Amateur rider Libby Seed is lining up at her fifth CCI5* at this year’s Mars Badminton Horse Trials, riding the bold-jumping mare Heartbreaker Star Quality.
She’s been clear each time across country and finished in the top 20 twice, a feat that is all the more remarkable given that Libby works full time in the medical services industry.
But while she admits it’s “tough balancing my time”, Libby’s not just here as an amateur making up the numbers. She is pushing herself to improve on past form, and has been working to her increase her speed on the cross-country.
“I’m looking forward to Saturday because that’s what she does best, galloping and jumping and having a great time,” says Libby, 27. “I hope to give it a good go as I’ve been working at going quicker. We were quicker at Burghley and at our four-star this spring.”
Amateur rider Libby Seed: watching and learning from the pros
With little time to spare around her job and training five horses, Libby takes a “watch and learn” approach.
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“It’s amazing how much you can learn watching other good riders,” says Libby. “Before I go to sleep tonight, I’ll watch a lot of videos of the fastest riders and make sure I channel that.
“It’s like anything: if you want to be better, watch someone who is better than you and work towards what they are doing.”
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“Ros did a webinar where she said she can’t go fast unless she feels safe, and she needed gears to do that,” she says. “So having gears is something I’ve really worked on.
“Harry Meade is the fastest rider in the world at the moment, so I’ll watch his Kentucky round and channel how smooth he is. Then I’ll think about my preparation points on the course and how I can keep travelling like he does.”
Putting it into practice is also a challenge for a working rider with just the one horse at top level.
“I practise my body position on my young horses, going round a BE100!” says Libby. “I’m going up and down [the gears] and these baby horses are saying, ‘I’m just trying to stay on my feet!’.”
Libby Seed will be hoping to play catch-up in the jumping phases after feeling “a little disappointed” with her dressage test at Badminton. Two late changes pegged her mark back to 36.7.
“I know we could do a little better, but it’s Badminton and not everything comes together on the day,” she says.
How to watch Badminton Horse Trials
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
