One horse leaves the competition at Burghley final trot-up
US rider Jennie Brannigan’s ride FE Lifestyle was spun at the Burghley final trot-up this morning, leaving 27 pairs to go forward to showjump
One horse, FE Lifestyle, was eliminated at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials final trot-up this morning (6 September).
FE Lifestyle, owned by Tim and Nina Gardner and ridden by the US’s Jennie Brannigan, held 12th place overnight, having had 11.2 time-faults on the cross-country yesterday.
The chestnut was presented at the horse inspection by US high performance manager Leslie – the 2004 Olympic champion for Britain, who now lives in the US – because Jennie is still struggling with an ankle injury incurred when her ride Kismet flipped over in the start box at Morven Park last autumn.
The ground jury – president Xavier Le Sauce of France, Ireland’s Joanne Jarden and Britain’s Sandy Phillips – sent FE Lifestyle to the holding box. After the customary vet report, Leslie re-presented “Foxy”, but the ground jury decided he could take no further part in the competition.
Jennie was seeking a third Burghley completion with the 16-year-old, who was 12th here in 2023 and was the travelling reserve for the US for the eventing World Championships in Aachen last month.
Burghley final trot-up: 28 horses forward
Unusually, every horse who finished the cross-country was presented at the Sunday horse inspection.
Twenty-eight horses came forward in the sunshine, after rain earlier this morning, and 27 now progress to the final showjumping phase.
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Michael Owen was asked to trot up Monbeg Darwin – 25th overnight, carrying a flag penalty from the second skinny fence at Fairfax & Favor at Keepers (fence 10abcd) and 30 time-faults – a second time straight after his first presentation, but was then waved through.
The first session of showjumping will be for just seven pairs. It is scheduled to start at 10.30am, though that may be updated to a little later – we will update this story if so.
The second session, for the top 20, begins at 2.30pm. Gemma Stevens leads overnight with Chilli Knight and she has a fence and a few time-faults in hand to win her first Burghley title.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.