Classic Eventing Nation

Saturday Links from World Equestrian Brands

By on Sep 10, 2022 12:01 am -

Photo by FEI/Martin Dokoupil.

There’s been an unfortunate plot twist for endurance athletes, as it was announced yesterday that the FEI Endurance World Championship that was set to take place in Verona, Italy this October has been canceled. Everyone at EN nearly had a heart attack when we saw the words ‘FEI’, ‘Italy, and ‘canceled’ all together in a sentence, but eventers have nothing to fear — the road to Pratoni continues! — though we are majorly disappointed for our fellow equestrian athletes who have been preparing for this opportunity.

FEI Board confirmed the termination of the Host Agreement over concerns “including but not limited to track readiness, athlete safety, and the lack of detailed planning schedules in the lead up to the Championship.” A rescheduled championship will take place no later that April 30, 2023 and the bid process will be reopened.

U.S. Weekend Action

CDCTA Fall H.T. (Berryville, VA): [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

Chardon Valley H.T. (Decatur, MI): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times/Scoring]

Five Points H.T. (Raeford, NC): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

Flora Lea Fall H.T. (Medford, N): [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Scoring]

GMHA September H.T. & Area I Championships (South Woodstock, VT): [Website] [Entries] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

The Work to Ride Equestrian Scholarship Program

World Equestrian Brands Pick of the Week: 

Saturday Viewing: I’m sure sure there’s some background to this video, but I don’t know it. Here’s Joe Meyer’s pet pig stealing a trash bag:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Joe Meyer (@joemeyereventing)

Friday Video: Get a Taste of Pratoni’s Cross-Country Challenge

By on Sep 9, 2022 5:39 pm -

Somehow, it feels like both years and minutes since the World Championships test event at Pratoni del Vivaro back in May — but we remember those volcanic hills and stunning vistas like we were there yesterday. In case you haven’t had a chance to see what next week’s competitors will be up against, we can think of nothing better than cracking open a cold one and reliving all the action from the CCIO4*-S this spring that gave us all our first taste of the action to come. Now that’s amore.

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

By 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.

What Does the Perfect Half-Halt Actually Feel Like?

By on Sep 9, 2022 11:00 am -

In this excerpt from Rider + Horse = 1, leading expert in movement and riding Eckart Meyners is joined by Hannes Müller and Kerstin Niemann in explaining how half of anything can make the whole difference.

Photo by Horst Streitferdt.

It is always a risky undertaking to try to describe “feel.” Just as it is impossible to dispute matters of taste, each rider would probably describe her riding “feel” a bit differently when she applies a half-halt. An attempt to describe the feel could be something like this: The horse determines the right moment, which is when all the horse’s joints are flexing during movement. This is when the rider “gathers” the horse’s impulsion into a slightly more closed body frame (shape).

To explain further, the horse flexes his large joints from the hip through the stifle to the hock, and farther on down. Thus, his pelvis is tilted, his croup lowers, and his muscles cause his back to arch slightly upward. As a prerequisite, the rider needs to be very supple on the horse’s back since her pelvis must “receive” the movement of the horse’s arching back and follow it, meaning she slightly tilts backward and her pelvis gets “sucked” into the horse’s back movement. As a result, she will feel how her lower leg softly and automatically “clings” to the horse’s body, since her backward-tilted pelvis initiates the driving impulse in her lower leg. At the same time, her hands follow the movement of her pelvis.

During the moment of suspension in the horse’s trot or canter, the rider’s pelvis tilts slightly forward again, and as a result, her lower leg somewhat disconnects from the horse’s body and her hands move slightly and elastically forward. This is the moment when the rider “lets the horse’s forward impulsion out.” When the horse’s hooves make contact with the ground and the joints flex once more, the rider can utilize the next half-halt in the rhythm that is predetermined by the horse. This way, the rider can influence the horse with many consecutive half-halts that accompany the horse’s every movement—sometimes more, sometimes less pronounced. The functional principle is similar to a perpetual motion machine, since all the horse’s movements, whether at the walk, trot, or canter, give the rider the recurring opportunity to use the half-halt technique to influence the horse.

Since describing how and to what extent half-halts are applied is so complex, consider this thought: “The horse ‘collects’ the half-halt from the rider.” This means that through the rhythm and sequence of his movement, the horse determines how and to what extent the rider applies the half-halt; however, this should not mean that the half-halt is ridden in a reactive manner: Being able to actively utilize the half-halt requires a great deal of coordination on the part of the rider.

The following example is a fitting comparison: Take a ball and keep bouncing it on the floor with one hand. When the ball jumps up toward your hand, you first receive the ball’s movement, meaning you act reactively. Then, however, you can influence the ball’s direction and dynamics by lifting and lowering your wrist. You are, therefore using your own activity to bring energy into the “conversation” between a human hand and the ball. Just like when bouncing a ball, the rider must use her proprioception and skills in order to find the correct moment for the half-halt. Those who have developed proprioception during their riding education can “feel” the point in time when they must collect the horse’s impulsion, retain it, then with a yielding rein aid, immediately allow the horse to swing forward.

Coordination of Aids

The rider must be prepared to coordinate her aids during the half-halt, a big test of her riding skills and coordination. But she cannot learn this simply by “being moved” passively (“reacting” rather than “acting”) on a schoolmaster. Furthermore, since there are no comparable skills that a rider can fall back on that would allow her to transfer the skill to riding, this transfer must occur by using a rider’s various abilities.

Just as it is part of training for other sports, the rider should be able to fulfill intricate, complex tasks, which must occur simultaneously, consecutively, and under time pressure. As a consequence the rider becomes more sensitive to her coordination abilities. She can then act and react during situational changes without any difficulty.

Cross-coordination exercises turning around the rider’s longitudinal axis provide the best preparation since they involve using both sides of the body via the brain … these exercises assist with the interplay of aids—especially across the diagonals of your body.

Suggested Exercises

These exercises can help the rider increasingly become better able to fine-tune her aids and her influence while applying the half-halt.

  • Walking and circling one arm.
  • Walking and circling both arms consecutively—like a windmill—from front
    to back, and vice versa.
  • Walking and circling both arms at the same time from front to back, and vice
    versa.
  • Skipping and circling both arms from back to front, and vice versa.
  • Stand on balance trainer on both legs and throw a ball from left hand to right
    hand.
  • Stand on balance trainer on one leg and throw a ball up in the air.

The goal is for the rider to not only reactively experience the half-halt, but to be able to actively use it in order to change the horse’s gait, movement, and posture. Nowhere does the conversation between rider and horse become more clearly apparent than in the skillful application of half-halts.

This excerpt from Rider + Horse = 1 by Eckart Meyners, Hannes Müller, and Kerstin Niemann, is reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books (www.horseandriderbooks.com).

Jonelle Price and Classic Moet Claim First-Ever Avebury Trophy

By on Sep 9, 2022 9:00 am -

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.

Jonelle Price and Classic Moet have become the first winners of the Avebury Trophy at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials after delivering the only clear inside the time of the day — even without a functioning stopwatch. They romped home three seconds inside the 11:20 optimum time, ultimately finishing fourth in the event.

“Jonelle Price’s round on Classic Moet was the only one of the day to be inside the time — but that wasn’t the deciding factor in awarding it to her. She did it more easily than the others, and still had time to add a stride at the final two fences,” says Captain Mark Phillips, who presented Jonelle with the award before the final session of showjumping.

“In terms of conserving the energy of the horse, being one second over the time — as Piggy March was on Vanir Kamira — is a better solution [that being under the time], but Piggy and her mare didn’t look quite as ‘easy’ over the last three fences,” continues Phillips. “I thought the other two outstanding rounds came from Bubby Upton [Cola III] and Tom Jackson [Capels Hollow Drift], because they also made it look easy, and the best cross-country performances are those that do that.”

The Avebury Trophy is a new prize at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials. Generously donated by Rosemary and Mark Barlow, owners of three-times Burghley winner Avebury, it was be awarded for the best cross-country round of the day, as judged by Captain Mark Phillips.

Avebury was bred by his rider Andrew Nicholson, whose children gave the grey son of Jumbo his nickname, ‘Buddy’. Avebury started his eventing career with Andrew’s wife Wiggy, but Andrew took over the reins in 2007. In 2009, Andrew and Avebury won the CCI4*-L at Saumur, and took the first of their three consecutive Burghley victories in 2012. As well as those three CCI5* triumphs, the pair had an outstanding record at Barbury Castle, winning the CCI4*-S there four times. They were British Open champions at Gatcombe in 2014. Avebury retired from competition in 2016, and sadly had to be put down due to a malignant tumour in his jaw later that year. He is buried in the garden at the Nicholsons’ home at Westwood Stud in Wiltshire.
Rosemary Barlow, who enjoyed so many great days with Andrew and Avebury, said: “Buddy was at his most brilliant at Burghley, and he and Andrew made the cross-country track here look easy, which it certainly is not. We thought that to present an award to the rider who delivers a cross-country round that makes it ‘look easy’ would be an appropriate way to remember Buddy – and also to pay some tribute to Andrew, who retired from competing at the top level last autumn but who won Burghley five times in total, and who is rightly celebrated as one of the greatest cross-country riders we have ever seen.”

 

Friday News & Notes Presented by Zoetis

By on Sep 9, 2022 12:03 am -

A beautiful tribute by Charlie Mackesy.

Buckingham Palace announced yesterday afternoon that Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully at age 96. We are deeply saddened to hear the news of Her Royal Highness—a fellow equestrian and lover of horses. Perhaps eventers have even more affection for her, as we share our enthusiasm for Three-Day Eventing with Princess Anne as well as Zara Tindall, but all of my favorite photos of her are the ones where she is simply gazing into the eyes of yet another horse with the wonderment and joy of a young girl. The horse girl fever can’t be cured, no matter how young or old, no matter what your position in life might be.

U.S. Weekend Preview

CDCTA Fall H.T. (Berryville, VA): [Website] [Entries] [Volunteer]

Chardon Valley H.T. (Decatur, MI): [Website] [Entries/Ride Times/Scoring]

Five Points H.T. (Raeford, NC): [Website] [Entry Status] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

Flora Lea Fall H.T. (Medford, N): [Website]

GMHA September H.T. & Area I Championships (South Woodstock, VT): [Website] [Entries] [Scoring] [Volunteer]

News From Around the Globe:

Honestly, we aren’t over Cornelia Dorr’s 5* debut at Burghley with Daytona 8 yet. Her year abroad working with Kevin McNab has certainly proved fruitful, and it’s not over yet. A five-time North American Young Rider Championship medallist, Cornelia worked for Sharon White for 6 years before going out on her own, and ultimately deciding to take her top three horses to England for the year. Daytona hasn’t been the easiest to bring along, but damn, after watching that cross country round, it has to all be worth it. [Ringside Chat with Cornelia Dorr]

After a successful week at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials where Tim Price finished on the podium in third place and Jonelle Price was right behind him in fourth, Team Price have a few days to re-group before heading to Pratoni del Vivaro in Italy for the 2022 World Championships. But before then, it’s time for the Kiwi camp in Wiltshire and time to ‘reload’ says Tim. Check out this video to see what he and his wife plan for the week between the two big events. [Time to Reload]

Kelly Mahloch is intensely aware of the responsibility Sundance Farm has to the eventing community in the Midwest. As one of the few recognized horse trials in a large, geographically- dispersed area, Sundance is tasked with a myriad of important roles that might be shared among several venues in more densely-populated locations. In addition to cross-country schoolings and their recognized event in the fall, Sundance also hosts the annual rally for the Regional Pony Club as well as competitions for the Area IV Young Riders. In 2020, the Area IV Championships were held at the farm and they will be again in 2024. [Catching Up With Sundance Farm]

Best of Blogs: Stranded on the Steppe

Training Tip of the Week: What Being on the Forehand Means to a Horse

 

 

Thursday Video: All the Queen’s Horses

By 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.

Need an English Eventing Fix? Don’t Miss This Weekend’s Cornbury International

By on Sep 8, 2022 3:00 pm -

Sarie Weaving tackles Cornbury’s scenic course. Photo courtesy of Sarah Farnsworth Photography.

If you’re counting the pennies but would like a great day out in the beautiful Oxfordshire, UK countryside, come to Cornbury House Horse Trials this weekend.

The world’s most famous event riders – including all three Britain’s gold medallists from the Tokyo Olympics – will be competing in the stunning surroundings of Cornbury House, near Charlbury, from 8-11 September.

Tickets cost just £8 for an adult on Thursday, 8 September, and £10 for an adult on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Children under the age of 16 can come for free, and there are no extra parking costs.

Cornbury House Horse Trials is the newest, most exciting international horse trials in the UK, founded by David Howden, who lives at Cornbury House, in 2020. His determination to provide the best possible conditions for horses and riders to perform at their very best has meant that Cornbury House Horse Trials has quickly become one of the most popular venues, attracting huge entries from all the top names in the sport of eventing.

For 2022, these include Zara Tindall, Olympic gold medallists Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen, the legendary William Fox-Pitt and Pippa Funnell, supermodel Edie Campbell, and British-based foreign stars such as Andrew Nicholson and Tim and Jonelle Price – all winners of the biggest events on the international circuit.

As well as equestrian sport – dressage, showjumping and cross-country – Cornbury House Horse Trials showcases an outstanding selection of food, with all ingredients grown and produced locally. The Argentinian barbecue features Cornbury House’s very own lamb and long horn beef. We have also teamed up with our neighbours at Bruern Farms to serve rare-breed Middle White and Saddleback sausages, as well as wild venison burgers. There is vegan and gluten-free plant-based food from Nutmeg & Thyme, freshly made pizza and crepes from White Horse Box Pizza, indulgent fresh pastries using Bruern heritage flour, and delicious ice cream made with our local dairy’s milk.

The bar will be stocked with our own Cornbury Ale and Bitter, made from heritage barley grown in the Evenlode valley.

“I am so excited to welcome spectators properly to Cornbury House Horse Trials after two years affected by the Covid pandemic,” said David Howden. “Cornbury is a magical place – the event has the backdrop of both the house, and the ancient Wychwood Forest. There’s lots of space to stroll about and to relax, while taking in the action from these amazing horses and riders. If you like horses – or if you just want a lovely day out with friends, family, or on your own – come and join us!”

Tickets for Cornbury House Horse Trials can be purchased in advance via our website (www.cornburyhousehorsetrials.co.uk, which has a full timetable and information about the event), or you can buy tickets on the gate.

The free-to-view livestream will be shown on the event website and social media channels.

 

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

By 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.”

#Supergroom Alyssa Dobrotin and “His Highness” Mai Baum are Preparing for Pratoni

By on Sep 8, 2022 9:00 am -

Tamie and Mai Baum with Alyssa at Aachen. Photo by Libby Law.

We love celebrating and learning about the #supergrooms who make this sport go around — quite literally! — so we’re on a mission to interview as many grooms as we can to learn about their journeys. Catch up on the other interviews from this series here and nominate a #supergroom of your own by emailing [email protected]! This one is a special one because Alyssa Dobrotin will be joining Tamie Smith and Team USA in Pratoni for the FEI World Championships.

Alyssa Dobrotin, Tamie Smith’s groom for FEI World Championships for Eventing it Italy this month, grew up riding and competing as well as working for Tamie throughout her childhood. “I wasn’t going to ride at the upper levels, so grooming was my opportunity to be a part of the sport,” she says.

She works for Tamie on a part-time basis, helping her with events like Pratoni — which is especially fun for Alyssa, since she’s known Tamie for 16 years.

Alyssa and Tamie have been working hard to prepare Mai Baum for Pratoni. Alyssa said that Tamie has been “really focusing on the flat, doing a few jump schools, and just trying to keep him fit and ready to go.”

In addition to typical fitness preparation like water treadmill workouts and gallops, Alyssa said that Tamie has been working hard on their already formidable dressage. “After Badminton, she really wanted to improve on that score, so that’s been a big focus, just working on the flatwork and how to get those extra points and be as competitive as possible,” she says.

Mai Baum and Tamie are fresh off of a second-place finish at Great Meadows with their final score of 26.9, only adding some time faults on cross country. Great Meadows, along with Badminton earlier this year, have prepared him for Pratoni and Alyssa says that “now he’s ready to go.”

Going from the West Coast here in the U.S., where it’s very dry, to the east coast in Europe requires thoughtful preparation on Alyssa’s part. “It’s really important we manage their coats and their feet,” she says. This care requires various products like Sound hoof conditioner and Keratex hoof hardener for his feet as well as pink spray and witch hazel for his coat. After using the pink spray and witch hazel, Alyssa curries him well to help his coat with the transition from dry to wet climates.

Of course, Mai Baum comes with a load of other items to keep him at his peak comfort. “I always like to have everything that he needs like all of his boots, all of his fly sheets and magnetic blanket, Professional’s Choice theramics– all of those products just to keep him as comfortable as can be for whatever the weather is,” Alyssa says.

The U.S. team left for France on Saturday. After spending a week training there, they’ll head on to Pratoni, which is just south-east of Rome in Italy — which means another long road trip is on the cards.

Alyssa says that the team of grooms and support staff will “be keeping them happy and eating through the travel” and “keeping an eye on how they’re acclimatising and changing over to the hay.”

Mai Baum has a sweet, yet quirky, personality, which makes him a joy to look after — as long as you pay attention to his likes and dislikes. “He doesn’t like to be sprayed, but he loves to be pampered,” says Alyssa. “He likes to be the center of attention. He’s very sweet, he’s very opinionated. He’s just a really good guy; he’s a total gentleman.”

Because Mai Baum likes to “feel like he’s the king,” Alyssa calls him “His Highness.” She says that “he definitely has a royal kind of persona. We actually call him the Queen of England often because he is royalty but he’s also very kind.”

Alyssa has a special appreciation for Mai Baum. “He’s my best friend. He knows what’s going on. He knows when we’re traveling for something big. He can be a little cheeky, but when it’s time to perform, he’s all business and he’s such a competitor himself,” she says.

Tamie and Mai Baum were named Team USA’s first alternate for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was an honor, but Alyssa is excited for the pair to be competing on the team this time around.

“I’m honestly excited for him to have this opportunity to take his shot at it. Being the reserve for Tokyo was a great experience, but him being able to go and compete and really show what he’s got – I’m just excited for that,” she says.

There is a lot to look forward to with an experience like this and Alyssa is excited to work with the rest of Team USA’s grooms over the next couple of weeks.

“I think we have a really good team; I think it’s a really good group of grooms. Everybody’s experienced, everybody gets along great, so I’m looking forward to that,” she says.

Alyssa, along with the rest of the team’s grooms have been working extra hard to prepare for an event like this, and EN wishes them luck and safe travels!

Go Alyssa. Go Eventing.