Classic Eventing Nation

Since the inaugural Eventing Spring Carnival, which launched in 2022 in the north of England and took up Belton’s mantel as the international season opener, it’s been an event that’s had its work cut out for it in a major way. There’s been plenty of positives; from the word go, for example, its CCI4*-S courses, designed by event director Stuart Buntine, were heralded as being a more suitable, technical, and up-to-height challenge ahead of the spring’s five-stars. 

But as William Shakespeare once wrote (maybe), the course of true eventing never did run smooth. Over the last couple of years, Thoresby’s primary obstacle hasn’t been its particularly fiendish bank complex, its perennially tricky water complex, or even the unenviable task of getting an old-guard regional audience to migrate from a former venue to a new one. Instead, it’s been something largely out of the organising team’s control: the weather. 

And oh, boy, has it weathered in the UK over the last few years. In March of 2023, the first day of dressage was so unceasingly sodden that by the second, much of the riders yet to compete had withdrawn, leaving us with half-hour stints between each test and a warm-up arena that looked like a scene from The Neverending Story. In the owners’ and members’ tent, one emergency meeting was conducted after another in an attempt to address concerns from riders, their owners, and stakeholders: would the event continue to run? How could it? How could it not? To run, many suggested, would be reckless and irresponsible; to cancel, many others said, would be equally bad as it would force riders to take underprepared horses to even bigger events. Emotions raged on in that unique way that they tend to in the bubble of an event with no phone signal; everybody thought they were the right-est, and the arguments got more and more binary, with some even suggesting that the organisers’ bid to replace an early-season parkland event with an early-season parkland event boiled down to nothing more than arrogance.

The event ultimately ran, though with only about half its original entry list, and when the weekend came, it brought the sun with it – sun that gave the ground a bit of its life back and allowed those who chose to run to benefit from that decision. 

In 2024, the memory of the previous year’s anguish collided with a long-range weather forecast that no doubt had Stuart dreaming of an early retirement and a return to his native Australia. Once again, endless weeks of rain in the lead-up; the enormity of the extra work that goes into preparing and maintaining ground so that it doesn’t succumb to the waterlogging; the indirect remarks and concerns and complaints; the worries, too, of course, that the decision to forge on could be the wrong one. And then, once again, a weekend of reprieve; a success. 

This year – finally, mercifully – has been different so far. Two-and-a-bit years of relentless rain has met its end and in its place, a March with scarcely a drop of the wet stuff has given British Eventing the sort of season opener that we all sort of forgot we’d ever enjoyed.

So while Thoresby’s weekend has been, as always, sunny and springlike, it’s still felt like a very different event. Even after hundreds of horses have travelled across the cross country courses, the ground is still grassy and fresh; in the walled garden where the international dressage classes took place, the site of the warm-up looks like an actual warm-up, not a swamp full of sadness, repressed childhood trauma, and little white Arabian horses. 

All in all, a recipe for a more relaxed Stuart, right? Well, yes and no: he’s certainly had the air of an un-beseiged man this weekend, and one who’s been able to just get on with his plans without any hindrance. But then again, even on the best of days, being a course designer’s hardly a relaxing occupation; this year, too, Stuart and his team have courted potential controversy by creating a course that’s nearly entirely frangible. Would riders embrace this new era in the sport, or combine their voices to make it very clear that a step like this – with all its potential for 11 penalty activations – was a step too far? Beyond the emotive response, too, would a course full of frangible fences encourage more hesitant riding, and therefore, in a roundabout way, make cross-country even less safe?

Tom McEwen and JL Dublin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“To be honest, I didn’t really ride differently, no,” says Tom McEwen, who won the feature CCI4*-S section, the Lycetts Grantham Cup, with his Kentucky runner-up JL Dublin. “Okay, of course you’ve got to think that everything’s pinned and clipped and XYZ, but, you know, a table’s a table – we don’t aim to hit any of these fences [when they aren’t clipped] anyway. So for me, realistically, it changes nothing [about my riding]; I still come down to the tables on a nice rhythm and treat the uprights no different to normal. You want to come in in balance, and you never aim to have an incident, but these safety devices are there for you if you do. It’s brilliant.”

Tom’s sentiment is the one we heard echoed time and time again from competitors across the two four-star sections – even those, like Gemma Stevens, who missed out on a higher placing because of an activation. 

“It’s frustrating, because of course it is – but I do think the safer fences are brilliant,” she says. “Bring it on!”

Tom’s win in the Grantham Cup came after a fierce battle between the entry list’s biggest spectator sweeteners: in the first phase, the top three places were occupied by the three combinations that represented Great Britain at last summer’s Olympics, and by the slimmest of margins, too. Ros Canter and her reigning European champion (and Badminton and Burghley winner) Lordships Graffalo led the way on a 24.3; Laura Collett and her own three-time five-star winner London 52 sat second on 24.4., and Tom and the former Nicola Wilson ride ‘Dubs’ were third on a 24.5. 

It stayed tight beyond the Olympic team, too: Gemma Stevens and the experienced Jalapeno III went into yesterday’s jumping phases in fourth on a 24.6, while 2023 and 2024 Grantham Cup winners Emily King and Valmy Biats closed out the top five on a score of 26. All five would showjump clear on Saturday morning, and even a singular time penalty for Emily didn’t reshape those business-end positions on the leaderboard. 

By the end of cross-country, even with a tight time, three class-wide MIM activations, and four further jumping penalties awarded across the 49 starters, the same five names would remain in the class’s top five – but this time, at least, they’d all had a bit of a shuffle. A very slightly steadier round for Ros and Lordships Graffalo saw them add 5.2 time penalties to slip from first to a final fourth place; 5.6 time penalties secured reigning champions Emily and Valmy fifth place; 0.8 time penalties for crossing the line two seconds over the optimum time earned Laura and London 52 third place; while Tom and Dubs, two seconds inside the time, stole the win ahead of Gemma and ‘Jala’, who also added nothing to their dressage score to finish a tenth of a penalty behind them.

“He feels bloody good,” laughs Tom of 14-year-old son of Diarado, JL Dublin. “He’s been very fresh all day, which has been lovely. And it’s the same with the dressage – he came out and he was so well behaved early in the morning riding, and then we went into the test and he squealed as we came down the long side. So I had to bail out of my first centre line, which is always, at this time of year, exactly what you want. This [early run] isn’t about having everything completely and exactly where you want it – you want to see them excited and happy to be out.”

Tom McEwen and owner Deirdre Johnston. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The faster-than-usual ground meant that Tom then opted for a pipe-opening run rather than a conservative one.

“He was like a man possessed before showjumping, and the same for cross-country! I didn’t really know if I was going to have a quick run or slow run, but I knew I wanted to use this for prep. But there was only one way Dubs was going today, which was quick. So I thought, ‘let him rock and roll!’ He really utilised his huge long stride everywhere and everything was so free flowing, and the course really sort of played into that.”

The course, he continues, “was really well-dressed, and that really helped the profile for the horses, which for me is more important than anything else. The horses could really pick everything up well.”

Despite this being one of the season’s biggest four-star entries every year, with the better part of 100 or more entries across both four-star sections in each iteration, 2025 actually marks Tom’s debut in the Thoresby CCI4*-S. 

“I’ve entered it a few times, and then it’s rained and I’ve gone home,” he smiles. “But it’s really, really nice. I was very much on the bandwagon to go back to [Dutch season-opener] Kronenberg this year before it cancelled, so this was actually a second option. Fortunately, we’ve been super lucky with the weather.”

Coming here instead has another bonus: all three surfaces are on grass, whereas dressage and showjumping at Kronenberg are held on a surface. Getting some practice in on old parkland turf is a key part of the spring prep for ‘Dubs’, who has an entry apiece at Kentucky and Badminton, but is being aimed for the latter event after twice finishing second at Kentucky. 

“It’s great to come to a big show like this because for the last couple of seasons I’ve predominantly done everything on a surface, going to Kentucky or Championships,” he says. “Obviously Badminton is very much on grass, so it’s great to come and jump on the grass.”

All being well, he says, his other double-entered ride, Brookfield Quality, will head Stateside – so US readers with a penchant for Mr McEwen will still have plenty to cheer about in the Rolex Arena next month. 

Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

It felt like every time we turned around, Gemma Stevens was zooming by on another big, rangy orange horse with white socks, a white face, and a merrily deranged look in its eyes. 

“It’s quite cool to have three full brothers here,” she grins, referring to the young Chilli King and his Bicton five-star-winning big brother, Chilli Knight, who finished second in the other CCI4*-S, for horses with fewer FEI points, and sixth in this section, respectively. In today’s CCI3*-S she rode the third of the brothers, Chilli’s Jester, though withdrew him before cross-country. Each of the boys, she says, doesn’t just look alike – they all have the same fundamental functions, too.

“I couldn’t even pull Alfie [Chilli Knight] up,” she laughs. “I was like, ‘are we actually going to slow down at all; are we going to go round the warm-up three times before you stop?!’ Chilli King is just the same as Alfie – he’s such a machine and will gallop all day and all night just like him. They’re all really different, but they’ve all got that gallop – they’ve just got so much blood and so much want to gallop, and the work ethic is just unbelievable.”

17-year-old former Karin Donckers ride Jalapeno, on the other hand, is quite a different ride: “she’s the complete opposite to Alfie – we were in walk very quickly after we crossed the finish, and I end up puffing more than she does! She was mega, but she’d quite like to go round at a Novice speed, so I just have to kick her on a bit. She was like, ‘Christ, Mama, we’re going fast today!’ and I was like, ‘come on, you can gallop, you actually can move!’ She’s not so keen on going really fast just because she is quite laid-back – she’s not going to put herself through it if she doesn’t have to and I’m like, ‘today you need to move, because it’s time!’”

This will be a final run ahead of intended Badminton starts for both Jalapeno and Chilli Knight – “they don’t need to do any more,” says Gemma of her two experienced campaigners, both of whom will be vying for top ten finishes or better at the Gloucestershire fixture.

It was a busy week in the office for Gemma, who very nearly won the second CCI4*-S section with Flash Cooley, but had to settle for fifth place after a MIM activation: “He was super, he just for some reason, I have no idea why, misread the first corner coming out of the water and had the pin. He stormed round the rest of the course, and I’m really pleased with him.” 

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Laura Collett, who cruised to a third place finish in the Grantham Cup class with horse-of-a-lifetime London 52 also took the win the other CCI4*-S with another kind of horse-of-a-lifetime in Dacapo, by which we mostly mean that he’s just so weird that we can’t imagine she’ll ever find another quite like him. We also don’t suppose she’s that upset about that fact.

“He loved it out there – I nearly couldn’t hold him, actually,” she says with a smile. “We all know he does what he feels like; luckily, he was very happy and having a jolly time today, so I had a jolly time, too. He’s quite the character, and he’s never going to change – if anything, he gets worse as he gets older! But what’s good is that you know from the first fence whether you’re going to have a good day or a bad one.”

Much more straightforward – these days, anyway – is the veteran campaigner London 52, who, Laura explains, came to Thoresby as a box-ticking fitness run ahead of a later planned five-star start at Luhmühlen in June.

“He was absolutely feral in the showjumping, so I was a bit concerned he might be feral for cross-country, too, but he was actually very good,” says Laura. “I just wanted to give him a nice run, and the ground was literally perfect with one area that was a tiny bit tacky, so I could just let him travel. Because he’s going to Luhmühlen, he’s not at peak fitness yet, so this is a good run to help get him there – he’s not one you can run slowly; he needs to be woken up.”

Like Gemma, Laura had a MIM activation on one of her rides, the Badminton-bound Bling, who finished nineteenth in the second CCI4*-S section. But she, too, agreed with her fellow competitors that the odd pin penalty is a price she’s willing to pay to minimise the risk of a serious accident for herself or another rider. 

“I had a pin on Bling, and I didn’t feel like she really did anything wrong or made a mistake. But that’s just the way it’s going to go. One day it will be that it does save a fall, and we’ll be grateful for them. So if it saves a life, it’s worth it, and I think they’ve done an amazing job on the courses here,” she says. 

Hayden Hankey took third place in the second CCI4*S with the “tough, arrogant” Fools In Love, followed by Emilie Chandler and Ifnotwhynot in fourth. 

Kirsty and Vere Phillips. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

The Polly Phillips Memorial Prize, awarded as part of the feature class, is one of the coveted mainstays of Thoresby – and its prior iteration at Belton House. It’s given in honour of its namesake, Polly, who lost her life in a tragic accident at Thirlestane Castle Horse Trials in 1999. Following her passing, her husband, Vere, took up eventing her top horse, Coral Cove, and also set up the Memorial Prize in her name to champion the highest-placed rider in the Grantham Cup class who hasn’t yet represented Great Britain in a Senior Championship. 

This year, it was awarded not to fifth-placed Emily King, who won it the last two years and is, by anyone’s reckoning, still eligible, but to seventh-placed Kirsty Chabert.

Kirsty’s strong finish came with the classy, but often tempestuous, Classic VI, with whom she added just 2.4 seconds to her first-phase score of 32. Now, the mare will head to Badminton – potentially via Ballindenisk, as she particularly enjoys running there – as will the diminutive Opposition Heraldik Girl, with whom Kirsty had an uncharacteristic mistake, knocking the MIM on the wide corner coming out of the water complex. 

“I think that mistake is the best thing I could’ve had to wake me up, actually, because sometimes you need the reminder that even if they’re a machine, you’ve still got to occasionally give a kick and keep thinking forward. [Opposition Heraldik Girl] is the ultimate event horse in every possible way, but I just went out a little bit backward, and found a couple of gears after that,” she says. 

With Classic VI, or Betty, she explains, “It was pretty fun. It’s actually a really quick course – I thought I was flat to the board and I was still just outside the time, and she’s quick round corners. It was a really great course, and after my mistake earlier, I came out of the startbox meaning business.”

Kirsty Chabert and Classic VI. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

“It’s the biggest compliment you can get, when the riders are happy to set out and set sail,” says Stuart. “You sort of do wonder why on earth you do this bloody job, sometimes. But then I sat there this morning, and I was watching the first horses showjump, and the sun was out, and there was a backdrop of the house, and I just had sort of three or four of the best horses in the world jumping. And you think to yourself, ‘this is why I do it’. So it may take two or three years of bloody crap, and then you get a few moments like that, and it makes it all worthwhile.”

He was pleasantly surprised, too, to find that the response to his nearly entirely frangible course was overwhelmingly positive. 

“I was a bit concerned that riders would say ‘oh, we don’t want that’, because when I was in Lausanne, months ago, for the eventing forum they were saying ‘we don’t want 100% frangible courses’. And I’m sitting thinking, ‘Oh, dear, that’s exactly what I’m doing!’” he says. “So we’ve sort of kept it a bit quieter, although I wrote to all the riders last week and said, ‘when you walk, just be aware that what you think is not frangible is frangible’. And we discussed it at the riders’ meeting last night, and actually, they all clapped. I thought, ‘Well, that’s good, because I think they’re actually on side’.”

It might be a slightly different look to the sport than, say, the old long-format that we phased out two decades ago, or the rough and tumble ‘golden era’ of the sport. But this weekend’s competition showed that the new era doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel of what we all know and love. 

Next up? 

“Well, we’ll just never stop trying to move the dial and push the boundaries a bit further and make it safer,” says Stuart sagely. 

The Eventing Spring Carnival at Thoresby: Website | Live Scores | Live Stream | EN’s Coverage