A challenging cross-country track at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials could be just the ticket for Felicity Collins and her double clear machine RSH Contend Or after failing to produce their best in the dressage arena.
Felicity was disappointed after the Nintender gelding marred a great start in his test by spooking at the flowerpots to score 33.2. Although good enough for a midfield position of 14th at the end of day one, Felicity knows her 13-year-old could be much more highly placed.
“A year ago I would have been thrilled with a 33, but he should be breaking into the 20s by now; he’s so capable,” says Felicity. “The flowerpots were the issue today. The trot work was beautiful except for one spook at the end of the extended trot, but unfortunately as we went into canter he lit up and three of his changes were rubbish. It’s not that he can’t do changes, but he was tense so I lost the rideability. However by the way he went into canter, I was amazed I managed to get anything out of him! He just wanted to gallop flat out straight out of the ring on to the cross-country.”
Felicity Collins on Burghley Horse Trials cross-country
Despite her ride’s brilliance in the jumping phases, Felicity describes Derek di Grazia’s track as “overwhelming”.
“The cross-country is quite scary!” she says. “It’s huge. You think you’re worried about one particular fence, then realise there are 10 others you’re also worrying about. I need to take it one fence at a time or it fries the brain.
“He is a phenomenal jumper, but because he finds it so easy, I never want to put him in a position where he has to try,” she adds. “I’m really conscious that I need to try not to make any mistakes, and keep him thinking he can tackle anything, because I want it to stay that way. He’s never had to use his maximum scope, but the question is whether with the fences being so big, and with the terrain, that point will come.”
Having jumped double clear at a tough Badminton on her five-star debut should give Felicity some encouragement, but she admits to being so nervous, she has survived on just Lucozade for sustenance all day.
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“This is much bigger than Badminton,” she says. “Looking back, for me, Badminton feels like a BE100 in comparison – I’d rather go round Badminton 10 times than this!”
‘He makes up his own rules’
But Felicity’s nerves aren’t shared by her ride.
“I want everyone to know how great my horse is, but he can’t speak, so I have to do the interviews – he’d be a much better interviewee, if you could get him to concentrate for three minutes straight. He loves everyone looking at him, though he played to the crowd today.
“He’s really quite naughty, a real character. In the stables we can’t leave anything around or he’ll rip it to shreds. I left him with his ice boots on for 10 minutes the other day and he ripped them to shreds. He makes up his own rules, always wondering what he could spook at next, or where he can go really fast. But having said that, the day he stops being a clown is the day I start worrying. It’s just him. He’s a very, very special horse, and I’ll never have one like him again.”
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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.
