, who helped her put on a fundraising auction this spring full of some pretty brilliant lots. The fact that she had to have knee surgery on April 9th after a misstep lead to a tear on her lateral meniscus didn’t dampen her spirits at all ahead of Badminton, but the months of healing and an exciting summer spent training in England will mean they’re well and truly back on form this week. Their great run at Hartpury CCI4*-S, which is built to be a Burghley prep, proved that in spades.

Sarah Bullimore and Corouet. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

30. Sarah Bullimore and Corouet

Eleven-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Balou de Rouet x Lilly Corinne). Owned by the Kew Jumping Syndicate.

Dear little ‘Elfie’ is just 15.2hh (and even that might be an optimistic measurement), but he has enough personality to fill Winners Avenue. He’s always been a particularly special horse for Sarah and her husband, Brett: they bred him themselves, pairing Sarah’s 2015 European Championships ride Lilly Corinne with the mercurial stallion Balou de Rouet, who’s also the sire of Sarah’s longtime five-star partner Reve du Rouet. Balou babies have the well-earned reputation of being as tricky and sensitive as they are talented, but it would be hard to find a rider more tactful than Sarah, and horses who require enormous tact thrive under her careful production.

Like Reve du Rouet, who was 13th there in 2014, he made his five-star debut at Kentucky — and in doing so, he came forward as one of the hottest prospects to win the whole thing. As it happened, though, he went into cross-country in second place and then jumped around in orbit mode, going just a touch too green and picking up a late 20 as a result. It was disappointing, no doubt, but he’ll have learned a huge amount from the experience.

He’s certainly equipped to deliver a first-phase result that’ll challenge anyone in this field: he regularly scores in the low 20s and put a decisive 19.6 down in Burgham’s CCI4*-S last season. We’ve seen those scores fluctuate up to the high 20s and even across the 30 mark in the not-too-distant past, but with every outing, the gelding looks physically stronger and also more willing to concede that team work does, in fact, make the dream work.

Speaking of dreams, he certainly made a few come true last season. He and Sarah took the individual bronze medal at the European Championships in Avenches, which was Sarah’s first call-up to a Senior championship squad since she got the chance to ride as an individual at Blair in 2015 with the gelding’s dam. She’s consistently been listed as a reserve, leading her to jokingly (and a little wistfully) refer to herself as the British team ‘super sub’, but at Avenches, she was rightfully selected to go and proved exactly why when she finished on a score of 23.6. There’s been a few moments of rotten bad luck that have stopped her taking a five-star with Reve du Rouet so far, but with this incredibly special little horse, it looks like a fresh start and a renaissance for this extraordinarily underrated rider who’s well overdue her big moment.

31. JP Sheffield and Kiltar OBOS — DEBUTANT HORSE

Twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (OBOS Quality x Photo Finish, by Hallodri). Owned by Anne Marling and Sue Wilkinson.

Longtime competitor JP might have crossed your radar for reasons beyond his own eventing results previously — he’s also an excellent producer of horses, and plenty of top-level competitors can be traced back to him, including Allie Knowles’s late, wonderful mare Ms Poppins and Fiona Kashel’s Creevagh Silver de Haar. That focus on producing often means that the good ones go to new homes before they reach the top, though, and that’s been rather the case for JP’s string — which means that, despite a wealth of experience at five-star events around Europe, he hasn’t actually competed at this level since 2012.

Child prodigy Kiltar OBOS, though, has stepped up to the plate in a big way, and will make his five-star debut here in what is just his thirteenth FEI start. He’s never had a cross-country jumping penalty in any of his international runs, and he’s naturally a pretty swift horse, too, though his dressage is generally in the high-30s to low-4os and his showjumping isn’t quite there yet. But for JP, the aim this week will be to prioritise his horse’s education in a sympathetic, forward-thinking way — and that’s where he really excels as a rider.

Felicity Collins and RSH Contend Or. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

33. Felicity Collins and RSH Contend’Or

Thirteen-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Nintender x Coulonia, by Toulon). Owned by Vicky Collins and Avrina Milton.

RSH Contend OR is one of Felicity’s self-produced horses, and easily her most impressive: he helped her win the under-21 national title at Houghton in 2017, and then partnered her to 13th place at that summer’s Young Rider European Championships. That autumn, she moved him up to CCI4*-S, and he finished 14th in the eight- and nine-year-old class at Blenheim. In 2018, he was clear around Blenheim’s CCI4*-L, and this year, the pair finished 15th in the Young Rider Europeans, at which the team won gold and the dynamic duo were chosen as pathfinders. They made their five-star debut at Pau in 2019, and though they didn’t complete, they learned an enormous amount about the complexities of this level. Since then, we’ve seen them finish in the top ten in CCI4*-S classes at Barbury and Burnham Market, and they jumped around the CCI4*-L for under-25s at Bicton in June of last year, finishing thirteenth with 20 penalties under their belt. They then returned for the pop-up CCI5*, finishing tenth. This year, we saw them come forward for their first Badminton, where they were very good for 21st place.

Remarkably, Felicity has competed horses at each of the national age finals – and she ticked all those boxes as a teenager, which just proves her innate ability to produce a youngster carefully and considerately. ‘Mickey’ certainly isn’t anyone’s ride, but Felicity has produced him sympathetically and has a super relationship with the talented, quirky gelding, who’s waiting in the wings for his moment to shine. This course feels made for him, and they should climb through the weekend – particularly on Sunday, where he’s one of the most reliable horses in the field. Another top ten finish could be on the cards.

Andrew Heffernan and Gideon. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

34. Andrew Heffernan and Gideon — DEBUTANT HORSE

Eleven-year-old KWPN gelding (Lucky Boy x Cinderella, by DK Induc). Owned by Gill Shea, Yvonne Watson, and the rider.

Dutch team trainer Andy Heffernan returns to five-star for the first time since 2017, this time with his lovely young horse Gideon. This attractive horse is still at an educational juncture of his career, but he’s really starting to come into his own, as a quick clear at Bramham CCI4*-L in June proved. They finished seventeenth there, adding just four time penalties across the country, and that’s one of the best bits of evidence you can come across that proves a horse is capable of going the distance here. The aim this week won’t be to record a hugely competitive result, but merely to lay some groundwork — but Gideon is good enough that an exciting result could just come along quite naturally. He’s a low 30s scorer that has gone into the 20s enough times to be a habit, and he’s at his quickest in a long-format competition. He’ll probably have two rails down on Sunday, but could still really impress this week.

Tom Rowland and Possible Mission. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

35. Tom Rowland and Possible Mission

Fifteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Temple Clover x Bahrain Supreme). Owned by Robin and Bunny Patrick.

The aptly-named ‘Hunter’ was purchased from a hunting yard in Ireland when he was five, by which point he already had two years’ experience jumping colossal drains, banks, and gates. Unsurprisingly, he’s a reliable cross-country horse, although he finds showjumping a bit spooky. The pair tackled their first five-star in 2018at Burghley, finishing a very creditable 27th after a slow clear. That was enough to qualify them for Badminton, where they jumped clear for 36th place. The horse was just a twelve-year-old then, and it’s one of the nasty knock-on effects of the pandemic that we now see those young, early-career five-star horses coming back as very low-mileage teenagers, having lost a couple of valuable seasons in the prime of their competitive careers.

Hunter sat out 2020, but returned in 2021 to finish seventh in a hot field at Houghton Hall CCIO4*-S, adding nothing to their dressage score of 32.3 and proving that they do have speed on their side if they need it. They delivered another clear — though with an activated pin — at Badminton this year, finishing 46th. They suit a big, tough track, and though their mid-30s score and relatively steady cruising speed doesn’t make them a threat to the obvious leaders, they’re on the hunt for the top twenty finish they’re very capable of.

Zara Tindall and Class Affair. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

36. Zara Tindall and Class Affair

Thirteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (OBOS Quality x Ruby’s Rosshaven Flight, by Laughtons Flight). Owned by Gleadhill House Stud Ltd.

I’m already steeling myself for the avalanche of paparazzi that storm through the mixed zone when poor Zara is just trying to do her job on English soil, but equally, it’s such a treat to get this pair back on this side of the pond after they opted to head to Maryland last year. They picked up a 20 there but completed, and have previously contested Burghley back in 2019, where their day ended with a rider fall at the Leaf Pit. Class Affair is brimming with talent but isn’t necessarily the most straightforward horse; when he’s on form, he can slip sub-30 in the first phase and deliver an efficient, convincing cross-country round, and he’s a pretty good show jumper, too — but you never quite know whether you’re getting the angel or the devil on his shoulder, and in his 22 runs at four- and five-star, he’s run into trouble across the country in ten of them. Good runs in his last two CCI4*-S outings, at Barbury and Hartpury, bode well — but Zara will have a fair job on her hands this week. Fortunately, the former World Champion is well up to the challenge.

Tim Price and Vitali. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

37. Tim Price and Vitali

Twelve-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Contender x Noble Lady I, by Heraldik). Owned by Joe and Alex Giannamore and the rider.

Tim inherited his Tokyo mount from fellow Kiwi James Avery in early 2021, after the gelding had had a couple of years out. They promptly won Strzegom CCI4*-L, the gelding’s debut at the level, just a couple of weeks after joining forces, and they were sixth in the CCI4*-S class at Luhmühlen last year, securing their place at the Olympics. It went a bit pear-shaped on the final day there, with three poles falling, but they returned to international competition at Houghton CCIO4*-S this spring to take the dressage lead on 21.2 and hold it with an excellent clear jumping round before withdrawing. The gelding then made his five-star debut at Luhmühlen, finishing tenth after dropping several places with his three rails down. Then, he came back and won the British Open Championship at Gatcombe, where he showjumped clear, and Tim is feeling confident that he’s got the phase very nearly sussed with this talented horse.

There’s a very strong chance that this is your dressage leader this week, and he’s a real weapon across the country — and time will tell if the Sunday goes to plan. If it does, he’ll give stablemates Polystar and Bango a real run for their money, and Tim a chance of finishing three horses in the top ten — an impressive feat indeed if he can manage it.

Oliver Townend and Tregilder. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

38. Oliver Townend and Tregilder

Twelve-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Royal Concorde x Trewins, by Hand In Glove). Owned by the Hazeldines and Mitchell Fox Group.

It seems like every time a five-star entry list comes out, Tregilder is on it — and then, at the eleventh hour, he’s always taken off again. This is ordinarily because Oliver has such an abundance of top-level horses that the rookie gelding, who was bred by Preci-Spark, has to step back to make way for one of his more competitive stablemates — but at Bicton last year, we finally got the chance to see how he fares at five-star. As it turns out, the answer was very well — despite hitting a MIMclip, he finished seventh.

Here, as at Bicton, the 2018 Blair CCI4*-S winner is the second of Oliver’s horses, so will be able to make use of the intel that his rider has picked up around the course, and he’s also the very last horse in the draw, so by the time he leaves the start box, there won’t be much that isn’t known about the track’s secrets. That’ll serve him well, because he could actually be well in the hunt after the first phase: we’ll be looking at a score in the high-20s to very low-30s, though he can and sometimes does fluctuate well above or below that benchmark, and he’s generally a quick horse. There was certainly a period in which a question mark loomed over his head: he was eliminated in the CCI4*-S at Houghton in May of last year, because he refused a double of corners three times, and Oliver also fell from him early in the course at Burnham Market at the start of the season. Since then, though, he’s been on flying form, finishing in the top ten in all four of his most recent FEI runs. Compared to Oliver’s last ride, Swallow Springs, he’s less of an obvious champion — instead, he’s rather more of a dark horse in that if all goes well, he has every chance, but Oliver may have to take it fence by fence.

Kate Shapland and Uris Cavalier. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

39. Kate Shapland and Uris Cavalier — DEBUTANT PAIR

Fourteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse mare (Uranium du Hossoit x Smoothstep Cavalier, by Cavalier Royale). Owned by Judith Shapland and the rider.

Life must feel rather like a pony novel right now for Kate Shapland, who comes forward to her first five-star with the horse she’s produced through the levels — and the only horse she’s ever ridden in FEI events. They’ve got a super bond that has seen them finish seventh in Bramham’s under-25 CCI4*-L and at Blair Castle CCI4*-L in 2021. At just 22, Kate has been dreaming about a Burghley run since visiting the event as a child, and now, with her feisty, strong-willed partner, it’s all about to happen.

They’ll likely post a low-40s score to start their week, which will take the pressure off them going into Saturday, where they’ll focus on a confidence-building clear round. They’ve never yet faulted in this phase at an FEI event, and they’re pretty quick, too, which gives them a ladder to climb — and though they’re prone to a couple of rails on Sunday, that completion will be a huge moment in this young rider’s career.

40. Kristina Hall-Jackson and CMS Google — DEBUTANT PAIR

Twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Baltimore x Shalom Internet, by Cavalier). Owned by the rider.

25-year-old Kristina is one of the youngest riders in the field and her step up to this level is a hotly-anticipated one — and one that couldn’t really come at a better time, in terms of the support she’s been receiving over the last year or so. Like Harry Mutch, she’s a part of the Wesko Equestrian Foundation programme, which provides a selection of up-and-coming British riders with training and support from Pippa Funnell, with whom she’s worked hard to refine all three phases and develop a horse-first approach to production.

The star of her stable, and her ride this week, is the exciting CMS Google, with whom she finished sixth in Bramham’s tough CCI4*-L this summer — a career-best result for both. They’ve gone sub-30 at four-star before, but a score hovering just below the mid-30s feels more likely this week, and if their Bramham run is anything to go by, they should deliver a strong performance on Saturday. Because it’s a debut for both, they may well opt to run a little slower, but they’re undoubtedly capable of a quick run, as they proved when picking up just 2.8 time penalties over the hilly Bramham track. On Sunday, they should jump clear, and could really step into the spotlight as a result.

Hollie Swain and Solo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

42. Hollie Swain and Solo

Thirteen-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Solos Landtinus x Manie Af Sulsted, by Praestegardens Hamlet). Owned by John Bodenham.

UK-based Kiwi Hollie made her five-star debut with the colossal Solo, who stands at over 17.2hh, at Luhmühlen this year, finishing a very respectable eighteenth after a steady run across the country. He can be a bit of a tricky character in the first phase, with scores fluctuating between the low-to-mid 30s and the low 50s, but he’s been a good servant at the upper levels, allowing Hollie to accrue some useful mileage. They’ll almost certainly opt for a steady, educational run rather than a competitive one, and they aren’t likely to be particularly quick, but ticking the Burghley box will be a huge moment for this hard-working up-and-coming rider, who comes from a family of racehorse trainers in New Zealand’s South Island and cut her teeth in the UK as a rider for Jock Paget at the height of his career.

Susie Berry and Ringwood LB. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

43. Susie Berry and Ringwood LB — DEBUTANT HORSE

Thirteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Iroko x Seoidin Alainn, by Master Imp). Owned by Helen and Nick Caton.

Ireland’s bright young star Susie made her own five-star debut at Badminton this spring, where she was very impressive indeed with the former Jonty Evans ride John the Bull — and this week, she tackles her first Burghley with another horse she’s inherited from her fellow countryman. Though the gelding can be a little tricky — a testament, really, to that Master Imp on his dam’s side — he’s also precociously talented, and has had some excellent results recently, including eighth at Chatsworth CCI4*-S, fifth at Bramham CCI4*-L, and twelfth at Burgham CCI4*-S. That’s a definite step in the right direction after a rider fall in their season opener at Thoresby CCI4*-S, a 20 at Boekelo last year, and another 20 in the under-25 CCI4*-L at Bicton last year, and Albie has looked more committed and focused this year than ever before.

Their high 20s score will put them in a good position going into cross-country, where education will be a priority but competitive performance is certainly on the agenda, too. When this horse is on his A game, he’s exceptionally quick, and we could see them catapult themselves right into the business end of the leaderboard. They’re prone to a rail on the final day, but that shouldn’t dull the shine of what could be a very good week for this pair.

Arthur Duffort and Toronto D’Aurois. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

44. Arthur Duffort and Toronto d’Aurois

Fifteen-year-old Selle Français gelding (Polack II x Jovaly d’Aurois, by Daloubet d’Evordes). Owned by Julie and Paul Gatien and the rider.

British-based Arthur is no slouch — he’s been hard at work since his days riding for Andrew Nicholson, building himself a solid string of horses and chasing the five-star dream. He finally achieved it last year, making his five-star debut at Burghley, where he and Toronto finished in the top 30 after one green wobble on course.

After some teething problems in the horse’s first year at the four-star level, Toronto seems to be on a roll – he’s jumped seven consecutive clears at the level, making light work of tough tracks like Hartpury, Blair, and Bramham. Like many horses, he had a reasonably quiet couple of years, but did manage trips to Pau in 2020 and 2021, and looked at his best at Badminton this spring, where he finished 34th on a confident, fairly quick cross-country round.

This pair have been gaining essential experience at the five-star level after completing Burghley with a 20 in 2019, jumping clear at Pau in 2020, and sort of jumping clear again last year, though they did pick up a technical elimination late on course there. It didn’t do either of them any harm, though, and they can certainly be considered as going from strength to strength. This is a great chance to consolidate on the confidence they picked up at Badminton and really see how much they can climb. Toronto is a high-30s scorer and a one-to-two rail sort of horse, so that climb is essential.

Michael Owen and Bradeley Law. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

45. Michael Owen and Bradeley Law

Eighteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Mill Law x Scarlet Lady, breeding unknown). Owned by the Jenning’s Syndicate.

With six five-stars under his belt, the bright and beautiful Bradeley Law isn’t short of experience at this level, and he and Michael’s partnership stretches back to 2013, when Michael took the reins from Mary Lofthouse at the CCI3*-L level. Their best result at the level is 15th at Burghley in 2018, when they added just 7.2 time penalties across the country to their 40.1 dressage, proving that they can climb if there’s a tough course for them to sink their teeth into.

Their first-phase performances have improved a bit since then, and will likely be nearer the mid-to-high-30s, and they’re generally fairly consistent, though they finished their 2019 season with 20s at Burghley and Burgham and had a pin at Bicton last year, after which they withdrew before the final phase. We’ve not seen them since then, and although that Burghley result in 2018 represented a particularly quick round for them, so we know it’s in there, we probably won’t see it again this week — but they’re very capable of putting in a strong performance for another top good finish.

Cedric Lyard and Unum de’Or. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

47. Cedric Lyard and Unum De’Or

Fourteen-year-old Anglo Arab gelding (Yarlands Summer Song x Fee du Logis, by Prince Ig’Or). Owned by Marie-Christine Duroy and Renaud de Lauriere and the rider.

Unum made his five-star debut last season at Pau, performing admirably to take ninth place after adding 2.4 time penalties on cross-country, and a further 1.6 in showjumping, to his 31.6 dressage. Prior to that, he’d been a horse that performed respectably but never really made a splash, largely due to his high-30s dressage marks – but the notable exception to this, other than that Pau run, is his trip to Bramham to contest the CCI4*-L in 2018. We say it a lot, but that’s because it bears repeating: Bramham is as tough as a four-star gets, with huge terrain challenges to match the tough, big, bold and technical Ian Stark track. If a horse does well there, it says an awful lot about what they’ll go on to do in future. In 2018, Unum was ninth, and his 1.2 time penalty cross-country round was one of the fastest of the day.

He’s reliably quick, and mostly reliable, though he’s had the odd blip, including a 20 in a CCI3*-L at Haras du Pin in 2020 and a retirement on course at Badminton this spring. Since then, they’ve been second in a CCI4*-S at Maarsbergen and 20th in a huge, super-competitive field at Haras du Pin CCIO4*-S, which featured much of the Pratoni line-up. His showjumping, too, tends to be pretty consistent, and is usually at its best on the final day of a three-day. The major stumbling block for him will be the first phase, which is generally a mid-to-high 30s affair, but did dip down quite excitingly to the very low 30s at Pau. This is a bigger field, though, and we’re expecting the marking to be tougher as a result. Look to them to work on a big climb, particularly because the French and their penchant for forward distances tends to work quite well with Burghley’s open track.

William Fox-Pitt and Oratorio II. Photo by Shelby Allen.

48. William Fox-Pitt and Oratorio II

Thirteen-year-old British-Bred Sport Horse gelding (Oslo Biats x Cinnamon Brulee, by Topanoora). Owned by the Oratorio Syndicate.

This is an exceptional horse who, on his day, could take the spoils here – but he’s not quite as consistent as, say, the Toledos of the world, so it’s not quite as cut-and-dry a prospect. It’s certainly in his blood to top a five-star, though: his sire, Oslo, won Pau five-star back in 2011 with William aboard, and Oratorio has no shortage of talent.

Oratorio first stepped up to five-star in 2019, jumping clear around Badminton and finished 13th, and like many top horses, he had a quiet 2020. Last year, he headed to Kentucky, where he was putting in a seriously competitive showing — until an odd blip very late on course put him on the floor. We saw a couple of very experienced horses suffer the same fate at the same fence, and so we won’t hold that against the gelding, who was likely caught out by some odd lighting, or a slippery take-off, or some combination of factors. He headed to Bicton CCI5* in September for a second go and again, was running well — until he had a nosebleed, his first ever, mid-course. William opted to pull him up and take him home for thorough investigations, and then rerouted to Pau – where they picked up a 20 at the second water. He was briefly campaigned by Harry Meade this spring before Badminton while William was sidelined, and then William himself took the ride back for a fourteenth place finish at Badminton, which was his last international outing.

Oratorio’s mother was a point-to-pointer, though she was known for her sheer strength and force of will perhaps more than anything else. Those attributes have shown through loud and clear in the sparky and clever Rio.

“He’s absolutely blood, and he doesn’t know the meaning of ‘hard’ in any phase, on any day, ever. It’s exhausting at my age,” William told EN at Blenheim in 2018, where the pair finished second in the CCI4*-L. “I’m quite looking forward to the day when he says, ‘right, okay, let’s go onto the bridle a bit now!’ At my age, I quite like them to purr around a bit, but he’s a double handful. Sometimes the ‘woah’ can take 25 strides!”

Badminton in 2019 and this year proved how classy he is, despite some excesses of enthusiasm. After his thirteenth place finish, he even made William go rather soppy on us, as he told us, “For a while I did wonder what I was doing [coming back to the sport]. But suddenly, at 50, I see a future. Who says that at 50?!”

Rio was originally produced to two-star by Laura Collett, largely because William worried he’d be small like his 15.2hh dam, and partly because William wasn’t sure how much longer he’d want to stay at the top level anyway. Since taking the reins in 2017, though, William and Rio have notched up some pretty impressive results, including a second place finish in Blenheim’s CCI4*-L in 2018. They should put a high-20s score on the board — their Bicton score was a 27, and Pau was a 27.4 — and this time, we hope to see them cross the finish line with smiles on their faces again. If they do, expect them to be fighting for a top ten this time.

Bubby Upton and Cola III. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

49. Bubby Upton and Cola III

Twelve-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Catoki x Vanessa XII, by Contender). Owned by Rachel Upton.

This isn’t 23-year-old Bubby’s first five-star — she ticked that box last year at Pau — but it is her first Burghley, and as we went into her Badminton debut this spring, the British eventing community had been rather waiting on tenterhooks for the moment this fierce talent would step up to the level on home soil. She certainly impressed enormously in the first phase, and the vast majority of the second phase, with her Burghley mount Cola — but an extraordinarily unlucky run-out at the final fence will have been on her mind as she’s been training ever since, and she’ll be coming to Burghley hungry for the result she should have earned there.

The current British under-25 national champion has already proven herself against many of the world’s very best riders, consistently placing in enormous four-star fields with her string of horses. That string continues to blossom and grow, too: she’s supported by Cheddington in the West Country alongside Chris Burton, and after his recent retirement from eventing she took on two of his rides in Blenheim CCI4*-S winner Clever Louis and Jefferson. She’s represented Britain at Pony, Junior, and Young Rider level, winning silver individual medals at Pony and Young Rider European Championships and becoming Junior European Champion in 2017 with Eros DHI.

Her mount, Cola, has been a horse she’s grown up alongside. They’ve been to two Young Rider Europeans together, winning team gold and individual silver in 2019, and have ticked off plenty of milestones on their journey up the levels. They haven’t just focused on Bubby’s age classes, either: they contested the CCI4*-S for eight- and nine-year-olds at Blenheim in 2019, finishing in the top twenty. At their five-star debut last year, they finished 12th, just dropping out of the placings after tipping two rails on the final day — but the strength of their performances, particularly across the country, shone through. They finished inside the time and Bubby rode with a maturity well beyond her years, which is something we’ve seen from her time and time again.

This really does feel like the time for young British talent to rise to the top, and Bubby will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Luhmühlen winner Mollie Summerland and Kentucky runner-up Yasmin Ingham in delivering a serious set of performances for a very good finish. They should start out sub-30, and they’re among the fastest four-star pairs in the field. Showjumping remains their slightly weaker phase, and there’ll be plenty of crossed fingers in the Upton camp as she tackles the final phase, but they delivered a very classy clear at Badminton, and there are few riders as game-faced and focused as Bubby, who has been balancing her riding career with her university studies until her graduation from Edinburgh earlier this year.

Helen Wilson and My Ernie. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

50. Helen Wilson and My Ernie

Thirteen-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Cardento x Whoopiminka, by Cantos). Owned by the rider.

It’ll be just the 14th FEI start for diminutive Ernie, but don’t underestimate what he and Helen could do this week. We were delighted to see Helen back at this level at Badminton, sixteen years after her last five-star runs, and she returns with an exceptional partnership with this horse. She picked him up very cheaply because he was a bit of a tricky youngster and nearly impossible to travel, and as a result, she made his formative years as straightforward for him as possible, choosing to prioritise hunting with the Surrey Union instead of chasing eventing results. He proved a catty, clever, and supremely scopy jumper, and in mid-2019, Helen decided to give him a go out eventing. He finished that season with a flurry of rosettes at BE100 and Novice (US Prelim), and in 2020, he stepped up to Intermediate and contested his first FEI events, picking up third place in the CCI3*-S at Cornbury. Last year, he stepped up to four-star, and though he did have one educational 20 in his second run at Houghton Hall, he’s generally been on the up and up since.

His sixth place finish in the CCI4*-L at Blenheim felt like something of an inevitability, despite not having previously placed at the level, because he’s such an exceptional galloping and jumping machine. They finished on their dressage score of 31.7 there, climbing from an initial 26th place, and although the gelding has had a bit of an up-and-down 2022, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if he did something very similar here. Certainly the track will work in his favour: it’s been designed to reward competitors who train outside the arena, and a horse with extensive hunting mileage will find nothing to shy at in its variable terrain and multitude of questions. Their Badminton experience didn’t quite go to plan, with a rider fall after some issues on course, and they had teething problems at Barbury CCI4*-S, too, but both horse and rider have all the right stuff. If it can all slot into place this week, they could record a fairytale finish.

Sammi Birch and Finduss PFB. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

51. Sammi Birch and Finduss PFB

Twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Saffier x Belle Miranda, by Sarantos). Owned by Parkfield Breeding and the rider.

Sammi, who began her career riding ex-racehorses and relocated to England back in 2005, is one of Australia’s biggest stars, and perhaps best known in conjunction with top horse Hunter Valley II, with whom she was fourth at Pau in 2017. She’s also tough as nails, though it’s rare to see her without a warm smile on her face: in 2018, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and went through chemotherapy and a major surgery to remove the cancerous cells while still riding and competing at the top level. She balanced that with raising her young son and dealing with the heartbreak of missing the WEG that year due to a horse injury.

Talented Finduss PFB has been produced by a few leading ladies of the sport — first Holly Woodhead, who used to be Parkfield Breeding’s rider in residence and took him to the Seven Year Old World Championships and his first forays at four-star, and then, very briefly, by Laura Collett. He moved to British-based Australian Sammi’s string in early 2019 and has gone from strength to strength since, with classy clears and top ten finishes in four-star classes at Barroca d’Alva, as well as clear rounds at Burgham CCI4*-S and Bicton’s two major fixtures last season.

‘Loopy Louis’, as he’s fondly known at home, made his five-star debut at Britain’s ‘pop-up’ five-star at Bicton last autumn, where he redeemed himself after a rather interpretive dressage test to ultimately finish in eleventh place. He then went to Badminton this spring, where he finished 25th after adding just 5.6 time on Saturday and a rail on Sunday to his first-phase score of 38.7.

Louis wouldn’t be the fastest of our field this year, but he is a stayer – and if Burghley’s course under new designer Derek di Grazia lives up to its reputation of old, his resilience and keenness should see him go the distance, which will boost him up the standings. The final phase has historically yielded a rail, or sometimes two, for the gelding, but he didn’t have a single pole down in 2021 at the national or international levels, so we’re expecting him to make the best of Sunday and earn himself a respectable finish.

Selina Milnes and Iron. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

52. Selina Milnes and Iron

Thirteen-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Aquilino x Ushuaia, by Donnerschlag). Owned by William Rucker.

Over the last few seasons, Selina and Iron have, quietly and without fanfare, become serious British contenders at the upper levels, and so the gelding’s five-star debut at Pau last year came with high expectations indeed. Their super results at four-star last season include tenth at Blair CCI4*-S, fourth in the British Open Championships, tenth at Barbury CCI4*-S, and second — to William Fox-Pitt and Little Fire — at Houghton Hall CCIO4*-S this spring. They’ve also previously finished fourth in Blenheim’s CCI4*-L in 2018 and third in Bramham’s CCI4*-L — arguably the toughest in the sport — in 2019. And at Pau? They were eighth, adding just 4.4 time penalties across the country and 0.8 in showjumping to their first-phase score of 30.1. They’ve proven themselves over and over again, including at Badminton this spring, where they were a little slower than usual but finished well in 24th place.

Incredibly, Pau was Selena’s own return to the top level for the first time since 2012, when she contested Luhmühlen with the excellent Bodidily, with whom she finished 13th at Burghley the year prior. We’ll be looking to this pair to score between 29 and 31, and on Saturday, they should deliver a reasonably efficient clear — they added just 1.2 time penalties at Bramham in 2019, which is a galloping, big course with bold terrain, very different from the tight, twisty Pau course over which he was fractionally slower. In any case, he tends to showjump best on the final day, so should deliver a clear — and that will pay dividends this week. There’s a big dream being chased here, and nobody in the inner circles of the sport would be surprised to see them finish in the top ten.

Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

53. Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift

Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan x Lucky Crest, by Lucky Gift). Owned by Patricia Davenport, Milly Simmie, and Sarah Webb.

Originally piloted by Georgie Campbell to two-star, this smart grey joined Tom’s stable in early 2018 and has been quietly impressing since. In their 16 FEI starts together, they’ve finished in the top eleven 11 times, including a second place finish in the 2018 Seven-Year-Old World Championships, an eleventh-place finish in the 2020 eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S, which is ordinarily held at Blenheim, and eighth in the very tough CCI4*-L at Bicton last June.

‘Walshy’ is naturally swift and very reliable, too, with just one mistake across the country in his international career. His first-phase performances tend to fluctuate, though – he proved at three-star that he can go sub-30, but it’s only happened for him once at four-star, and that was at Burgham last month. At Badminton this spring, though, he put a 30.3 on the board and ultimately finished sixteenth after three very impressive phases. Every season his showjumping gets better and better, too, so we could see him make one big final leap up the leaderboard on Sunday to give Tom another great result at five-star. Apropos of nothing, the 28-year-old is a dab hand at juggling, which will come in handy if we ever get our wish and see the first horse inspection swapped for a talent competition.

Morven Pringle and Dunbog Gypsy Rose. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

54. Morven Pringle and Dunbog Gypsy Rose — DEBUTANT PAIR

Fifteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Colourfield x Glenside Molly, by Orbis). Owned by the rider.

27-year-old Scottish rider Morven makes her debut at five-star with her longtime partner, Dunbog Gypsy Rose, who was her first horse after she graduated from ponies. They joined forces when Morven was a teenager and the mare was five, and along the way, they’ve ticked all their first-time boxes together — so while Burghley is always a punchy aim for a five-star debut, they’ll have years of intrinsic understanding and trust to lean on as they make their way around Derek di Grazia’s track.

A mid-to-high 30s dressage score will keep them out of the upper echelons of the leaderboard to begin with, but their results have been getting better and better over the last couple of seasons, with a consistent string of clears dating back to 2019 and times that are getting pretty economical. They tend to be reliable show jumpers, too, so will make a good effort to fight for that Burghley debutant prize.

Rosie Thomas and Balladeer Humbel Guy. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

55. Rosie Thomas and Balladeer Humbel Guy — DEBUTANT HORSE

Twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Loughehoe Guy x Humbel Lass, by Humbel). Owned by the rider.

Rosie makes her return to the level for the first time since Burghley in 2012, when she finished in the top thirty with Barry’s Best. She’s also previously acted as pathfinder here, getting the job done in fine style with a clear inside the time, and she’ll no doubt be champing at the bit to get back out of the startbox with her current stable star.

Rosie, who’s the Chief Instructor of the Ludlow Pony Club, has produced the striking Balladeer Humbel Guy throughout his international career, and although he’s not yet quite ready to be competitive in this kind of field, this will be a great educational week for him. His scores can fluctuate between the high 30s and the 50s, but he’s never had a cross-country jumping penalty at four-star. He’ll pick up a fair smattering of time penalties and will likely have a couple of rails down on Sunday, but it’s all a useful building block for the future.

56. Sarah Clark and LV Balou Jeanz

Twelve-year-old New Zealand Sport Horse gelding (Balou du Rouet x Cotton Jenny, by Colombia). Owned by the rider.

Sarah Clark has made the huge journey over from Australia to contest her first-ever Burghley after a seriously impressive string of results Down Under, including a twelfth place finish in the pair’s five-star debut at Adelaide in 2019. In their ten FEI runs since, they’ve finished in the top twenty eight times — and in the top ten six, with two wins at four-star to their name. They’re putting in some serious effort to refine the marginal gains, and their dressage scores have steadily been dropping from the upper-mid 30s to the very low 30s. Getting a 31 or thereabouts on the board here will put them in an excellent position to climb, and though they wouldn’t be among the fastest pairs in this field, they’ve made the time at CCI4*-L before and can be very economical when they need to. Still, Balou has plenty of years ahead of him and Sarah may well decide to focus on his ongoing education this week with an eye on trying to catch the time in future seasons. On the final day, they’re prone to a rail, but should be well set for a week that makes their efforts feel worthwhile.

Richard Skelt and Credo III. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

58. Richard Skelt and Credo III

Fifteen-year-old KWPN gelding (VDL Tenerife x Tandora, by Marlon). Owned by the rider.

Richard, who doesn’t come from a horsey background, cut his teeth working for the formidable Marietta Fox-Pitt, which means he’s got to be tough as nails now. (We can write this with some confidence – your British EN reporter also worked for Marietta, who once made her cross-country school in a field of cows and their calves. “JUST JUMP THE FENCE, THE COW WILL MOVE,” she bellowed. A Marietta favourite? “I don’t know why you fell off – no one ever got hurt staying on the horse.”)

‘Pedro’, who was originally produced by Angus Smales, was a naughty youngster who still struggles in an arena – he averages a mid-to-high 30s mark, and delivered a 37.7 on his previous run here in 2019. The pair have jumped steady clears around Bramham CCI4*-L, Camphire CCI4*-L, and Bicton CCI4*-S, but they’ve picked up horse falls here and at Bicton CCI5*-L, so will be hoping their third time at the level’s the charm. They’ll take a long route or two and aim to get home with more experience in the bank. And on Sunday? They’ll likely pull two or three rails, though they’ve gone as high as seven at Burgham CCI4*-S in 2018.

Phil Brown and Harry Robinson. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

59. Phil Brown and Harry Robinson – DEBUTANT PAIR

Fourteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Laytender x Jodie, by Ontario). Owned by Orbit Electrical Services Ltd.

It’s a five-star debut for both horse and rider — but Stamford-based Phil and his delightfully-named Harry Robinson couldn’t be more local, so expect them to have one of the biggest cheering sections of the week. That cheering will be intensified by those close to Phil who know what it’s taken to get here: he first qualified a horse for five-star six years ago and intended to run at Burghley, but injuries got in the way and the dream was never realised. Since then, it’s been back to the drawing board, and he’s worked hard to produce his charming gelding to be ready for the challenge.

Good, steady clears around Barbury CCI4*-S and Ballindenisk CCI4*-L will serve as excellent prep for this stamina test of a track, as will their clear last year around Blair Castle’s mountainous CCI4*-L, which proved that the rather hunter-y gelding can go the distance. That’s the main focus for them both this week: their high-30s to low-40s dressage and propensity for knocking a few rails will stop them from troubling the leaders, but this is an enormous milestone and a great educational experience for both horse and rider and, perhaps more importantly, the well-deserved realisation of a long-held dream.

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

60. Kitty King and Vendredi Biats

Thirteen-year-old Selle Français gelding (Winningmood x Liane Normande, by Camelia de Ruelles). Owned by Diana Bown, Sally Lloyd Baker, Sally Eyre and Samantha Wilson.

It was on a knife edge whether Kitty and her talented team partner, known at home as ‘Froggy’, would be heading to Pratoni or getting a crack at Burghley, but the latter has won out — and Italy’s loss is our gain, as this pair could well run away with the whole thing this week.

On their day, they’re extraordinarily competitive, and can count a Bramham CCI4*-L win in 2019 among their achievements. In 39 FEI starts, they’ve clocked up 24 top-ten finishes, and their mid-20s (or below!) dressage tests see them at the business end of the leaderboard in any company. Froggy is naturally very swift, and he’s a great show jumper, too – but he hasn’t always been totally reliable across the country. He’s a typical cheeky Frenchman and can lose a bit of focus on course, and though it certainly looks like those days are behind him, we’ve seen him break hearts on more than one occasion previously.

If he behaves himself and commits to the job this week, as he should do, he’ll be fighting for a placing here. He’s a very, very good horse, and Kitty is an exceptional jockey — and the element of chance that’s historically ridden along with this pair appears to have fallen off and given up the game. At this stage, they’re a formidable partnership, and they come here riding high on the back of a ninth place finish and team gold at last year’s European Championships and a two-year streak of being exceptional across the country. Their dressage, which flirts with the mid-20s, will put them in the topmost echelons at the start of the competition, and they should deliver a quick clear on Saturday, followed by one of the showjumping rounds of the day on Sunday. The only question mark that really lingers here is the distance — Burghley is unique in its relentlessness, and we’ve not seen Froggy over a course of similar scope, though he was excellent for seventh place over Badminton’s gruelling track this year.

Emma Hyslop-Webb and Darrant. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

61. Emma Hyslop-Webb and Darrant — DEBUTANT HORSE

Fourteen-year-old KWPN gelding (Warrant x Noberlina, by Lux). Owned by the rider.

Five-star stalwart Emma Hyslop-Webb debuts a new ride at the level in Darrant, after an admittedly topsy-turvy run-up to the big day. Since stepping up to four-star in 2020, he’s had a couple of good results, including a steady run for twelfth place at Blair CCI4*-L last summer and 35th in Bramham’s CCI4*-S this year, but he’s also had his fair share of teething problems as he’s learned his job. In his ten four-star runs, he’s delivered three clears, but he was also something of a child prodigy in his first year at the international levels, easily bounding his way up from his first two-star to three-star in just a couple of months.

This isn’t his week to be competitive — instead, it’ll be about consolidating the education he’s had along the way, and Emma will more likely than not run him slowly, allowing for a couple of long routes and a confidence-building round rather than gunning for glory.

Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel. Photo by Hannah Cole.

62. Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel

Thirteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Jumbo x Cornish Queen, by Rock King). Owned by Kate James and Annie Makin.

This will be a second five-star for the very good Pencos Crown Jewel, who finished fourth in her level debut at Bicton’s pop-up Burghley replacement last year. Since then, she’s been on electric form, finishing 20th in a huge CCI4*-S season opener field at Thoresby Park, then taking third at Chatsworth CCI4*-S, second in Bramham’s achingly tough CCI4*-L, and eighth in Hartpury’s CCI4*-S, which is built to serve as a Burghley prep.

Though she’s unlikely to lead the dressage, she shouldn’t be far behind — her scores are consistently in the high 20s, and Burghley is a competition that allows for big moves up the leaderboard for horses that can go the distance and get the job done. Pencos Crown Jewel has certainly proven she can do that, with thirteen top ten finishes from her 24 FEI runs and a naturally fast rhythm that allows her to attack courses with easy efficiency. She’s prone to a rail, partly because she can be quite spooky, but her focus and technique in the final phase at Bramham, where a fence was blown down by a strong gust of wind mid-round, showed that she may well be beyond all that. She went clear and didn’t so much as flick an ear in its direction. Keep an eye on her this week.

Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope. Photo by Shelby Allen.

63. Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope

Fifteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Porter Rhodes x Brown Sue). Owned by the rider.

Pippa has long ridden the reliable Majas Hope for owner Marek Sebestak, but was given ownership of the horse over the off-season, and so comes here in the rare position of being an owner-rider. It’s a financial gamble to do so for any rider, but Majas Hope is, fittingly, what we’d call a banker –- he goes out, puts his head down, and does his job every time, without much pomp or circumstance, but enormously reliably. That quality has led to him being selected for the British team: in 2019, he was the pathfinder at the European Championships and stormed home clear and inside the time, helping the team to gold and taking 22nd individually.

Since then, his weakest phase has taken a major turn for the better. He was a solid mid-30 scorer, but Pippa has put plenty of time and patience into producing more consistent work on the flat — and that, plus a swap to a double bridle, has seen him deliver four sub-30 scores out of his six FEI runs in 2021. His last two, the tough CCI4*-S and the inaugural ‘pop-up’ CCI5* at Bicton, saw him finish in the ribbons, and though Pippa retired him on course in Bicton’s CCI4*-S earlier last year, he was on good form at Kentucky this year, finishing fourteenth after being slightly hamstrung by a disappointing 35.2 dressage.

He’s got previous Burghley form, so we know he’s up to the distance: he was thirteenth here in 2018, and though he’s not had any other runs at the event, his scant 4.8 time penalties on that occasion are very exciting indeed. He could well be fighting for a top ten this week.

Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua. Photo by William Carey.

64. Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua

Fifteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Jack of Diamonds x Highland Destiny, by Flagmount King). Owned by Frank and Margaret Kinsella.

It’s a bit of a surprise not to see the 2019 Europeans individual bronze medallists on the Irish team for Pratoni, but she’ll come to Burghley with a damn good chance of making something very big happen for her talented jockey. This is one of the fastest horses in the field, despite standing just a 15.2hh (and an angry 15.2hh at that), and she’s enormously consistent over the toughest of tracks. She and Cathal partnered up when she was just five and he was a teenager, and the plan was originally for him to produce her and sell her on for owners and breeders Frank and Margaret Kinsella — but by the following year, they’d qualified for and competed at the Junior European Championships, finishing seventh. As a seven-year-old, she went to the Young Horse World Championships, finishing sixteenth, and the same year, she and Cathal went to the Junior European Championships again, this time taking individual silver. The next year, they stepped up to Young Riders, finishing sixth, and moved up to four-star, too, enjoying great success at the level. By this point, everyone involved had decided to hang onto the Red Queen, who probably would have eaten any other rider for dinner anyway, and as a nine-year-old, she stepped up to five-star at Pau. They finished twelfth there, and jumped clear around Badminton the following year, though a flapping bit of roof in the grandstand led to a disastrous dressage score of 56.4 in new money, and meant that Cathal had to focus his attentions on regaining her confidence in this phase. It came back quickly enough, and in 2018 they won a CCI4*-S at Chatsworth, finished seventh at Luhmühlen CCI5*, and went to the World Championships in Tryon, where they won team silver. In 2019, they won Bramham’s CCI4*-L for under-25s, and took that Europeans bronze, and the following year, they enjoyed great results at four-star despite the diminished season. Last year, they were sent to Tokyo as travelling reserves, then finished thirteenth at Pau, and this year, they were eleventh at Luhmühlen.

This will be Red’s first Burghley, but there’s no reason to believe she won’t be incredibly impressive over this huge track. She very, very rarely makes a mistake across the country, and Cathal is one of the world’s best riders in this phase, and they’re naturally very quick, too. Her mid-30s average is a bit of a constant frustration, but she can go lower, and Cathal is hungry for a big result for his horse of a lifetime. They’re prone to a rail, too, but their final phase round at the 2019 Europeans was a masterclass in gutsy showjumping riding, and if they’re in contention come Sunday, we’ll see this determined pair do everything they can to repeat it. A top ten should then be in the bag.

Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

65. Tom McEwen and CHF Cooliser

Twelve-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare (Womanizer x Super Spring, by Ramiro B). Owned by Vicky Bates and David Myers.

This cool mare was set to make her five-star debut at Luhmühlen last year, but after that pesky German travel ban on the Brits threw a spanner in the works, she was rerouted from the land of schnitzel to the land of fine, flaky pastries. That delay allowed her to get a few more sensible runs in, including one at Blair Castle CCI4*-S, where she finished seventh. Eliza — who’s sometimes called Queen Elizabeth at home because of her royal attitude, and has to be led into the arena to work — has been with Tom since 2015, and throughout her 19 FEI runs, she’s proven a real cross-country specialist, never picking up a jumping penalty in this phase. She’s naturally efficient, too, and is getting quicker as she learns her craft – when she did make her five-star debut at Pau in October, she surprised everyone by securing an exceptional second place finish. She followed that up with a clear at Badminton this spring, finishing 27th after a steady run around and a relatively high-for-her 34.4 in the first phase.

Now, with stable star Toledo de Kerser busy with Pratoni, Tom’s sole focus for this week is Eliza. She’s proven she’s wholly capable of beating out the big guys at this level, but will have a big job on her hands this time, as her low-30s dressage will mean she has more climbing to do up the comparatively enormous leaderboard. But she’s a real machine across the country, and reasonably quick, and that’ll give her a massive amount of propulsion towards the business end of the scoreboard. On the final day, she’s prone to a rail, though does jump well on the final day under pressure, and was clear at Pau. Burghley, with its room for a serious climb up the leaderboard, could suit her well.

66. Tim Price and Polystar I – DEBUTANT HORSE

Seventeen-year-old Westfalian gelding (Polytraum x Waldbeere, by Waldstar). Owned by Trisha Rickards.

This will be just a third FEI run for Tim and the former Chris Burton ride Polystar, who returned from a long hiatus after Aachen in 2019, where he was ninth with Burto in the irons, to make a slow debut with Tim at Millstreet’s CCI3*-S in June. He followed that 24th place finish with a strong second in the CCI4*-L at Strzegom later that month, putting himself in a tidy position ahead of his five-star debut.

He’s got a very nice record indeed, with placings in nine of his eleven FEI starts with Burto, and previous wins in prestigious classes such as Saumur CCI4*-L in 2019, the British Open Championships at Gatcombe in 2018, and Arville Event Rider Masters the same year — but if anything will preclude a great result here, it’ll be the lack of mileage he and Tim have as a partnership. Still, Tim is an expert at picking up the reins and getting the job done, as he proved when he took on Vitali with such success, and this is a horse who knows his job very well. Expect a first-phase score in the high 20s, and for them to keep on fighting thereafter.

Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs. Photo by Nico Morgan Media.

67. Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs

Fourteen-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Chillout x Kilila, by Cult Hero). Owned by Paul and Diana Ridgeon.

Oliver Townend’s direct reserve for Pratoni, Swallow Springs, is also one of the clear frontrunners in this field, despite only joining Oliver’s string late last season after the retirement of Andrew Nicholson. He made his five-star debut here with Andrew aboard back in 2018, finishing third, and followed it up with fifth at Badminton the next spring. He was also second at Bramham CCI4*-L in 2018 — despite being chased by a dog in his showjumping round — and won Barbury CCI4*-S twice. With Oliver aboard, he was tenth at Blenheim CCI4*-L — their first FEI event together — and won Burnham Market and Burgham CCI4*-S this year. His third place finish at Badminton this spring was impressive, but not without its dramas: the pair had a wobble early on in the course at the final element of the Quarry, and were subsequently held for over half an hour, restarted, and then eliminated retrospectively for what appeared to be a contravention of the flag rule. Ultimately, actually, it turned out that they’d been mistakenly eliminated for a horse fall, which was removed once contested, but that flag footage was a stark reminder that the specifics of that particular bit of the rule book are a little bit of a grey area even now.

Despite that, though, this is a very, very good horse who’s been produced to attack the toughest courses in a clever, economical way. He’s arguably one of the fastest horses in this field — second only, perhaps, to Classic Moet — and he’s extraordinarily reliable. His first-phase scores are impressive, too, generally hovering in the mid 20s but dipping well below them, too, and he’s a a good show jumper, though prone to a rail in a long-format. If he leaves them all up, this could well be our winner — and his position as last out of the start box on Saturday will keep spectators committed to the bitter end, even in the forecasted thunderstorms.

Tuesday Video Break: Take a Ride Around Burghley 2016

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 30, 2022 5:00 pm -

One of my most visceral memories of Burghley 2016 — the first event I ever had press accreditation for, and one I look back on so fondly as a result — is how ungodly the rain was on Saturday. It was wring your hair/top/gloves/notebook out sort of weather, which is obviously exactly what you want when you’re galloping up to the biggest fences in the world. But eventers are nothing if not tough (insane?) and so everyone went out of that startbox with grim determination and game faces firmly in place. One of those competitors? Elisa Wallace, who documented the whole round with Simply Priceless on her hatcam. Go Eventing!

Irish Team Named for Pratoni World Championships

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 30, 2022 1:00 pm -

Padraig McCarthy and Fallulah. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

After keeping us all in suspense for a hot minute or two, Ireland has named its line-up for next month’s World Championships at Pratoni, though hasn’t yet confirmed which of the five combinations will be on the team and which will ride as an individual. The selected horses and riders are as follows:

Susie Berry and Monbeg by Design – Ten-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Pacino x Eskerhills Lexis, by Puissance). Owned by Helen Caton, groomed by Crisy Salmon.
Padraig McCarthy and Fallulah – Thirteen-year-old Westfalian mare (Fidertanz 2 x Devona, by Di Versace). Owned by Amanda and Nicholas Boyle, Di Brunsden, Peter Cattel and the rider, and groomed by Jess Elliott.
Joseph Murphy and Calmaro – Eleven-year-old Brandenburg gelding (Carpalano x unknown dam). Owned by Claire and Charlie Mayne, Annette O’Callaghan, and the rider, and groomed by Ryan Hopper.
Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue – Thirteen-year-old British-bred Sport Horse gelding (Jaguar Mail x Rock Me Baby, by Rock King). Owned by the Salty Syndicate and the rider, and groomed by Francesca Denning.
Sam Watson and SAP Talisman – Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Puissance x Ali Row, by All Royal). Owned by Hannah and Julia Watson, and groomed by Hannah Watson.

“I am delighted with the squad that are travelling to the World Eventing Championships,” says Dag Albert, High Performance Director for Eventing and former Swedish team rider. “I have chosen a squad that has a huge amount of experience between them and I believe we can get a great result in Pratoni. Our ultimate goal is to get Olympic qualification for Paris 2024 and I believe this is really achievable. I am really looking forward to the team going out there and performing and I would like to give a huge thank you to our owners, for their ongoing support to Team Ireland and giving us the opportunity to compete for medals at such a high level. Also, a special mention to the grooms and all of the people who work so hard in the background – we wouldn’t have a team without them.”

There are also two non-travelling reserves for the team. These are:

Felicity Ward with Regal Bounty – Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Orestus VDL x Edge of Reason, by Senang Hati). Owned by James O’Callaghan.
Michael Ryan with Barnahown Corn Hill – Eleven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Chinook Eclipse x Mats Lady, breeding unknown). Owned by Carol and Tom Henry.

Final entries and team/individual designations are due to the FEI on September 5. Want to see more from #Pratoni2022? Click on over to our Ultimate Guide to FEI World Championships for more!

Tuesday News & Notes from Ocala Horse Properties

By Tilly Berendt on Aug 30, 2022 6:10 am -

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Few things have got me feeling quite so bright and buzzy as the return of Burghley this week, at which I’m delighted to once again take on the role of lead reporter for EN. We’ve got tonnes of content coming out over the next few days, including our bumper form guide, course preview, At A Glance reviews of the field, and the juiciest great big reports of all. Stay tuned and dive into the madness with me!

Events Opening Today: Poplar Place Farm October H.T., Pine Hill Fall H.T.,

Events Closing Today: FEH Qualifier at Loch Moy Farm, FEH Championships at Loch Moy Farm, Marlborough H.T, Stone Gate Farm H.T., Otter Creek Fall H.T., Flying Cross Farm H.T., The Event at Skyline, Aspen Farm H.T., Unionville Horse Trials, Tryon Fall Horse Trials

Tuesday News & Notes from Around the World:

The AECs kick off this week, and I’ve been loving reading the stories of riders who’ll be making the trip there. Like this one, from adult ammy Tammy Seaborn, who’s always dreamed of galloping around Rebecca Farm and, now she’s been given the perfect opportunity, is making the most of every second available to her there. [White-water rafting at the AECs? It’s gotta be done]

Anyone who’s ever had to rehab a horse after an injury knows that it’s a wild ride. You will feel all the things! You will drink all the wine! You will avoid looking at your bank statement and then hyperventilate after your card gets declined for a gas station coffee! But somewhere on the other side, with any luck at all, your precious partner will be back in action, and then it’s just pure bliss. [They tried to make me go to rehab and I said ‘do I have a choice in the matter’]

We’ve all missed seeing Astier Nicolas’s Babylon de Gamma out and about. The eleven-year-old has been sidelined for the better part of a year after having surgery on a hoof, but he’s back to business now — and he began his renaissance with a win in Blair Castle’s CCI4*-S class. [Read all about it here]

Ocala Horse Properties Dream Farm of the Week:

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On the hunt for a turnkey equestrian estate with all the amenities you need on your doorstep? Boy, oh boy, do we have the farm for you. With 38 stalls, 54 acres, a gallop track, a spacious arena, and separate main and staff residences, it’s the kind of place you can move your business into and hit the ground running. Please invite us for the housewarming party.

Watch This:

I can’t stop thinking about this question at the 2007 European Championships at Pratoni, which is where next month’s World Championships will be held. We know the Pratoni Slide is making a return for the big event — but will it cause as much drama as it did fifteen years ago?

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