Burghley debutante’s one-way ticket to fulfil her dream: ‘I’m not sure I have enough money to fly us home’
Sarah Clark and LV Balou Jeanz compete in the dressage at Burghley Horse Trials
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)
Australian event rider Sarah Clark is fulfilling a lifetime’s dream in competing at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, having made the gargantuan trip from Down Under last month. Sarah flew in the air-crate with her horse of a lifetime, LZ Balou Jeanz, who was accompanied by a standard-bred mare bound for Newmarket.
“We had five days’ travelling – flying from Adelaide to Melbourne, to Bangkok, to Doha, to Amsterdam and then to Wiltshire in a truck,” says Sarah, who based herself with “friend of a friend” David Doel, who unfortunately had to withdraw Galileo Nieuwmoed on the eve of the competition.
Sarah Clark: ‘We’re here just to give it a crack at the top of the sport’
The Burghley dream began when Sarah was a child. Her family is English and her aunt has been sending her Horse & Hound magazines and VHS recordings of horse trials since she was a toddler. The 12-year-old LZ Balou Jeanz, by Baloubet Du Rouet, is a winner at four-star, a consistent cross-country performer who has finished 12th at Adelaide CCI5*.
“In 2019 this horse did his first five-star and I thought maybe this is a horse I could cling on to and go around a Burghley or Badminton,” she says. “Then in August it was announced that Adelaide was postponed again and I thought, ‘Screw it, I’m going now while I have a horse that is sound and I’m healthy. I’ve sold a few good horses and been saving up for this.”
So far, Burghley is living up to expectations, with the huge atmosphere for her dressage test being unchartered territory for this combination. They scored 34.3 in the dressage phase, and Sarah admits she was “just pleased to stay in the ring!”
“At Adelaide we don’t get anywhere near this kind of atmosphere, crowd and buzz – that would have been our biggest atmosphere we’ve experienced and this is a million times more than that,” she says.
“I’ve walked the course and I’m not terrified, but it is huge and I don’t know how the crowds will affect him, his stamina and the undulations, so there are a lot of unknowns. But that’s why we are here, to get those massive fences, that terrain – it’s the top of the sport and the best of the best, and we’re here just to give it a crack.”
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‘My horse’s flight was cancelled five times’: tortuous trip to Burghley ends in smart test
‘Nothing else gives me that excitement’: Burghley first-timer Susie Berry on the magic of the horse-human partnership and her breakthrough year
British rider makes her Burghley debut on a mare wearing ‘very special’ shoes
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