One horse who caught the eye with her capable performance over the 2023 Defender Burghley Horse Trials cross-country course was the multi-talented Quindiva.
The 13-year-old mare, ridden by Alex Bragg and owned by the Roe family, climbed 29 places with her smart round, stopping the clock with 14 cross-country time-penalties to sit 20th ahead of the final phase on 53.7.
Watch Alex talk about Quindiva in the video below
This was Quindiva’s first five-star cross-country jumping clear and Alex was understandably “buzzing”.
“I can safely say, she bossed it. What a horse!” he said. “Her first five-star was at Badminton this year, which was gruelling in the mud. She never made a mistake. I made a choice to pull her up to save her and I think she’s repaid me for that.
“She’s a sensitive horse. I have to nurture her confidence. She’s very alert to the public, so to keep her in the room and focused, I just reassure her all the time.
“You can’t dominate her, you have to encourage her. You have to be firm, like you would with your children, but you have to nurture her and give her confidence.”
Alex credied the whole team behind this Quintender 2 daughter, who is out of a High Roller mare. She has impressed on her progression to this top level, scoring multiple top-10 results at four-star as well as two three-star wins to her name. This neat mare is versatile, too. She holds a showjumping ticket to Horse of the Year Show, should she wish to head there in October.
“It’s something else when you leave the startbox at a big five-star like Burghley. There’s so many people, the atmosphere is just magic,” he said.
“The nerves, the tension – especially in the morning – you only get that because it’s a massive challenge. But the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward and that’s the smile on my face.
“She gave me such a smooth ride; not every horse has the talent to do that.
“I am a bit like a big kid anyway, but right now I feel elated like I’m 10 years old again jumping around in a playground.”
He added: “The future for us is to have the confidence that we can go on and do more of these and just keep building her confidence in that dressage phase.”
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