Harald Ambros has returned to the Mars Badminton Horse Trials for the first time since making his debut 18 years ago. He rides Vitorio Du Montet, a 16-year-old gelding with whom he finished 33rd at the Paris Olympics.
Harald, 45, has had “a lot of championship horses” in the interim, but none he thought were suited to the Badminton challenge.
“My other horses have done Europeans and World Championships, but they haven’t had the gallop to come here,” he says. “Badminton is much stronger, and you have to be lucky to have the right horse.”
The Austrian rider works full-time as a dentist alongside competing four eventers, and explained how he juggles his dual life while prepping Vitorio for their first five-star together.
“For the past six weeks it’s been really hard because I’ve started training at 5.30 in the morning, then cleared everything up and started work at 7.30,” he says. “I work til five o’clock and then back to training again.
Badminton final scores
“My plan is to go to Blenheim [Europeans] this year, which is hilly and tough,” says Harald, who competed at the last Blenheim Europeans in 2005 on his previous Badminton contender Miss Ferrari.
“I know that Vitorio is a good horse who can do a five-star. I decided he should also do Badminton if he is to do Blenheim.”
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How Harald Ambros settles his horse’s nerves
Harald is Vitorio’s fifth rider in the past three years, but the pair have established a great bond.
“This horse can do everything, but his nerves are tricky,” he says. “The first event I went to, the cross-country started next to the dressage and he turned round and wouldn’t go anywhere near the arena. But that was my only negative experience and it was useful to know it can happen because I can prepare.
“If he gets nervous he cannot do anything, like he is blocked. When you ask for power, he goes into a spin like a propeller. So you have to give him his head and prepare him well.”
Harald recalls Paris, where the tannoy made much of the fact he was riding a French-bred horse, with a French name, previously ridden by French rider Maxime Livio, and explains how he prepares him for such atmospheres.
“I rode him three times yesterday, and twice today before my dressage,” he says. “It’s nice at Badminton because you can canter around outside, to see everything and go up into the woodland.”
The pair posted a decent score of 34.9 to lie mid-division of the 81-strong field, which delighted Harald. But he played down his chances of bettering his 18th place with Miss Ferrari in 2007.
“It feels the same as the last time I came – the course is again clockwise and the weather is really nice – but I will not be chasing the time,” he says. “When you’re young, you try this, but when you’re older like me, you’re happy just to be here and have the possibility.”
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.
