Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
There are two easy ways to put the pressure on a seriously fit event horse in the dressage ring at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials – you can present them with a boisterous, determined wind, as we saw throughout yesterday’s competition, or, as in today’s, you can swap that wind for some beaming sunshine and, instead, fill the stands to the rafters with enthusiastic eventing fans. Even just driving in to the estate this morning felt like cross-country day; standstill traffic wended its way back through pretty little Stamford town, and once parked up and in, all those tens of thousands of spectators – if not more – have filled the place, taking up their spots in the stands or sprawling like festivalgoers across the grass to follow the competition on the big screens dotted here, there, and everywhere.
It feels, in short, like a day in which everyone is aware of just how lucky they are to be here, and accordingly, they’re going to enjoy every last moment of it. That’s a delightful sort of atmosphere to exist in, unless, of course, you’re half a tonne of race-fit party animal, being asked very nicely to dance a bit more like prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, than, say, Australian break-dancer Raygun.
Those who managed it, though, were well rewarded by the ground jury, helmed by President Christina Klingspor (SWE), along with Robert Stevenson (USA) and Nick Burton (GBR). And the very best of the morning’s efforts so far? Our very first duo in the ring, Emily King and her two-time Grantham Cup winner, Valmy Biats. They didn’t just nail the brief and navigate the new CCI5* C test sweetly – they also earned themselves a five-star personal best, which is also Emily’s career PB at this level, of 24.1, putting them straight into second place though not threatening Ros Canter’s lead on a 19.8.
“He was awesome — really listening and with me,” says Emily of the fifteen-year-old Selle Français gelding (Orlando – Hadj A). “He felt the same from the warm-up to when I went in, and it’s always so much easier when they’re like that!”
When Valmy’s not like that, Emily continues, “he doesn’t really particularly light up, he just goes quite strong and on a mission, so I just have to, like, reset his balance, because he comes down, he halts, and then it feels like he wants to go out the startbox. Today, though, he didn’t go too hot, and I’m really pleased with how he navigated it.”
Emily King and Valmy Biats. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Valmy’s one tiny ‘on a mission’ moment came at the second halt, which saw the pair overshoot the marker at C slightly, and then drop off the contact marginally in the reinback, breaking up their string of 7.5s and 8s with 6.5s. But Emily made some tactful rebalancing steps in the walk, and ultimately, delivered arguably some of the best walk pirouettes we’ve seen so far in the next movements.
“He’s a really good boy with his pirouettes,” she says. “I tried not to shorten his walk for the medium walk, but just shorten his frame, and I could feel him going quite delicate. And I was like, ‘I’ll just keep the frame a bit longer and keep him walking’. It was probably not technically how everything should be, but I wanted to just keep him moving. What’s nice is that I think most of us know that at this level, the ones that are producing good tests are established with the movements. And so even though it’s a new test, it’s nearly, for the hot ones, [better] – it keeps him guessing, a little bit, where [every movement] would be. I think [these horse] know the other five-star tests so well that actually, having the movements in that different order can help you get them just waiting and listening.”
From then on out, the test continued in a similar vein: their extended canter nabbed them a 9, as did the canter half-pass, and they picked up 8s for the changes, too, giving the big crowd – and Emily herself – plenty to celebrate after the final halt and salute.
Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
It looked, for a while, as though Oliver Townend might manage to squeak ahead of Emily, though, when he came into the ring with the ten-year-old Cooley Rosalent (Valent – Roselier), with whom he won Kentucky this spring. But though they started strong, earning plenty of 8s for the most developed trot-work we’ve yet seen from the mare, and a 10 for their second halt, some minor greenness played into the canter work, giving them 4s across the board for the first, double-marked flying change. Three tidy ones followed, and their final centreline was decisive – and ultimately, it was enough to put a 24.4 on the board for provisional third place at the halfway point of day two.
“She’s only a 10 year old, and she’s had an exciting life so far. The last two times she was in a big arena was Kentucky and perhaps Blenheim and Maryland,and so going into an atmosphere like that, she’s getting to know the crowd and the job, and you never know which way they’re going to react,” says Oliver.
Though ‘Rosie’ is still just ten, and thus one of the youngest in this field, she’s also already a five-star winner, as well as a third-place finisher at Maryland in 2023, and so reigning titleholder Oliver comes to Burghley with a mix of both expectation and future-proofing in mind.
“I’m always here to try and do my job, and hope that she does hers, but I’m here to continue her education and look after her, and hopefully end up with a big result at the end of it,” he says.
Bringing such an exciting young talent back to his favourite event is a particular milestone for Oliver.
“It’s probably as big as eventing gets. If I wanted to [show the sport] to somebody that was non-horsey, I’d want them to come here and say to them, ‘this is what eventing is’. This is the biggest horse trials in the world and the hardest to win, and that’s why it’s so important to all the riders.”
Gireg le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Fourth place is now the domain of Gireg le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge (Quppydam des Horts – Dollar du Murier), who put a five-star personal best of 25.3 on the board after a test full of highlights, particularly in the canter work, which was uphill, fluid, and showed all their combined experience and confidence.
“It’s my best test, so I’m very happy — he’s been very good recently,” says Gireg, who was travelling reserve for the French team at the Paris Olympics this summer. “I didn’t run up the Olympics, so I want to go well here — I have ambitions for the week, and I think it’s a great start. He felt really confident and very good.”
That Paris preparation has meant that the summer season has had a few stutter-steps as far as fitness work goes, but there’s no denying that the fourteen-year-old Aisprit de la Loge is looking at his peak as he begins his fourth five-star.
“I got him ready for the Olympics, and so then I wanted to give him a little break and start to make him fit again for Burghley, which I hope I did well – but Paris was a great experience, and I hope next time I’ll be in the team.”
Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
The new-look top five is completed by Badminton champions Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier (Cavalier Royale – Touchdown), who were also travelling reserves at Paris, but have since had a super start to their autumn campaign, taking the win in Blair Castle’s mountainous CCI4*-S a couple of weeks ago. Today, they began their Burghley with their five-star personal best, a smart 25.4 that puts them nearly three penalties ahead of sixth-placed Pippa Funnell and MCS Maverick.
“She’s pretty cool at the moment, isn’t she? She’s an out-and-out professional — she just goes in and she does the job,” says Caroline with a smile. “And, you know, we’ve been really lucky. We’ve had [help from] Tracie Robinson, and from Gareth [Hughes] with the New Zealand team, so there’s been a lot of work that’s gone into it, and she remembers, she loves it, she adores it. She knows, now, what the crowds are here for, and she’s pretty sure they’re all there for her!”
Hannah Sue Hollberg and Capitol H I M. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
The rest of the top ten is made up of yesterday’s riders – Pippa and MCS Maverick in sixth, Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift in seventh, Felix Vogg and Cartania in eighth, Max Warburton and Deerpaircs Revelry in ninth, and Tim Price and Viscount Viktor in tenth. The US contingent, though, came very close to slotting one of their own in this morning: Hannah Sue Hollberg and seventeen-year-old Capitol H I M (Con Air 7 – Heraldik) sit provisionally eleventh on their own personal best of 30.7, having just missed out on a spot in the top ten when they went off-course after the first flying change.
“He was going so well, and he did that first change so well, and I was like, ‘this is going so grea! …I have no idea where to go!’” laughs Hannah Sue. “That hasn’t happened to me in, like, twenty years. I’ve never completely forgotten where I was supposed to go, and just never gotten it back like that. I was like, ‘I’m going to have to go to the judge and ask where to go!’ Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly, now that I’ve made a big mistake!”
At seventeen, big, rangy Chito is truly coming into his own on the flat – a positive shift that Hannah Sue says largely comes down to not schooling dressage too much.
“I really just kind of take it a test at a time, and really just try to get better and better and get him stronger. Like, he wants to be a bit low naturally, so I’m just trying to get the strength behind and not ask too much ever. I don’t do a ton of dressage work with him – like, I do flat work and strength work and work on my riding, and then I go to shows and practice in the ring, and it gets better and better.”
“I like my horses to enjoy their jobs, and want to do it for me. And I’m just not ever going to be the type that’s going to put their head on their chest and kick them around. I just want him to be happy and love doing it, so I try not to make it miserable. It’s miserable for me to do [dressage] too much, too! If I feel that way, I’m not the one carrying me around, so I can’t imagine it being that easy. But I do think he loves [his job]. He really understands what he’s supposed to do, and that’s the best part of my job, I think, when they’re like, ‘oh, this is important, I’ll try really hard.’
Cosby Green and Copper Beach. Photo by Hannah Cole Photography.
Cosby Green, who’s in her second season based with Tim and Jonelle Price, begins her Burghley debut with a 31.6 aboard eighteen-year-old stalwart Copper Beach (Radolin – unknown), who she took on from former pilot Buck Davidson in 2020. That’s enough to put them provisionally in sixteenth place as they head into the meat of their third five-star together.
“I thought it was his best test today, and to be 18 and to give that result was amazing,” beams Cosby, who credits Tim and Jonelle’s expertise in keeping older horses fit and happy with helping her get the best from ‘Sean’. “After Badminton, he just came through amazing. He was ready for more. And, I mean, he just keeps getting better. The program I’m in is proven to be successful with older horses, so I’m sticking with it, believing it, and he’s just on amazing form. So I’m really happy!”
We’re heading into the final two groups of dressage shortly – so keep it locked on EN for another full report from this afternoon’s action after it concludes, and in the meantime, you can join Cheg for insightful analysis from each ride as it happens here. Go Eventing!
The top ten at the Friday lunch break at Burghley.
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