Badminton first-timers: Sarah Parkes — 'you have to watch his front and back ends but he has the biggest heart'

Sarah Parkes (GBR) riding BALLADEER DURBAN HILLS in the CICO *** Section D of the Houghton International Horse Trials at Houghton Hall near Kings Lynn in Norfolk, UK between 26th - 29th May 2016

(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

When Balladeer Durban Hills arrived at 29-year-old Sarah Parkes’ yard four years ago, he was never meant to be staying.

“‘AJ’s’ owners sent him to me to be sold, but I fell in love with him and so mum and I bought him,” explains Sarah, who will be tackling her first Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in just a little over a week (3-7 May).

“I just point him between the flags and as he is pure thoroughbred he’s naturally very quick while still being snaffle mouthed — he eats up three-star tracks but we cross-country school him regularly to keep him confident, particularly with water which was a problem for him in the past,” Sarah explains while travelling back from a training stint with Chris Bartle. “We’ve been practising jumping into the ‘Badminton lake’ at Chris’ — he recreated the fence and we jumped it over and over again.”

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Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.

Badminton first-timers: Sarah Parkes — ‘you have to watch his front and back ends but he has the biggest heart’

Badminton final scores

“He’s really grumpy in the stable — he kicks and bites and you have to watch both the front and back ends,” she laughs. “You could give him a cuddle and then as soon as you walk away he’ll bite you!”

But all is forgiven, as across country Sarah describes him as a “real weapon”.

Sarah’s hard work and AJ’s talent for the sport is evident just by looking at their British Eventing record. He has only rolled two poles in the past 12 months and they’ve had just three cross-country blips since the start of the 2014 season.

“We’re competitive with each other in a friendly way,” explains Sarah who has been based at Ben’s Warwickshire yard for the past four years. “But equally I didn’t want our future children to grow up thinking mummy hadn’t got round a four-star but daddy had!”

Sarah has always wanted to be an event rider and she dropped out of university five weeks into her course because of this.

“So mum and dad insisted I got some sort of professional qualification, so now as well as being a rider, I’m a fully qualified personal trainer,” she says.

Continued below…

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