From trying cross-country on a whim to competing at Blenheim Europeans in five years: meet Turkey’s first senior championship rider

Martha Terry's avatar
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Published In Features
Turkish rider Kumru Say trots Baladin De L’Ocean La from right to left in front of the judge's box in the 2025 European Eventing Championships at Blenheim Palace.
Kumru Say is making history for her country as Turkey’s first rider at a a senior eventing championships.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

A Turkish rider who had never evented prior to the Covid pandemic has made her senior championship debut at the Agria Blenheim European Championships. Kumru Say, 24, is also the first rider to compete for Turkey at a senior Europeans.

Riding her own Baladin De L’Ocean LA, who was produced to four-star by Astier Nicolas, Kumru scored 37.1, which puts them 21st at the end of the first day of dressage.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

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.