This year’s 50th anniversary Burghley was special for so many reasons: I may have said at some point that I thought it belonged to Boyd Martin and his miraculous mount Neville Bardos for their fairytale top ten finish. It could also be argued that it was all William’s, taking a record-breaking sixth win on six different horses, passing legends Ginny Eliot and Mark Todd’s five apiece, and equalling Lucinda Green’s record at Badminton. The cross country course – massive and “retro”, the going – perfect, the weather – maddeningly inconsistent, all played a factor too. However, each year Burghley is incredibly poignant for one former competitor, and his wife who finished sixth this year. I was thrilled to catch up with Vere and Clea Phillipps at the prize-giving, and talk to them about their own Burghley memories.
Lead the Way started eventing with Clea in 2003, and first completed Burghley in 2007, starting a consistent record here. He was 6th in 2008, withdrew in 2009 (and instead went on to a top 20 finish at Pau CCI****), 8th last year, and 6th again this year. Lead the Way is just one of many of the success stories sourced by Clea’s husband Vere, who finds hunters, jumpers and eventers,
“I bought Lead the Way as a four year old in Ireland. He’s by Supreme Leader, but he’s not that well-bred on his dam’s side so he didn’t have a good enough pedigree to be a top class racehorse, but he did jump. We brought him home, and Clea was riding another advanced horse that I thought was too strong for her, so I told her if she sold that one, I had a nice four year old that she could produce, he’d be top class and I promised I wouldn’t sell him.”
This may have been a harder promise to keep than it sounds as Vere has made a successful business of selling super horses, primarily eventers, but also top notch hunters and jumpers, and his word was tested many times by people trying to buy Lead the Way,
“I’ve been selling horses since 1981, about fifty or sixty horses a year, and I’ve had an event horse on every British team. (European, World and Olympic) as well as the winners of a CCI*, CCI**, CCI*** and CCI****. My ambition now is to sell an Olympic show-jumper, I’ve sold Grand Prix and Trials jumpers, but I’d like to sell a really top class show-jumper now.”
In fact, the very first of William Fox Pitt’s six winning Burghley rides, Chaka, was a horse Vere found, and although he’s bought and sold horses all his life, he’s promised that Lead the Way is an exception, and as Clea points out, laughing,
“I’ve threatened him with much, much worse than divorce if he ever sells him! Lead the Way’s the only one I have managed to keep. I’ve had him since he was four and we have a very special relationship.”
Vere has spent most of his life local to Burghley, a keen fox-hunter and show-jumper, and he explained why this area is so ideal for producing quality horses,
“The thing about the Quorn is it’s light land and you can still take your own line so you’re not queueing. Basically I’ve got a glorified cross country school with hounds and people around to get them brave, but you can still jump in your own spot, so it’s a really good place to get the eventers brave and get them going.”
Vere out hunting with the Quorn, photo used with kind permission of Nico Morgan
Vere also has some experience eventing, and although he enjoyed amazing success, he said ultimately it was too time-consuming, and despite three CCI**** completions, he told me that he never really considered himself an eventer,
“What happened was my late wife, Polly, was killed in a fall from Coral Cove at The Scottish Open Championships in 1999. When Polly got killed, I took up eventing because I wanted to ride one event in her memory. As you can imagine, it was a tragic time in my life. I was told I couldn’t do an advanced event because I wasn’t qualified; I was very angry because I’d been riding international trials in show-jumping, and any eventer can go in a Grade A class, I didn’t see why a show-jumper couldn’t enter an advanced event. Anyway, telling me I couldn’t do it was the best thing they could have done to me because it was like a red rag to a bull: I put five show-jumpers on to the lorry and started qualifying them. I did five novices, five intermediates… and I rode Coral, (in Polly’s colours) and six months later we were fourth here at Burghley. He was an amazing horse. I was never really “an eventer”! I came back the next year and did two events and I was 12th here out of about a hundred odd starters, and then I went to Badminton and I was 24th, and I won Polly’s memorial twice, and the second time I won it Coral was 16 years old, and I thought I’d retire at that. I’d wanted to win her memorial (a trophy given by Vere in Polly’s memory in the Advanced class at Eglinton in Scotland to the highest placed British rider who has never represented Britain in a senior team). I did a two star, a three star and then Burghley.”
Since retiring from eventing, Vere has found happiness again with Clea, and they have a four and a half year old son, Joss,( named either after Quorn Master Joss Hanbury, or Vere’s dog, or neither, Vere’s sense of humour is very dry!) Joss, as you’d expect, is well-mounted, and rides his pony Polo, and Vere told me the family enjoy show-jumping together,
“As a family sport it’s less time consuming than eventing. We take all the young event horses show-jumping and hunting, but we don’t event them. We sell them to riders so they have the pick of the best. They’ve never actually evented but they’re ready to go, they’re ready to fast-track because of the jumping that they’ve done and the experience they’ve had already.”
Lead the way is a Grade A show-jumper, and Clea is that rare eventer who actually looks forward to the final phase!
“I take him to the jumper shows that Vere and I do, I don’t campaign him particularly, we just go to the shows around us and he jumps the 1 metre 45 classes, and he’s very consistent at what he does. I love it, absolutely love it, I love show-jumping day! I hunt too, but I don’t love it as much I enjoy eventing. You forget how much you like hunting until you go, and then you see all your friends, but I’d be a fair weather hunter.”
After a slightly tense dressage, and a hold on cross-country which might have accounted for some confusion with her stop watch and thus a few time faults, but of course a lovely clear show-jumping that pulled them right back up the order, I asked Clea what she thought of Burghley this year,
“I didn’t think the cross country was strong enough. I thought it was big but not technical enough. I think Mark Phillips, great course designer as he is, had possibly underestimated just how good the horses and riders are these days, and just building big isn’t enough, and although it’s not fair to call it a dressage competition, it wasn’t enough of a test for a four star.”
and what comes next?
“Lead the Way will have a holiday and then we’ll make a plan for next year. I was going to go to Badminton this year but the ground was very hard so I didn’t get a couple of the runs before because he’s my only horse and I’m not prepared to burn him round on ground I consider potentially damaging. I shall continue to look after him, and eventually his day will come and he’ll win a big one. I would be very tempted to switch from eventing to show-jumping, but I want to jump Trials and things, and show-jumping can bankrupt a millionaire, so I very much enjoy the level of jumping I do with Lead the Way, and for the time being I’m lucky enough to have a horse that’s pretty good at both sports. It suits me well.”
Lead the Way may enjoy a holiday now, but there’ll be no such luxury for the Phillipps family; not only do they have a nice selection of hunters, eventers and jumpers, Vere told me he’s also been enjoying his racing,
“For the last ten years or so we’ve been buying National Hunt horses as foals and yearlings, so I’ve always held up to about thirty thoroughbreds as well, which we sell for National Hunt racing. We’ve had some good black type winners now, one with Phillip Hobbs called Lead On, and a good horse with Charlie Swan at the moment that J P McManus has bought, and then some of the ones that aren’t that fashionably bred but can jump, we’ll turn into eventers, like Lead the Way, so we do have that facility for people to buy thoroughbreds from us, as well as the Irish Sport Horses. I love watching horses grow on the farm. We sell most of those unbroken, and the trainers get their pick, and then sell the others at Doncaster or at Tattersalls. The objective though is to sell them all as unbroken three year olds, so they never hit the eventing scene. It’s ironic, the dearest horse I’ve ever sold (so far!) was a National Hunt horse that was unbroken! A three year old, he went on and raced, he was a nice horse.”
Clea and Lead the Way turning in a nice clear despite deteriorating conditions on the final day at this year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials
I wondered, what is the most important thing to Vere when he first looks at a horse?
“I’ve always looked at the horse first, then I ask about the breeding. I’ve got to like the stamp enough, or the movement for an eventer, or the type for a hunter enough. The type first really. If I absolutely love the performance and the jump, I’ll put up with a bit less confirmation. Everything’s a balance. I’ve never found a ten yet. I score them as I see them.”
“Lead the Way, as a novice horse, I’d have given him an 8. (When I protest, Vere goes into more detail) Well, you could say that his hocks are a little bit straight, you could say that he’s a bit upright, you could say that his jump is ok, I’ve had better jumpers! As a five year old he went to his first show, and he had at least a couple down, and snaked all around the 1 metre track, and I told Clea it was terrible, and she retorted that it was actually good, I hadn’t seen him the week before! People forget how much time it takes to produce a horse to get it looking like this. What you want is a horse that’s trainable, people do forget that. As long as they’ve got the goods, they’ve got to train the brain, and train the horse the right way.”
Luckily Clea and I agree about how beautiful Lead the Way is,
“He’s totally enthusiastic all the time, he’s on your side, he tries his best, he loves any show you take him to. He does think he’s the King of England though, and he does think he’s the sexiest thing that’s ever stepped into a pair of Woof boots, but then I think he’s right, so I probably humour him!”
and finally I get the answer to that burning question that’s been me driving me crazy – what is the significance of those quarter marks?!
“I just saw the quarter marking sheet and liked it, there’s nothing special about it except I thought they might make me go faster!”
My thanks to Vere and Clea for their time; it was lovely to catch up again. In the interest of full disclosure, my dad bought a hunter from Vere many years ago, and was the envy of the entire Bicester with Whaddon Chase as he was an angel of a horse, 17.3, a gentle giant, who looked after my dad for many years, carrying him over all kinds of country and enormous jumps with no help from his rider, only hindrance! My dad personifies “ignorance is bliss” when it comes to riding, and is also extremely competitive, a dangerous combination, and Vere’s horse saved his life many times over!
If you’d like to contact Vere about looking at horses his email is [email protected], and his number is UK (0 11 44) 7711 593492
Thanks for reading and Go Hunting, Jumping and Eventing!
