Pippa Funnell and Majas Hope lead the charge of the second morning’s riders at Burghley. Photo by Libby Law.
Though nobody’s been able to catch the leading score of 24.2, set yesterday afternoon by Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs, this morning at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials, we’ve seen some seriously good efforts to get close — and, subsequently, some new names aboard the business end of the leaderboard.
Though it’s never wise to discount Grand Slam winner and all-round legend of the sport Pippa Funnell, who won here in 2003 and 2019, her ride this week, the very experienced 16-year-old Majas Hope, has never really been a horse that you’d put forward to throw down a competitive score in the first phase. The Irish Sport Horse (Porter Rhodes – Brown Sue, by Flagmount King) is never miles out of the hunt, and certainly, he’s been more inclined to dip below the 30 mark in the last couple of seasons, but generally, Maja’s a horse that can be counted upon to catch up over the weekend, not to defend.
Today, though, the boy came good: he and Pippa now sit third, provisionally, on a 29.6 — only the third sub-30 score of the competition.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” beams Pippa, who’s 2.7 penalties behind second-placed Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel. “I mean, he always scratches my head — I sort of feel I have to use every bit of my experience and try and think up new ideas with him to find what works. Tina [Cook] was in my lorry last night, and we were saying maybe we should try going at speed up the A1 before the test!”
Pippa, who cites the gelding’s trot work as ‘some of the best work he’s ever done’, has had to learn to concede the point in the walk sections of Maja’s tests, which, she explains, aren’t a natural use of his limited assets in this gait — and, if overpressurised, can have a knock-on effect on the following movements.
“Poor boy — even if you see him walk out of the stable, he doesn’t walk very well,” she laughs. “They always say, you know, ‘good walk, good gallop’, but he’s not got a good walk. So that’s always the dreaded moment, and then he just can hollow from that. So I never quite got him round enough in the canter work, but I just tried to stay very brave and still go for the movements even though he was a little bit hollow and I think, if I had to lose a mark because he was hollow, I still had to be brave and go for it rather than try and get him round and not be so brave.”
Though Pippa only has one horse to ride this week, she’s still, arguably, one of the busiest competitors on the grounds: she’s been helping Wesko Equestrian Foundation students Harry Mutch and Kristina Hall-Jackson throughout the week, as well as making appearances in her role as a pony novel author, too.
“Yesterday was chaotic, because I was trying to help Harry, then trying to help Kristina, both early — and then over their tests I was watching them, and then I had to sign 150 Pippa’s Pony Tales,” she says. “And then ride my own horse! So I’ve walked the course sort of at speed, and today I’m going to walk it with everyone.”
But, she admits, “if I’m not busy, I start thinking about things too much! I very much like to be busy to keep my brain occupied.”
Will Faudree and Mama’s Magic Way. Photo by Libby Law.
Just 0.2 penalties behind Pippa is another rider who’s been hard at work eking out the performance of a lifetime from his talented horse. US representatives Will Faudree and Mama’s Magic Way delivered just that, posting not only the gelding’s five-star personal best of 29.8, but Will’s own career best at the level.
“I’m thrilled,” says Will, who punched the air in jubilation throughout his ride back out of the arena. “When he’s on, he’s just amazing — but he can get rather excited, and I lost him in a couple of spots in there, which we’ll have the winter to work on so hopefully we can get that better. But I’m thrilled with him.”
Will’s the first rider this week to earn 10s in his test: he got two of them, which came for his excellent halt before the reinback in the middle of the test. He was quick to credit trainers Bettina Hoy and Bobby Costello for helping him to unlock ‘Mason’s’ more zen side — no mean feat for a horse he says is “like a three-year-old on a sugar high running through Disney World while being chased by Goofy,” before conceding, “but I’m a bit like that, too, so we’re great friends.”
BOOM! Will Faudree and Mama’s Magic Way nail the brief with a career best. Photo by Libby Law.
“Bobby Costello, who’s been my longtime coach, was here in the warm up and I have a very strong base of dressage knowledge because of Sandy Phillips who I worked with growing up,” explains Will, who last rode here in 2012 with Andromaque. “Bettina has really helped me have the belief that I can do it. Bobby has just taught me to give him his face and let go, open your thighs and sit back. So that’s what I did!”
Returning to Burghley for the first time in more than a decade is a huge moment for Will, who’s had some serious career highs in the interim period — including with Mason, who has jumped clear around Kentucky twice, Badminton once, and Maryland, too, though with a pin penalty. And so he’s not letting a moment of the week pass him by, attacking it all with the mindset that he’s captured in a skull and crossbones emblem on his tailcoat: “I’m channelling my inner Captain Hook,” he laughs. “We dream our whole lives to come to a week like this, and there’s a lot to do out there. It’s gonna come at us pretty quick. I have a really good partnership with him, and we’ve done a lot together, so I’m confident in our partnership and I hope that we just answer the questions correctly.”
Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Libby Law.
The rest of the top ten is populated with horses and riders we saw in the ring throughout yesterday’s competition, but just outside of it, we’ve got another US competitor beginning her week in fine fettle: Olympian Tiana Coudray, who makes her Burghley debut this week with five-star debutant Cancaras Girl. They sit in twelfth place in the current standings on a score of 32.1 — one of the thirteen-year-old Holsteiner’s best-ever international marks.
“She’s getting there,” says Tiana with a smile. “She’s still young and weak for the level, so I’m very, very pleased. There’s so much more to come, and I made some pretty decent mistakes in there myself, so I’m very happy with the score — and actually, it’s quite exciting to think that there’s a lot of room to improve that still.”
Those mistakes — a bobble in the extended trot and a moment of jog in the walk — did little to detract from an impressive overall picture, which showed just how much strength the diminutive mare has gained over the last couple of seasons, particularly since her top ten placing at Bramham’s tough CCI4*-L last summer, where she scored a 34.7. Part of that strength, Tiana explains, is mental.
“She’s gorgeous and she’s cute and she’s lovely and trainable, but she’s always been quite dainty and quite shy in the ring,” says Tiana. “And she’s just starting to get brave and actually go forward, and have some presence in there. Then she can show off and the marks should really start to come.”
Tiana has had the mare throughout her international career, but never bought her with lofty heights of five-star in mind — instead, she thought she’d make a smart sales horse and move on quite quickly to a young rider.
“She’s got quite a sweet story actually. I saw a little post on Facebook about her, and she was all the way up in Aberdeen. She was quite sort of meek and there was nothing terribly impressive about her, but something attracted me and and I sent it to my head girl and best friend Annabelle,” says Tiana. “I just sent her the video and I thought, ‘I’ll see what she says’. And she wrote back, ‘I think you need to go to Aberdeen’. So, I flew up there and she was this meek little thing that minced about and didn’t really move. I mean, she’s itty bitty — tiny. But I just thought there was something about her, so I picked her up. I thought I would do some Novices and sell her to a kid — and then I never sold her. And then she went Intermediate and then she went three-star and then she went Advanced and then she jumped around some really big four-stars, and so here we are!”
Itty bitty is a fair assessment: “She probably, on a stick, is about 16 hands,” says Tiana, “but she’s the daintiest thing that you’ve ever sat on. I mean, there’s nothing there. She’s feels like she’s about 15 hands to ride! We call her Nana at home because she’d sort of like to be sipping on tea in a rocking chair. She’s just this quiet little thing in the corner that doesn’t make any fuss, and she’s actually she started to get some sort of pride and have a bit about her, which is lovely, because for the first few years she just sort of existed quietly.”
Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl. Photo by Libby Law.
It’s been a seriously exciting couple of days for the US contingent — those who’ve completed their tests already all sit within the top twelve at this lunchbreak. We caught up with chef d’equipe Bobby Costello to find out what’s making them tick this week, and how they regrouped after a flight delay meant that the horses only arrived on Saturday, effectively losing a day of settling in and training.
“I actually don’t think it hurt anybody,” he says. “Sometimes it’s not a bad thing because I think with these guys that are so used to riding so many horses, the chance of over training is probably greater, so, it probably wasn’t the worst thing.”
Confidence is at an all-time high in the American camp, thanks to the ongoing upward trajectory of form that saw Team USA secure a silver medal at last year’s World Championships — and saw a US winner take Kentucky for the first time since 2008 this spring. Part of the key to that? A new system behind the scenes that encourages riders to embrace their own systems rather than conforming to a party line.
“I think that everyone is really enjoying making the most of their own programmes, and not feeling like they have to fit into somebody else’s box,” explains Bobby. “And so I think that’s helped a lot. Especially when you talk about these individual competitions, when we go and have good success, that’s what got them there — their own programme. So, allowing that to continue into the big five stars and into the team competitions, so far, it seems like that is working well. There’s such a positive atmosphere out there, so hopefully we can keep it going.”
For Bobby himself, the most important thing is to ensure he’s on hand for the support the riders need in the moments when they need it, and to gauge when he’ll better serve them by staying out of the mix.
“My job is just to support that and to give feedback where I think it’s appropriate, and be quiet where I think it’s appropriate,” he says. “I stay out of the way a lot and just allow everyone to do their thing and be of help when I can.”
The final two sessions of dressage here at Burghley will begin again at 13.45 local/8.45 a.m. EST, with British-based Frenchman Arthur Duffort first in the ring with Toronto d’Aurois. He’ll be followed in by a serious contender for the lead in Tim Price and Vitali (13.53 local/8.53 a.m. EST), while our last two US representatives, Grace Taylor and Game Changer and Boyd Martin and his Tokyo mount Tsetserleg TSF, will take to the ring at 14:25 local/9:25 a.m. EST and 14:33 local/9:33 a.m. EST, respectively. You can follow along via our live updates, or watch along on Burghley TV — and keep it locked onto EN for a full report and plenty more content from this special event throughout the afternoon. Go Eventing!
The top ten at the halfway point of day two at Burghley.
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