‘I could just be normal and go home for dinner’: the lawyer trading courtrooms for cross-country at Burghley
Ema Klugman on the early mornings, late nights and health insurance that come with a double life as a lawyer and five-star rider
US-based Australian Ema Klugman arrived at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials this week for her first British five-star, squeezed in around a demanding legal career.
“I’m only two years in, so I think I’m still working out some of the kinks and trying to figure out exactly how to manage it,” Ema, 28, said.
Her ride this week, the 13-year-old grey Chiraz, was produced in the UK by Nicola Wilson up to two-star level. He finished on 109.3, after a safe but slow round across country that picked up only time-penalties, and two fences down in the showjumping.
“I never really thought I would be a professional, full-time rider,” Ema explains. “I went to university, and then graduate school – I’ve always been pretty academic, so I was hoping I could find a career that I could mesh with horses.”
She’s spent the past two years working for a judge, managing caseloads and deciding cases, before moving into private client work. “I’ve been doing federal civil cases, basically monetary claims for the most part – contracts, things like that.”
For now, the horses are getting the greater share of her attention. “Right now I have a lot of really good horses, so I’m focusing on them a bit, doing a little less work,” Ema said.
“It can be some very early mornings and very late nights, particularly in winter. I usually get up before six, go to work, go to the gym, start working, and then I try to leave work mid-afternoon if I can, and go get on and ride. It’s pretty much pitch-black when I finish at 10 or half-ten, sometimes. And the weekends are obviously very full with competing.”
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She isn’t shy about admitting that doubts sometimes creep in. “Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing – I could just be normal, go home and have dinner with my wife, have a nice evening. Instead, I’m riding circles around the indoor arena! It’s worth it, though, to come to something like this.”
But there are practical reasons behind the balancing act too. “In America, you have health insurance with your job, so it’s a bit of a safer career. A lot of riders don’t have health insurance because they’re self-employed.”
She might well have been thankful for that insurance after some drama on cross-country day. “It’s only his second five-star, so it was quite a big ask to bring him here,” Ema said. “But I believed in him, and he believed in me.
“I lost a stirrup at the Leaf Pit – he had a bit of a funny jump down, and I suppose I should have put my heels down more. I tried to get it back on the way to the brush, then thought, screw it, there’s no way I’m getting it back, I’ve just got to ride.
“So I jumped the next three fences without a stirrup, which wasn’t quite according to plan. But he was great – he had no idea, and just stuck to the line.”
With the week now behind them, Chiraz will now have a break. “He’s had a big year doing his first two five-stars,” Ema said. “He’ll do some four-stars this fall, and then probably Kentucky five-star again next year, and just keep improving.
“Now that he’s jumped around here, I believe in him even more than I did before.”
For Ema, the return to reality is rather more immediate. “I’ve got to get my horse home, get myself home and organised, probably do a bit of paperwork. And then back to the office.”
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).