‘I am disturbed young British riders have to find +£5,000 to represent their country,’ says Mark Phillips

Every time I see the juniors and young riders going off to their European Championship, I’m disturbed that British Eventing’s (BE) financial situation requires our young stars to find upwards of £5,000 each to pay for the trip to represent this country. Are we missing a trick with the kid that can’t afford to be part of the programme?

I do understand that some get some philanthropic help, but when all expenses were covered by BE there was a level playing field.

This year at the championships at Segersjö in Sweden, I was even more disturbed. The riders were lectured about the importance of horse welfare and taking care of their steeds, yet they were sent out on the cross-country over footing that was described as disgraceful, which must be of considerable embarrassment to the FEI.

I've never known so many chefs d’equipe and coaches so angry and disillusioned. A championship is not like another event where riders have the choice of withdrawing and going somewhere else next week.

Sadly, after the course measurement issues at Royal Jump, course-designer Eric Winter finds himself at the centre of a second controversy, as the footing is the designer’s responsibility.

Improving the ground became everyone’s focus at Segersjö, over other issues. Eric, though, will be saddened that this championship is likely to have been a career-ending run for a number of horses.

This should not take away Elizabeth Barratt and Ride For Thais Chaman Dumonceau’s achievement in leading the Brits to double young rider silver, plus junior bronze.

Why did so many fail to finish at Burghley?

Earlier in August, I was at Burghley with course-designer Derek di Grazia when everything was brown and parched. Last week, thanks to the efforts of the Burghley team, horses were treated to perfect footing and the weather meant the park was back to its true beauty.

We missed Ros Canter, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen, but there were many of the world’s best riders still present.

Only two dressage marks were under 30, compared with 20 in Aachen at the World Championships. This probably indicates the difference between the modern championship horse and the five-star horses needed at Burghley to cope with the terrain and extra minute of cross-country.

Having said that, I thought Derek did an excellent job maintaining the five-star technicality but reducing the intensity by using more four-star filler fences, thus bringing the five-star brand closer to the modern four-star championship model.

That explains why 24 of the 28 finishers had no jumping penalties, but why did we see so many tired horses and 18 out of the 46 starters fail to finish?

The ground jury felt that they had been, to say the least, generous with their marks, so was this all-round just a bad group? Difficult to believe with so many top riders in the field.

Were the horses not fit enough – only two got inside the time – because of the long, hot, dry summer and the associated hard ground?

Nobody had the answer and there probably isn’t a single answer. Some weren’t good enough in dressage, some not fit enough on cross-country, some succumbed to the clock pressure, some didn’t walk their course well enough and missed a fence or jumped an extra one and some were just unlucky.

Gemma Stevens rode her luck on the 16-year-old Chilli Knight to give herself a fence in hand over world number one Tim Price on the improving Global Quest and Holly Richardson, who probably rode the round of the day on Ballyneety Silver Service.

Sadly the next day the wheels came off for Holly and Tim, but Gemma held her nerve and used her showjumping grand prix experience to finish on her dressage score and win the £120,000 first prize.

Her disappointment at Aachen is in the distant past as she adds Burghley to her Bicton five-star win.

● Why do you think the Burghley dressage scores were poor and why did so many fail to finish? Let us know your thoughts at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your thoughts published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine

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