Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel take an early lead at Burghley. Photo by Libby Law.
We’ve seen a neat little package of fifteen horses and riders up to the lunch break today at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials — and already, some of the entry list’s brightest stars are making an impact on the competition. But can they sustain their positive start? A lot will depend on how the judging shifts — or doesn’t — throughout the rest of today and in tomorrow’s second dressage day, because right now, the ground jury of Christian Steiner, Nick Burton, and Anne Mette Binder isn’t easily impressed.
Case in point? We’ve got as many competitors in the forties as we do in the twenties — one. And the average score today? A 31.7 — not shabby, by any stretch of the imagination, but not a patch on what we can realistically expect to see from high-flying first-phase performers such as, say, Tim Price’s Vitali or Oliver Townend’s Ballaghmor Class.
It’d have been a fairly safe bet by anyone’s reckoning that the woman of the moment, newly-crowned European Champion and this spring’s Badminton winner Ros Canter, would make an early bid for the lead. And that’s just what she did, riding the maternal half-sister of her partner for those two major wins. 14-year-old Pencos Crown Jewel (Jumbo – Cornish Queen, by Rock King) delivered a 26.9 to take a decisive 3.1 mark lead at this early stage.
“I’ll take that, any day,” says Ros with a smile. “Little Jasmine isn’t maybe as conventional as some of my others on the flat; she’s quite croup-high, so she finds it quite difficult to stay in balance.”
Jasmine, who Ros rides for Kate James and Annie Makin, finished ninth at Badminton this spring, but began her week there with a higher score of 29.2 — and Ros was keen to take what she learned there and apply it to a whole new warm-up plan today.
“The plan I had at Badminton didn’t quite come off, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do: I knew I’d worked for just five minutes too long at Badminton, and then she gets a little bit less enthusiastic about the flying changes. She has to think they’re her decision, and at Badminton, off the counter-canter I lost all momentum,” she explains. Today, she says, “I did a huge amount of walking. I’d pick her up for probably thirty seconds, then walk, then thirty seconds, then walk — and it just meant she had a bit more about her when she went in there.”
But minimising warm-up time in this way doesn’t come without its risks, particularly in an atmosphere like Burghley’s, and so Ros spent the morning prior to her final warm-up ensuring that Jasmine had enough time to truly settle into her environs — a tactic that required constant adaptation to the circumstances.
“She does have the ability to jog in her walk, so I brought her out [for a ride] this morning, and she worked amazingly,” she says. “I put her back after ten minutes and thought, ‘that’ll do’. Then I thought, ‘should I lunge her?’ But that would light her up, I thought, so I decided to just come out and walk her again for another twenty minutes. But when I did that, the loudspeakers came on and she lit up, so we did another ten minutes. Short and sweet with Jasmine seems to be the way forward.”
Emily King and Valmy Biats take an early second place. Photo by Libby Law.
Though she sits that three-and-change penalties behind Ros, for much of her test, Burghley debutant Emily King was trending pretty much on par with that leading score. But while 5s for her reinback, which didn’t quite feature clear, diagonal-pair steps, and a wide range of marks for one of her flying changes precluded a 20s score, Emily and her established five-star partner Valmy Biats still ended up on a respectable enough 30 to take second place so far.
“There were parts that were among his best work he’s done, and we’ve been a bit sort of trying to change things and improve the whole way of going — which meant that some parts were fantastic, but then a few little blips came with that,” reasons Emily. “Generally, though, for his progression long-term, I was really pleased with how he was.”
Fourteen-year-old Valmy isn’t, perhaps, built to find this phase easy — he’s blessed with a quite extraordinarily large head, which contributes to his natural tendency to get heavier in front. But slow, careful progress and teaching the gelding to sit and lift has been the making of this year’s Thoresby CCI4*-S winner, who’s found this season’s tricky conditions rather easier than most, in large part because he lives out, rain or shine, at Emily’s Cheshire yard.
“I’ve had him for about three and a bit years now, and he was really downhill and quite strong when he came to me, so I’ve been slowly trying to get him lighter,” she explains. “He’s always had a good bit of knee action, but then it’s getting that into cadence, lift and softness. So we’ve been, basically, working him really up, and trying to get a bit more lift. And then obviously that sort of rattles a few things that come out of the woodwork, so we’ve been doing that early on this week and then trying to just slightly tone things down before we went in. But as he’s strengthening off and finding it easier, I can feel that it’s going to be really, really good — and then it’s just actually keeping it all together on the day.”
For Emily, just starting her week of competition here is the culmination of a long-held dream. She first came to Burghley when she was just nine months old with mum Mary, and it’s always been a major feature on her family’s calendar: “it was always the end of the summer holidays for us, and we’d come for the whole week,” she remembers with a fond smile.
Tom McEwen and Luna Mist. Photo by Libby Law.
All eyes will certainly be on Tom McEwen tomorrow afternoon when he takes to the ring with Toledo de Kerser, who was spared from team duties this year to return to Burghley for the first time since 2017 and aim for his first British five-star win. But before the big man makes his mark on the leaderboard, Tom’s focus is on another hugely interesting horse in his string: the five-star debutant and former showjumper Luna Mist, who, in just under three seasons of international competition, has already impressed hugely, winning last year’s terrain-heavy CCI4*-L at Blair Castle and finishing fourth this year in the similarly mountainous Bramham CCI4*-L. She begins her week in provisional third place on a score of 30.5.
“It’s a great start — I’m delighted with her,” says Tom. “She was very smooth, with some great highlights and pretty much a clear round throughout the majority of the test. That’s exactly what we hoped for: it’s her first time in an atmosphere and with pressure like this, and she coped amazingly.”
But, he admits, the score itself is frustrating, particularly as the ten-year-old mare is so frequently a mid-to-high-20s earner at four-star.
“I’m definitely disappointed with the mark; hopefully it’s not just a Thursday morning thing and they continue like this,” Tom says. “That’s the worst thing about dressage! But her performance was awesome, and as good as we could have hoped for.”
Though many riders might prefer to ride their more seasoned horse first in their draw, Tom’s delighted to find his two horses in the order that they’ve been placed, because Toledo, who’s so often an early draw, gets to reap the potential rewards of a more fortuitous starting position.
“Toledo’s a star, isn’t he, but he usually gets put in a position that’s often not the best for him. However much we believe that dressage isn’t influenced by Friday afternoon, there’s definitely a few marks to be gained there!”
Oliver Townend and Tregilder. Photo by Libby Law.
The second combination of the day, Oliver Townend and Tregilder, sit equal with Tom and Luna Mist on a score of 30.5 — certainly not their loftiest mark, but one that Oliver was nonetheless very pleased with.
“He’s a huge horse with a high percentage of Thoroughbred in his pedigree, so dressage isn’t his natural thing, and it’s take a long time to get here,” he says. “I’m very proud of his flying changes, more than anything — he finds them difficult, but he got four clean changes today, so I couldn’t be happier.”
Oliver’s one of two riders to bring three horses this week — a feat that puts no small demand on the person in the irons. But throughout the season, Oliver explains, he’s utilised a number of different methods — including a sauna in his house — to keep his weight to a minimum and maximise his own strength, ready for this week’s exertions.
“I’m the fittest man you’ve ever met,” he laughs. “I’ve not had the most straightforward of preparations, but we’ve managed to sweat me down, and freeze me down, and walk me down, and I’m here now.”
Zara Tindall and Class Affair. Photo by Libby Law.
Zara Tindall rounds out this morning’s top five with the mercurial Class Affair, who continues his 2023 redemption arc after a very good run at Kentucky this spring. Though she’d have liked to have snuck a few marks better than the 31.3 she received today, Zara reasons that there’s still room for improvement with the often not-so-straightforward fourteen-year-old.
“Last year was a better score, but I think bits of it were better this year,” she says. “But I think when you’re going early, it’s hard to get that score down enough. You can actually hear the judges [in the boxes] as well — they should shut the windows! It’s kind of frustrating when you’re thinking, ‘oh, I thought that was good!’ He was really good in bits, but then some of it wasn’t quite as sparky as it could have been. But if we can finish on that score, I’ll be very happy.”
One of the new tools in Zara’s arsenal with the gelding is a double bridle, which she’s trialling this season to help him with some contact issues.
“It’s new for him this year, because he’s very tricky in his head,” she says. “If you shut his mouth, he tilts his head, and all the judges see is that, so I thought maybe if I have a double and he can open his mouth, an open mouth is better than tilting! It’s better in some ways, and maybe not in others, but I thought I’d try it.”
Details aside, Zara explains that she’s pleased with the bigger picture, and has learned that Class Affair is ready to do his best work nearer the end of the year.
“I think this is probably his best place to do dressage, because I’ve had the whole season to get him through. Sometimes he comes in and sees a camera or a person and is like, ‘ah!’, but today he was definitely better in that respect. For me, being able to ride him in the corners more is what we need, so the preparation [for the movements] is better.”
Boyd Martin and On Cue start their week well. Photo by Libby Law.
We’ve had our first North American competitor of the day, too — and Boyd Martin made a fine start with the 2021 Maryland 5* winner On Cue, who returned to competition late this spring after a year out with a Burghley debut in mind throughout the architecture of her comeback.
“We’ve been regrouping, and we spent the whole year building her up to this one,” says Boyd, who arrived in England on Monday and did his final prep work at Kevin McNab’s base, using the formidable Surrey hills for Cue’s last gallops. “We know it’s a huge test of fitness and stamina, so we really made sure she was prepared fitness-wise.”
They begin their week on a score of 31.8, which puts them in sixth place at this early stage.
“It’s not too bad — obviously, you always wish you could do it again! She probably got a bit nervous in there, and a bit tight, and so we had a couple of mistakes — but all in all, I’m very pleased with her. She’s one of my favourite horses, and to come to this epic competition… well, I think on Saturday, the dressage will be long forgotten!”
And on that ‘favourite horse’ note? Boyd, who will also ride longtime partner Tsetserleg TSF this week, explains that she ticks every box for top-level eventing.
“She’s a quirky horse; she’s very spooky, but I just love her because she’s everything you could dream of in a horse,” he says with a smile. “She’s a great galloper and a very intelligent animal, a beautiful mover, gutsy, and tough — and after a couple of huge wins, those horses really stick with you deep down.”
That’s not just true for the riders of these wonderful horses — it’s true for all their connections, and Boyd was delighted to meet Cue’s breeder at yesterday’s trot-up. The seventeen-year-old mare was born just twenty minutes away from Burghley, and there were tears all ’round for the big reunion; and, Boyd hopes, a sparkling homecoming.
This afternoon’s dressage will begin again momentarily at 13.45 local time/8.45 a.m. EST, with New Zealand’s Lauren Innes kicking us back off with Global Fision M. As always, you can follow along with the action live via Burghley TV, or join us for live updates and analysis from Cheg. We’ll be back later with another full report on today’s action, plus plenty more insights to whet your Burghley whistle. Until then: Go Eventing!
The top ten at the lunch break of day one at Defender Burghley.
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