Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
[To catch up on this morning’s action, click here!]
It’s tight at the top of the leaderboard as we close out dressage at Defender Burghley, where three-time victor Oliver Townend once again finds himself in command of the business end. This time, it’s not on the great grey Ballaghmor Class, with whom he won in 2017 and 2023, but instead with another fleabitten stable star, the 2024 Kentucky champion Cooley Rosalent. (Notably, his first win, back in 2009, also came aboard a grey in Carousel Quest, if you’re into patterns and omens and all that sort of thing.)
Despite some early spookiness, eleven-year-old ‘Rosie’, who was second at Badminton this spring, pulled out a polished test to earn a 22, her second best score at the level in six previous starts.
“I’ve been slightly caught out by the atmosphere,” says Oliver. “She wasn’t as quiet as I’d have liked her to have been in there, but she’s ended up in the right place so far. I was happy with her – she’s still relatively babyish in some ways. She’s obviously out of a proper racehorse, and at times she’s more like a racehorse than an event horse, so she’s very easy to become excitable, and she’s very easy to not produce what you want. But on the whole, she did very well.”
Reflecting back on his warm-up, Oliver muses that “we could have probably had her a little bit quieter; perhaps a bit more work. But at the same time, once we were up and running – she didn’t really see the point of a halt or rein-back – but once we were up and running and in the more open work, I thought that’s where she started to breathe. And I think she progressed as the test went on. I felt like she would let me in a lot more as we got further on through the test.”
At that point, he says, “I felt like I was brave enough that once she’d had her first spook, I sort of put my hands down and forward and said, ‘go.’ And she responded very well. Once she started breathing, I really felt like I could nail the changes. They felt very good and open. She always progresses from sideways work, so she always breathes more and comes up into the frame more through the half-passes and shoulder-in.”
This will be Rosie’s second Burghley start after an uncharacteristic tumble on course here last year, after which the pair regrouped for a steady run at Pau before returning this spring with that excellent Badminton runner-up result. This week, Oliver returns with one goal in mind.
“I’m always [here to win] now,” says Oliver. “We don’t bring horses not to be competitive at this level. But so far, so good. We know we’ve got one of the best horses in the world coming, and Ros takes some beating on that one. But at the same time, we’re in it to win it, and we’re in a good starting position.”
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Reigning Burghley champions Ros Canter and ‘that one’, Lordships Graffalo, slot into a close second place on 22.4, just 0.4 – or one second tomorrow – behind the leaders.
“I’m thrilled with Walter. He’s just an absolute professional. He’s actually been quite bright this week, right up until he got up here, and then he was like, ‘Ros, of course I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to be bright at all.’”
‘Bright’, for Walter, means he’s been “a pain in the backside in the stables,” laughs Ros, who explains that he’s rather fallen in love with Cassie Sanger’s Redfield Fyre and hates to see him go (but loves to watch him leave???). He’s been, she continues, “high maintenance – a bit like a pop star.”
Because of that, Ros expected to have to do a bit more work with him before her test in order to turn that sparkle in the right direction – but as it turned out, she didn’t.
“So maybe I just overcooked it by five minutes in the warm-up with him,” she muses. As a result, “He was just ready to halt on that first halt a little bit too soon. But I’m thrilled with him. I mean, he gets the biggest [cheers], even on the way in, and he absolutely loves it. Most of the time, if the crowd did that, I’d get quite nervous of a horse just about to do dressage, but with Walter, it just lights him up and he thoroughly enjoys it.”
The 22-23 range has been a sweet spot – and a very consistent one – for the pair at five-star level over the last couple of seasons but for a sojourn into the mid-20s at Badminton this spring, where they lost marks in two of their flying changes. Today, they hit all four right on the money.
“I was particularly thrilled with his changes today – we missed two of those at Badminton, and it’ll always be something that we kind of get, but they wouldn’t necessarily be 100% believable,” says Ros. “I’ve worked hard on those since May, and today they just felt really [good]. So that’s what I was most pleased with.”
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
“There’s a fair amount of pressure when it comes to riding Lordships Graffalo,” she continues. “He doesn’t often do a bad test or make mistakes, so it’s all about trying to eke out as many marks as we can.”
Ros’s appearance at Burghley this year comes a few weeks after her announcement that she’d be withdrawing from the selection process for this month’s FEI European Eventing Championships, owing to pregnancy. The decision, she says, was a simple one to make – even if it meant losing the chance to defend the title she won at the last Championships two years ago.
“Very simply, the Europeans is a team competition, and the pregnancy progresses day by day. I wouldn’t know whether I’d want to compete in two weeks’ time or not. It wouldn’t have sat well with me if I’d had to pull out last minute, or if I hadn’t been able to ride at my best for a team championship. Burghley is a completely individual event, and it’s entirely down to me if I choose to go or not, and up to my family and my owners. We’ve all been working together to make this decision.”
In any case, getting to defend her title here is just as much of an honour, she continues.
“It’s very special to get another opportunity to even be here, to be quite honest. Burghley is probably my favourite event; I just love the magic of it, I think it’s very special, and not just because it’s local [for me] – I just think it’s beautiful in all respects. So to be able to come here is a real privilege.”
Samantha Lissington and Lord Seekönig. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
This morning’s leaders, Tim Price and Vitali, will sit in third place going into cross-country on their score of 23.1, while fellow countryman Samantha Lissington steps smartly into fourth after putting a five-star personal best of 24 on the board with the twelve-year-old Lord Seekönig.
The German Sporthorse has always had bucketloads of natural talent on the flat and a commanding presence in the ring, sometimes with the scores to match – the pair went sub-30 at Badminton this spring and earned a 26.7 in their test at Pau last year. But he’s also, at some points along the way, been much more of a work in progress – and one that Sam has felt it well worth taking her time with to get it right.
Today, in her ongoing quest to perfect the details, she opted to make a bold move: rather than riding him in a double bridle, as she has done previously, she swapped him into a snaffle.
“I thought I’d try and see if we could actually change and go in a snaffle bridle, but I was very much umming and ahhing right up until the last 10 minutes,” says Sam. “I said to my groom, ‘I think I might change back to the double.’ And she gave me a little bit of a panicked look. Then I was like, ‘okay, I’ll try a little bit longer, see what I’ve got.’ And then I thought, you know what — if I don’t do it now, I’m not going to get a chance to do it again. So let’s just see what we’ve got in the arena.”
The reasoning behind her choice?
“Some judges seem to penalise people more in a double, I think, and if he gets a bit low in it then that can sometimes be punished, which I think is what happened in Aachen,” she says. “Basically, I’d been switching between the snaffle and the double all week. I’d program a bit in the double, put in place my half-halt, make sure my training was all there, and then go to the snaffle — make sure I had a test-ride feeling in the snaffle to know how much support I had in the bridle, what the softness was like, all of that kind of stuff. This morning I rode him in the snaffle, then I rode him in the double, and then I came up in the snaffle with the double on standby. I only really decided to leave it when there wasn’t enough time to change anymore.”
And so: a fact-finding mission with aims far beyond this week.
“I just thought, ‘basically, it’s not the be-all and end-all here’,” she muses. “The goal is WEG next year, and LA beyond that. So actually, if I wasn’t going to do it now at a really big event, when was I going to do it? I thought I could actually sacrifice a bad test for knowing one way or another. And now I do know, and that’s great.”
Once she’d worked out that the bitting choice was a good one, she began to have fun in the test.
“I did actually enjoy that one — but probably only once I got into the canter work and realized he was still staying with me,” she laughs. “Before then, I was still very much managing my way through it. It all felt lovely, but I was anticipating maybe having a bit more of a handful on my hands in the canter work. But he actually was lovely.”
Samantha Lissington and Lord Seekönig. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
It’s a great start to a week that she hopes will make some positive strides forward from the pair’s Badminton this spring, where they had a surprise late run-out on course.
“Badminton was a bit of a disaster, cross country,” Sam says. “My saddle had slipped a little bit, and I don’t think I had the bitting quite right. So I’ve tweaked a few things in terms of tack adjustments, and he’s had a couple of really good runs. We’re hoping that success holds up now through a longer course. But the proof will be in the pudding tomorrow evening, when I’m having a beer – whether it’s celebratory or commiseratory.”
She won’t be having that beer alone – of course, there’ll be her husband, Brayden, best known either for being the host of the podcast Eventing Weekly or for being listed as ‘wife of Sam Lissington’ on this week’s chat stage programme, but also propping up the support side for Team Lissington are Sam’s parents, who’ve hopped on a plane from New Zealand to cheer their daughter on this week.
“They surprised me! They weren’t going to come over, but then I was on the phone with them a few weeks ago, and they said, ‘you know what? We’re nostalgic from being here in 2019 – we’re going to jump on a plane.’ So they’re here, which is really exciting.”
Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Day one leaders Piggy March and the former Pippa Funnell ride MCS Maverick will head into tomorrow’s cross-country in fifth place on 25.7, while Emily King and Valmy Biats overcame a bit of a raucous atmosphere to post a 26.1 for overnight sixth.
“I’m so pleased with him,” says Emily. “There was, I think, a lot of extra atmosphere in there following Mr. Townend, and he coped really well. He’s super sensitive, but he really tried in there. I just let him breathe and relax. He’s a really good boy, and I’m so pleased he kept his cool in there.”
While Emily and Val have had two placings at Badminton together, Burghley is an event that Emily feels is still unconquered – and this year, she’s hoping to rewrite their story here.
“It’s great to have got off to a good start, sort of in the mix today. But I think it’s all about tomorrow,” she says.
Christoph Wahler and D’Accord FRH. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Our sole German competitor, Christoph Wahler, is another rider to opt for a trip to Burghley over a Europeans campaign – and in D’Accord FRH, he feels he’s got a horse up to making good of their debut here. He and the lanky bay, with whom he finished ninth at Kentucky last year and seventh at Burghley this year, posted their first five-star sub-30, a smart 27.2 that sees them take seventh place overnight.
“It was very good, and I’m very happy,” says Christoph. “I think this is his best test that we’ve done so far, and he’s really developing well. He’s felt great all week here at Burghley. He’s warmed up really, really well, and all the time warming up I thought, ‘can I please just manage to get this in the arena today?’ And then he listened to me all the way around, he was very concentrated, and I’m very happy.”
Translating the work from the warm-up to the main stage has been a niggling little hurdle that Christoph feels has been an important work in progress for the pair.
“I’ve had days where – don’t get me wrong – he doesn’t always feel that good,” he says. “He’s been progressing throughout the year, and he’s usually better towards the end of the season. For example, at Badminton he felt terrible ten minutes before I was going in – he was getting a little bit excited. Here, he felt so within himself, waiting for me, and comfortable in his body. And I was just hoping I could get that into the arena. Because he can score 28 at four-star, so why wouldn’t he be able to score 27 in the afternoon on Friday here? You’re always hoping for that, and I think that’s about him; that’s where we can be.”
The pair made the time at Badminton this year, and although Christoph remains pragmatic about the challenge that’s to come, he’s also quietly hopeful.
“I mean, if I could have that score tomorrow evening, that would be great. But you never know with doing the time. He’s never been here before, he’s never done such a track. So I have absolutely no expectations. I just want to do my best to help him jump clear, and then we’ll see what we get. Cross-country looks incredible. I’ve been hoping to get a Burghley horse one day since I started eventing, so now we’re here, and we’ll just try to do our best tomorrow.”
Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue, too, might seem like they’d have been pinned down and tied up for the European Championships team, but here they are – and so far, that decision is paying off marvelously. We saw a taste of what the cross-country speed machine ‘Salty’ is capable of on the flat last summer, when the pair posted a 26.4 at Bramham, and today they, too, went sub-30 at this level for the first time. Their 27.8 will see them start cross-country in eighth place, capable of a significant climb but this time, with the view from the top achingly close to hand already.
“I’m over the moon, and it’s lovely to break the 30 mark with him,” says Austin. “It hasn’t been for lack of trying – but you know what, you can always have one or two things slightly go wrong. I think Friday afternoon helped with the big atmosphere there, actually – he loves the public.”
Austin and Salty are renowned for being one of the swiftest, most capable pairs in the sport across the country, but Burghley has, so far, been a bit of an albatross for them: they retired on course after a shock early runout in 2023, and ran well but had two rails down on Sunday last year for fourteenth place. Austin’s not planning to live in the past this weekend, though: instead, he knows that all he can do is ride every minute and prioritise his partnership with his horse, and what will be will be.
“Even if I go to a local gymkhana, my aim is to be competitive,” he says. “But I wouldn’t put a number on it. I just want to do my best, do the best for the horse, and whatever happens after that happens. There’s 15 horses here that could win it. But it’s sport, it’s competition, it’s eventing. I’m not one of these statistical people. Every day is different, and everything’s got to go your way.”
Fittingly, the top ten is rounded out by two partnerships that made the step up into dressage dominance this week: Alex Bragg and Ardeo Premier, who produced a 28.4 yesterday, sit ninth going into cross-country, while Tom Crisp and Dassett Rock Star hold tenth on the 28.5 they delivered this morning.
Tomorrow’s cross-country challenge, designed once again by Derek di Grazia, will kick off at 11.30 a.m. BST/6.30 a.m. EST tomorrow, with a round 50 horses and riders currently set to take part. For the eagle-eyed among you, that’s one fewer than expected: Aaron Millar and Friendship VDL were a late withdrawal this afternoon just moments before their dressage test.
Just 21.2 penalties separate the entire field, and 20 — or one runout or refusal, but I don’t need to tell you lot that — spans places 1 through 49, which means that tomorrow’s cross-country will be certain to shake up the leaderboard.
So that’s that for dressage, but don’t click out the EN tab on your browser just yet: we’ll have plenty of Burghley coverage yet to come today, including more stories from dressage and a closer look at tomorrow’s track – plus, chats with riders throughout the field on their thoughts on how it’ll ride and, tomorrow, the return of Cheg’s brilliant live updates.
Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten after dressage in the 2025 Defender Burghley CCI5*.
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