Meet Blenheim’s buckskin ‘show-off’ who lives for the big events

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Emma Manton and Grande By Design
Emma Manton and Grande By Design do their CCI4*-S dressage test at Blenheim Horse Trials
(Image credit: Shamela Hanley Photos/The Jockey Club)

The full field of 70 eight- and nine-year-old contenders have trotted down the centre line in the Blenheim Horse Trials CCI4*-S, which is currently led on 21.3 by Halo, a grey stallion ridden by Piggy March. Another striking horse that caught the eye, his coat matching the butterscotch stone of Blenheim Palace, was the buckskin gelding Grande By Design. He isn’t troubling the leaders after the dressage, but he’s on an upward curve and his rider Emma Manton is looking forward to the cross-country phase.

The nine-year-old gelding completed this event in 2021, unfortunately incurring 15 penalties for a flag across country, so are bidding to improve on that result. They have already stepped up on last year’s dressage mark, scoring 36.3 this time round, which puts them midfield before today’s showjumping phase (Saturday, 17 September).

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.