Sarah Jenkins: masterclass after masterclass
I hesitated to write “Badminton at its best” on this week’s cover, knowing the purists will feel this is not the case — “the cross-country needed to be tougher”, they’ll say, “we don’t want a dressage competition”. I take their point, however as the sport continues to struggle with safety issues, I feel a weekend of top-level eventing that provided exciting competition without course holds for ambulances was no bad thing. The event’s atmosphere was joyous and as a spectator sport it was superb — you could wait at fence 27 and expect the next horse round in a few minutes, rather than half-an-hour as in the previous year when they dropped out like flies.
More than five hours of BBC red button coverage — recorded and watched on my return home — proved an eventing enthusiast’s heaven, with masterclass after masterclass in cross-country riding by the world’s best. This was enhanced by Harry Meade’s excellent commentary, the most candidly informative I’ve heard on TV — give that man a microphone more often.
That’s not to say the dressage wasn’t a tad too influential, which in turn begs the need for judges’ marks to be completely on the money — something that wasn’t always the case.
The pressure William Fox-Pitt was under to showjump clear made for a cliffhanger ending, and a visibly emotional victory for one of Britain’s favourite jockeys — that stiff upper lip softened.
It was a pleasure, too, to see other Brits riding superbly on horses relatively new to this level — boding well for this summer’s Europeans at Blair. This will be one event I will be enjoying as a spectator rather than a member of the media, being as I am off to the foaling box tomorrow. I leave the magazine in the terribly capable hands of Kylie O’Brien and our superb H&H team, and look forward to being back in time for Olympia.
Ref: H&H 14 May, 2015
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Sarah has worked at an equestrian journalist and editor since 2004 and has held the position of Horse & Hound Editor-in-Chief since 2014. She has reported for Horse & Hound from major championships including Europeans and World Equestrian Games. She has co-written books on horses and horse sport including The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies. She has owned and ridden horses since 1993, and worked for and trained with Olympic gold medallist event rider Leslie Law prior to going to university. While studying for a BSc at London School of Economics Sarah also worked for top British dressage rider Louise Spate.