Burghley Eventing

Wow, what a month for eventing in England. It began with the Pedigree Chum Burghley Horse Trials held in the stunning grounds of Burghley House near Stamford in Lincolnshire. Burghley is one of the top three in the world and many riders now feel that it has become more technically difficult than Badminton. Although the field was perhaps a little weaker than usual, due the proximity of the World Equestrian Games, riders from eight different countries contended the title in conditions that were going to prove more testing than for many years. First to go in the dressage was reigning Olympic Champion, Blyth Tait. He was riding Chesterfield, a twelve year old given to him to ride three years ago by the Haglund corporation after the former rider, Melissa Bradleigh, died tragically in a car accident.
Dressage is often a source of contention as marks can vary widely between the three judges (Ground Jury), and Burghley was no exception. Blyth was furious with the marks given to him by Angela Tucker, who judged his test only good enough to take 29th place, and threatened to withdraw Chesterfield from the rest of the competition if he finished lower than 15th overall. Tantrums are not unusual at such a high level when everybody is living on the edge of their nerves, but it is unusual for Blyth to lose his cool.		Blyth Tate and Aspyring - Burghley 98 ©S.Sparkes
However Chesterfield was eventually lying in twelfth place after the dressage which was headed by the gray horse Archie Brown, ridden by Paddy Muir who lives in the North of England. New Zealander Andrew Nicholson was lying second on Merillion and Scotlands Ian Stark was in third place on the huge bay gelding The Moose, who stands 18 h.h. Blyth was also fifth on Aspyring behind Pippa Funnell and Supreme Rock. All through Friday night and into the cross country day on Saturday the tail end of Hurricane Danielle brought lashing rain and cool winds, The ground on the Roads and Tracks and the Steeplechase became quite holding, meaning that horses were coming on to the cross country a little more tired than they would do normally and this told in how many actually managed to complete the 7000 metre course. 63 horses started the competition and only 23 came forward to show jump on the final day, prompting Andrew Nicholson (one of the last to go on Hinnegar) to joke "The further round the course we went the better the going got. By the time we came to the last ten fences I was beginning to wonder if we'd taken the right track - there weren't any hoofprints there to follow!"

A Month of Eventing Extravaganza

by Helen Revington