Classic-winning Saffie Osborne is the latest in a long line of famous female jockeys to have broken the mould and make horse racing history.

The sport of kings is no longer just a man's world, as a succession of pioneering women have proved over the past 50 years.

So who are the most famous female jockeys in racing history? From Grand National hero Rachael Blackmore to multi-winning Hayley Turner, we celebrate the groundbreaking achievements of some of the women riders who have changed the shape of horse racing.

Famous female jockeys and the key milestones

• 1804: Alicia Thornton makes a groundbreaking debut for female jockeys, riding side-saddle in a race held at York
• 1967: Val Greaves becomes the first ever female jockey to ride in a Flat race under Rules and the pioneering rider would later become the first professional to win over jumps
• 1972: The first race for female jockeys takes place at Kempton, won by amateur Meriel Tufnell, Britain’s first female champion jockey

• 1976: Diana Thorne becomes the first female winner under National Hunt rules when she beat her father John in a photo finish for a hunter chase at Stratford.
• 1976: Jenny Stamp is the first woman to ride at the Cheltenham Festival, partnering 25-1 shot Fair Gleam in the National Hunt Chase
• 1977: Charlotte Brew finds fame as the first woman to ride in the Grand National, although it would take another five years before Geraldine Rees became the first to finish in the Aintree showpiece, finishing eighth on Cheers
• 1978: Karen Wiltshire makes history as the first female professional to ride a winner on the Flat, at Salisbury for her boss Bill Wightman. The same year, Lorna Vincent enjoys a breakthrough first female victory against fellow professionals over hurdles at Exeter racecourse
• 1983: Caroline Beasley is the first female jockey to ride a Cheltenham Festival winner, coming home first in the Foxhunter Chase. Three years later, the amateur then scored a pioneering victory over the Grand National fences with the same horse in the Fox Hunters’ Chase at Aintree.

• 1984: Linda Sheedy enters the record books aboard Foxbury as the first female jockey to ride in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, partnering Foxbury
• 1987: Gay Kelleway, who a year earlier became the first woman to ride in a British Classic, makes history as the first woman to win at Royal Ascot
• 1993: Julie Krone is the first female jockey to win an American Classic

• 1996: Alex Greaves, daughter of pioneering Val (above) becomes the first female jockey to ride in the Derby at Epsom, going on to become the first female Group One winner the following year riding Ya Malak, finishing in a dead-heat with Kevin Darley in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.
• 2006: Nina Carberry is the first female jump jockey in Great Britain and Ireland to win a Grade One, taking the Champion Bumper at the Punchestown Festival on the Noel Meade-trained Leading Run. She became the leading female rider at the Cheltenham Festival with seven career winners.
• 2008: Debutante champion apprentice Hayley Turner goes on to become the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a year. In 2011 she becomes the first to ride a Group One winner outright and earns her place in racing history as the first woman to ride 1,000 winners. The only other female jockey to do so is Hollie Doyle.
• 2012: Another famous female jockey is Katie Walsh, whose third-place finish in the Grand National on Seabass was a significant milestone as the highest ever finish for a female rider

• 2015: Jump jockey Lizzie Kelly becomes the first woman to win a Grade One over fences - aboard Tea For Two at Kempton – going on to become the first female professional to ride a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, landing the 2018 Ultima aboard Coo Star Sivola.
• 2015: Ascot’s Shergar Cup is won by an all-female team for the first time, with Sammy-Jo Bell earning the silver saddle award as the leading jockey at the race meeting.
• 2015: Michelle Payne is the first female jockey to win the famous Melbourne Cup in Australia, riding Prince Of Penzance to victory at odds of 100/1
• 2019: Bryony Frost earns a legion of new fans when becoming the first female jockey to win a Grade One at the Cheltenham Festival
• 2021: Rachael Blackmore makes global headlines as the first female rider to win the Grand National, followed by the Gold Cup the following season on A Plus Tard

• 2022: Hollie Doyle achieves the first placing in a British Classic then becomes the first woman to win a European Classic
• 2025: Aamilah Aswat makes her racing dream a reality as the first Black British female jump jockey, winning her first race a couple of months later
• 2026: Saffie Osborne becomes the first female jockey to win a British Classic, partnering the Joseph O’Brien-trained Highwayman to victory in the 250th running of the Doncaster race

Look out for other leading Flat jockeys riding at the moment, including Joanna Mason and Gina Mangan, while the likes of Izzi Ryder, Fern O'Brien and Gina Andrews – sister of Cheltenham Festival-winning Bridget Andrews – continue to pave the way in jump racing.

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In episode 181 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, top British equestrian Gemma Stevens talks to our eventing editor Pippa Roome about winning Defender Burghley Horse Trials, how it feels to have achieved one of her major career goals and what’s next.

In this episode, Gemma reflects on the incredible journey she's been on with Chilli Knight, from an unassuming young horse “who used to cock his jaw and run out all the time” to winning her first “big B”.

To hear more about the role Chris and Lisa Stone have played in Gemma’s career, what she's learnt from other key horses such as her brilliant cross-country specialist Arctic Soul and whether winning a “big B” has changed her ambitions for the future, listen to the podcast.

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Every episode is available for H&H fans to listen to via your favourite podcast app, as well as here on the website. Search for “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your preferred podcast app and click subscribe to be notified about each new episode.

• View all episodes of The Horse & Hound Podcast

Whatever your preferred discipline, there is so much to enjoy listening to in our podcasts. We love to hear your feedback on any of our podcasts, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com

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This year’s Agria Blenheim Horse Trials results were as exciting as ever, with riders scooting up and down the leaderboard until the final top 10 were settled on Sunday afternoon.

Tom McEwen dominated, scoring a one-two in the Agria CCI4*-L as well as winning the GFS Saddles young horse CCI4*-S on Brookfield Danny De Muze.

Let’s check out the top 10 from the showcase class, the CCI4*-L…

Blenheim Horse Trials results: the CCI4*-L top 10

Tom with his two horses in the CCI4*-L, The Fieldmaster and Brookfield Quality, plus his team. His grooms for his five horses were Amy Bliss Bennett, Molly Walker and Adam Short.

The Fieldmaster moved up from fourth after dressage with the second fastest cross-country round, just three seconds over the optimum time.

Tom piloted Brookfield Quality, owned by John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn, to second place. This 17-year-old horse is hugely experienced, with three top-five placings at five-star. Here he added four cross-country time-faults and one showjump down to a 26.5 dressage, which had left him third after the first phase.

Sam Ecroyd steered two horses into the top five, finishing third on Vicki and Stewart Irlam’s Jackpot, who was previously ridden by his girlfriend Emily King. The pair moved up from overnight sixth in the final showjumping phase, in which they added just 0.4 of a time-fault, and made a 16-place rise on their dressage rank of 19th.

Owners join the top three riders on the podium in front of Blenheim Palace – still partially covered in plastic because of an extensive roof restoration project.

Fourth-placed Speedwell, owned by Karen Coumbe, Colin Graves, Deborah Strang, Hannah Caven and rider Jesse Campbell, jumps the brush fence out of the first long water crossing on the way to fourth. Putting some blips earlier in the season behind them, New Zealand rider Jesse is now considering a tilt at five-star at Kentucky Three-Day Event next April on this former ride of his late wife, Georgie.

Sam Ecroyd built on third in the CCI4*-S at Bramham Horse Trials and third at Millstreet CCI4*-L with the 11-year-old Bloomfield Manuscript, owned by Joe and Kate Walls and Tricia and Rob Sargent, with fifth here.

At Millstreet, his showjumping let him down. One down here was a significant improvement and the pair again showed their speed across country with just 3.6 time-faults on a day when only one pair, 11th-placed Oliver Townend and Sommersby, made the target. Like Sam’s other horse, Bloomfield Manuscript climbed up the leaderboard, as he was 17th after dressage.

A showjumping clear sealed sixth for Gemma Stevens and Chilli’s Jester, owned by Chris and Clare Mathias and Chris and Lisa Stone. The horse is a full-brother to her recent Defender Burghley Horse Trials winner Chilli Knight.

Wiltshire-based New Zealand rising star Tayla Mason and Joopiter take seventh, up from 51st after dressage. The horse is owned by Tayla, her mother Sonya, Therese Miller and Katherine Corich and like her top horse Centennial, was bred by Sonya, by Euro Sport Centavos. His dam is Tayla’s young rider horse, Just Joop.

Young Australian rider Oliver Barrett re-routed after a fall at the eventing World Championships and finished eighth on his parents Craig and Prudence and brother Jesper’s Sandhills Briar, on whom he won Adelaide five-star in the spring. The pair led the dressage, but slipped down the order with 19.2 time-faults on Saturday. They finished on a good note with a showjumping clear.

Oliver was part of the mixed Australian-US team who took on the British Rising Lions in the Blenheim Challenge team competition. The Stars & Stripes came out on top, taking the majority of the £70,000 prize-money, which was split between riders, grooms, the US youth programme and US-based non-profit Work to Ride.

It was another good weekend for Tom Jackson, who rode Brookfield William – owned by the familiar Brookfield names of Alison Swinburn and John and Chloe Perry – into ninth place. The 10-year-old gained four places with his showjumping clear on Sunday.

New Zealand’s Clarke Johnstone secured 10th on Sparky Lad, who won the big-money ex-racehorse class at Cornbury in 2025. The son of Smart Missile belongs to Waratah Equestrian PTY Ltd. Their top-10 placing was achieved despite a frangible breakage across country – without it, they would have been third.

• More from Blenheim in this week’s Horse & Hound magazine, dated 24 September. To stay up to date with the latest equestrian news, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Graham Dunkley is one of the judges who has the enviable task of judging at the 2026 Horse of the Year Show (HOYS).

This year, what each judge is assessing will be revealed just the night before the class. Trialled in 2024, this format is back by popular demand. So, while we won't know what Lancashire-based Graham is judging for the time being, we can learn a little more about him, his background in showing, and what she will be looking for in the ring.

One thing we do know, having been trained as a classical chef, Graham can handle the heat...

Graham's background in horses and showing

Graham rode and began showing as a child. Though he rode many show ponies, two native ponies have had a significant influence on his equestrian journey.

That particular journey “began back in 1975 on a little Welsh Section A lead-rein pony called Norgwill Pipi,” says Graham.

“At the time, the local riding school was run by husband and wife team Bob and Pat Templeton, who decided to try their hand at producing show ponies. Bob later became a well-known showman with strong links to HOYS and after marrying Julie, they went on to help shape the showing world as it is today.

“My little pony Pipi also went on to enjoy success, winning his breed section at the Olympia finals.”

The second pony hit headlines just earlier this year. This was the latest addition to the Dunkley family’s herd: Highland pony Genesis of Westown (Noah). Incidentally, you can find out more about this in the March 5, 2026 issue of Horse & Hound.

“Quite unexpectedly, Noah brought me back into the show ring as a rider after a 30-year break. It certainly was not planned but he reminded me that being in the saddle is my happy place,” says Graham.

“In showing, it is easy to become so focused on turnout and performance that we put too much pressure on ourselves and those around us. Noah reminded me that we do this sport for fun. For those of us who are truly hooked, nothing quite compares with the bond between horse and rider, and competing against yourself to be better that you were yesterday.”

Owning horses is a lifelong learning curve for any equestrian. Graham believes that “the most important lesson horses have taught me is that the right way in the end isn’t always the quickest way. There isn’t a gadget or TikTok video out there that replaces the need for patience, kindness and understanding that every day is a school day. That is true when working with horses, and it is just as true in every aspect of life.”

In a lifetime spent around show ponies and horses, Graham has had a good number of highlights to remember.

“I have been lucky enough to ride some beautiful horses and ponies over the years and have enjoyed many amazing moments.”

However, one of his fondest is the memory of “a small local show, watching my son absolutely smash his first-ridden debut on his little Shetland pocket rocket.”

Graham's judging experiences and highlights

“Before judging, I got into stewarding once my riding career paused.”

This is something he would encourage all prospective judges to do.

“It teaches you how to manage a ring, which is ultimately the job of the judge. You learn to spot that child who is about to take flight on their bombproof schoolmaster, or how to deal with the one who has had a wrong leg and needs some encouragement before dealing with mum outside the ring.

“I was one of the main ring evening performance stewards for Ponies UK when it was at the East of England Showground, along with Phill Judge and Nigel Oliver. Great times.

“You also see much more than you would from the other side of the ropes and when I was starting out, the knowledge I gained from watching and talking to the senior judges was invaluable and helped me gain the confidence to become a judge.”

Graham started judging at at a very local level, “as is the case with most judges,” and has now now been a panel judge for over thirty years.

“I have been fortunate to judge at some fantastic shows and, without detracting from those experiences, my highlight has to be my two previous HOYS judging appointments; to judge at HOYS is both an honour and a privilege.

“That is the gig that every judge starting out wants to be invited to. The first time is obviously a bit daunting leading up to the show; however, the second time, you can allow yourself the time to take it all to enjoy and appreciate the experience of judging the best of the best.”

What will Graham be looking for in the ring?

“I started my riding career on show ponies and these, for me, will always hold that special place,” he says. “However, you will always get a kick when that special animal walks into the ring and that can come from any of the sections.

“I want to see animals smiling through the bridle, with an attitude that cannot be ignored,” he continues. “Reaching the finals is incredibly difficult, so all the ponies will already be of a high standard, true to type, correct in conformation and way of going.

“I’m really excited to see the one or two with that unmistakable star quality, deserving of having their names on the roll of honour alongside the great show animals of the past.”

Graham’s pet hates

“Maybe I am turning into a grumpy old man but I have a few. My biggest bugbear is bad manners and that is from the competitors. I was always taught to smile, be on time, be correctly presented and give the impression that I was doing something I enjoyed.

“Another one is animals going in a forced outline and not carrying themselves. But the pet hate that frustrates me the most is overcomplicated individual performances that are often inappropriate for the class and are usually badly executed.

“As a judge, I want to see lots of little things done well: correct paces with crisp transitions. I would rather see simple perfection than complex chaos. I have lost my winner numerous times for this reason.”

Tips for HOYS first-timers

Graham says: “The clue is in the title – be a showman.

“From the second you step into the ring to when – if you are lucky enough to be – you’re cantering out on the lap of honour, you are on show and someone will always be watching.

“Don’t play it safe; try to wow. With reference to my earlier point, that doesn’t mean attempting a one-handed serpentine, with a rein back and a walk to canter thrown in for good measure. At HOYS, there will be a set show, so take time to execute it correctly, don’t rush and most of all, enjoy the ride.”

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I had a proper debrief after the Europeans last summer with my trainer Anne van Olst. It wasn’t the result we wanted, so we went right back to basics and started again from there. What did we want to change? What could be better in the preparation? It was about becoming more of a team again, really – harmony, seeing what works.

It’s difficult when it doesn’t go to plan, but we never doubted Glamourdale would get back to his best. He always feels like he’s getting stronger and there’s always a little bit more in him – the hard part is getting it all right at the same time.

One thing we worked on was my position – just being quiet, sitting still, taking a breath instead of thinking, “Come on, we have to do it,” the second I’m in the ring.

The other was the basics: taking time off for him so he could hack, gradually building him up, then giving him a weekend to relax before we upped it again.

We kept to a variety all winter and didn’t compete him too much beforehand, so he arrived at the world championships in Aachen happy and fresh rather than campaigned into the ground.

We arrived on the Sunday, with the vet check on the Monday. It isn’t far to travel for us, so there was no need to go early. We were in the new stable block in Aachen, which was amazing even in the heat, with our own section for the British horses.

Things like the wash bays were well set up and big, too, which makes life easier with a stallion. Getting him there can be tricky if there are mares and other horses around, so having that sorted made a big difference.

He’d had a couple of weeks off breeding work before Aachen – not long, because he’s in demand. It’s part of what pays his costs, so that side matters, too. Mentally, he’d happily breed all the time, but we have to balance that against keeping his body fresh. And before Aachen, as a team, we got everything right.

We ride him over to the trot-up rather than leading him in-hand, because it keeps everything separate in his head from the breeding work. As soon as I’m on his back, he knows it’s dressage. It’s a system that works well with the stallions; if they’re led in-hand, they can get confused.

But from the moment we arrived, he was quiet and happy in his stable. We had one familiarisation session on the Monday, then I just sat on him and walked on the Tuesday to give him a leg-stretch before the grand prix the next day. That morning, he felt so good that I thought to myself, if there’s going to be a time, it’s now.

Glamourdale loves the crowds; he’s always been like this. Even at seven, when he won at the young horse World Championships, he loved that crowd. He’ll walk out on a long rein afterwards, just listening to them cheer.

But in the warm-up at Aachen, every time I let him go on a longer rein, he’d look over towards the main stadium and try to go there. I’d have to tell him, “No, we have to wait, it’s not our time yet.”

The whole way in, he was whinnying, ears pricked, trying to go faster. Then as soon as he was actually inside, he’d go quiet, and you could feel how settled he was. He’s done it in London, too – heading off to the main arena on a long rein because he knows that’s where everyone is. It’s an amazing quality for a horse to have.

I thought the grand prix went well. He warmed up beautifully and there was just a small misunderstanding going into the first piaffe. After that, we were completely in tune. At this level, you can’t dwell on a mistake – you’re already onto the next movement. It’s milliseconds, millimetre work – the slightest shift of a seat bone or a wrist – and over time it just becomes instinct through repetition.

But we did what we needed to for the team that day, which was the most important thing.

We had a day off before the special. We did a light training session in the covered arena that day so it wasn’t too warm for him, just working a few exercises in walk to get the feeling I needed without riding him too much – half-passes, walk pirouettes, that kind of thing.

At the end, I picked him up and rode the last line of the canter pirouettes, then I just sat there and said to Anne: “He’s so ready.”

It gives me such extra confidence having Anne there on the ground.

She’s so knowledgeable and she knows us inside out. Having her there also means someone’s making sure you don’t do too much, because you’ve still got two more days of competing ahead.

At that moment we both knew that whatever happened, we couldn’t have prepared any better.

On the day of the special, we had a long break between morning and evening sessions due to the heat. I was competing in the evening. I watched Becky Moody and Jagerbomb’s test in the morning, then went back to the hotel for lunch: simple pasta with tomato. It’s always pasta before a competition, so I know I’ll have the energy. Then I put on a sleep playlist to zone out properly.

A couple of hours before I got on, I switched to more of a high-beat playlist to switch on. It’s always the same songs, Titanium by Sia, Diamonds by Rihanna. Then I watched old videos back and ran through a few exercises to make sure my body felt ready. By the time I got on, I had total focus.

Going into the special, all you see is your pathway in and you just stay in it. I don’t remember much else, I was in such full focus.

I remember the trot extensions, the passage, the half-passes – we just floated through. It gave me a read on how he was feeling, and from there, you know how much to ask of him and how much risk to take.

After the Europeans, that pressure around the first piaffe – where we had made a mistake – was definitely in my head too, but we’d worked hard on my head as much as anything: relax, don’t panic, he can do it. In the special, I believed it and I think that showed in him.

I could hear the crowd. I remember I was in the middle of my one-time changes on the centre line and I just heard gasps. I almost laughed, I was like, “Really? In the middle of my ones? What’s going on?”

But his changes are incredible – so natural and big that sometimes I actually play it safe and don’t allow him too much forward, because he naturally goes into them. I wasn’t going to ask him to wait this time though.

I thought, if you want to do it like this, let’s do it, and show them the best we can. It’s always a risk showing changes that big. They take up the whole diagonal and if you start them even slightly late, you can find yourself in trouble by the end. But I’ve done them enough times now, I know if I get the timing right going in, we’ll be fine.

I hadn’t watched anyone else’s test beforehand or taken note of the scores, although you can’t really avoid hearing them over the loudspeaker while you’re warming up, so I did hear a few before I went in. Coming out of the arena, my legs were shaking. I don’t think I’d ever felt adrenaline like it.

There was one combination after me, Katharina Hemmer and Denoix PCH, who won bronze. I didn’t watch them go. I took Glamourdale back to the stable, gave him a carrot and walked back to the mixed zone because there’s nothing worse than standing there waiting.

But I knew it was the best test we’d ever done. There have been amazing tests before, but for the whole thing to come together like that was incredible. And to win, you’re doing it for the whole team, not just yourself. You don’t want to make a mistake for “Glammy” either, because he deserves the win. It was incredible.

In the freestyle, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an atmosphere quite like it, but for me it was the complete opposite of the special. It’s strange. I’ve never been so relaxed. We were just chilling in there, enjoying it, going with the music, taking our time. In the special, we both felt we needed to fight for it. In the freestyle, it was purely about enjoying it.

Our freestyle came together in bits. I’d picked out a few songs, and Joost Peters, who puts the music together, noticed they were all to do with flying, so he suggested a flying theme. I’d been playing We’re Going to Ibiza! by Vengaboys while riding him at home and thought, this fits so well – so we wrote in the line where I say, “Welcome aboard Glamourdale Airlines,” like an air hostess before we go into the ring.

The crowd laugh so hard at that bit that they almost miss the second line – “Please fasten your seatbelts, we’re about to take off. Enjoy your flight.” It’s such a fun idea and it suits him perfectly.

I could hear the crowd through the extended canters. Hearing them get excited while you’re riding is such a nice feeling.

When I got off, I said to everyone, “We couldn’t have done any more.” That’s such a good feeling to have – not, “If only I’d done this or that,” just that was everything. Whatever happened next, even a silver or a bronze, that was everything we could have ever dreamed of doing.

There were a few more to go after me in the freestyle, but again, I didn’t watch anyone. I wasn’t able to watch the test back straight away, so while we waited for the last scores to come in, I was just watching clips people were posting on Instagram from the test – just to feel it again.

When Isabell Werth was going, I had Anne in one ear telling me how well she was doing, and I was saying to her, “Can you not? I already know she’s amazing!”

No one had ever successfully defended two individual titles before. To be honest, it’s taken a long time for it to sink in – I had my first proper night’s sleep again only recently. It means more than our wins in 2022, I think, because staying at the top is mentally so much harder than getting there, and to prove we could do it again four years later, with the same horse going better than ever, is a huge testament to the whole team.

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Tullis Matson has an old black and white photo of a Suffolk horse ploughing a field with his grandfather. It’s not just a sentimental treasure, for heavy horses have had a huge impact in Tullis’s pioneering work with rare breeds. But that began with a passion for the horse.

“Suffolks, like many heavy horse breeds, put food on our table in the 1930s and ‘40s; they worked with us through wars, so now we have a choice,” says Tullis, founder and director of Stallion AI. “Do we let them go, or do we save them? It’s our heritage.”

Tullis spent a morning at Gatcombe Park Stud, where the Princess Royal has a small herd of Suffolk horses – stallions, mares and geldings – to see “how they’re trying to stop these amazing rare-breed horses from going extinct”. He went for a hack, a ride in the carriage and drove horses chain-harrowing a field, before visiting a few of Gatcombe’s Suffolk mares in their paddocks with Princess Anne.

“What amazes me is their versatility,” he says. “It was an incredible experience, I had an amazing ride – and I didn’t know how many gears they had. They’re powerful – weighing a tonne – yet graceful with it.”

Suffolks are of special interest to Tullis. In 2019, his cryoconservation techniques were used to select female sperm to breed a Suffolk filly in an effort to boost critically low numbers of mares in this rare breed.

“I’ve never looked through a foal’s back legs so quickly!” he says. “It was a big milestone. When that filly was born, I said, ‘This foal holds the future.’”

Tullis has used the same pioneering techniques for other endangered species, including bull elephants and white rhinos, through his charity Nature’s SAFE.

“Suffolks are close to my heart; my mother loved them,” he says. “But also this breed means so much to me because they’ve been a challenge when it comes to breeding. So we’ve had to up our game in terms of how we can freeze the semen and that’s now what we’ve pushed across to other breeds of horses we can help.

“Not only that, but we’ve been able to help other species like rhinos and elephants, and it all comes from the Suffolk horse. I thank the Suffolk because they helped develop this technology. We had to pull out all the stops to save them – if we could do this with this amazing animal, why couldn’t we do it with other species.

“The importance of saving these horses is absolutely paramount. If we lose the breed we can never bring it back.”

Princess Anne keeps a handful of Suffolk horses at Gatcombe, alongside other rare breed animals, such as Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs.

“I’m old enough to have seen these horses working in Norfolk,” the Princess says. “My passion for the Suffolks really comes from an annoyance that we forget at our peril just how good they were at working and how much they worked for us.

“These horses are the future,” says Tullis

We’ve lost that trait, identifying that these animals really enjoyed what they did.

“The heavies have been bred to work for a very long time. It’s in their DNA. People need to understand they’ve been our companion animals and working partners. They understand what they’re doing and enjoy it: show them a piece of harness and they know what to do. They say, ‘That’s OK, we’ll do that.’

While Tullis is already impressed by these heavies’ versatility, Princess Anne lists more of their skills.

“All our paddocks are chain-harrowed by the Suffolks,” she says. “There are places where having horses working makes a difference – they make less mess, they’re neater, they can work in smaller places.

“I just wonder if they could have a future with the fuel crisis,” she laughs, “so they’re not entirely loss-making. That would be nice.”

One avenue she would like to see explored is logging: “The logging is done much more in Nordic countries, the States and in Canada,” she says. “If you want a harness, you have to go to Scandinavia or America to get it, but there is more scope here than you think. And my Christmas tree was delivered by Suffolk last year. They could do more of that.

“There is commercially a possibility for these horses – we just have to be aware of what that could be so that people can make it possible.”

Tullis adds: “Their numbers are slightly improving but you cannot be complacent. They can’t exist just on goodwill, we have to find a job for them. It’s incredible what they’re doing at Gatcombe.”

Both Princess Anne and Tullis agree that to save the breed, we need to think outside the box, continuing to push the bounds of both technology and ideas.

When a breeding population falls very low, inbreeding makes it hard to get mares in foal. The SPARKS (Single Population Analysis and Records Keeping System) advisory scheme, which uses deep pedigree analysis, is now being applied to Suffolk breeding to inform appropriate matches.

“It’s like a dating agency for Suffolks,” and has really helped turn around other rare breeds such as Cleveland Bays,” says Tullis. “Inbreeding is such a problem in small populations because it can lead to mid- to late-term pregnancy loss, higher neonatal losses, infertility and problems with semen quality. And foals are more likely to be male – when we need to increase the female population.”

Princess Anne points out that the fact that Suffolks are so versatile means they make a great cross on a lighter breed – which has possibly exacerbated their rarity.

“Arguably the reason they’ve become so rare is that they make such good outcrosses,” she says, introducing Tullis to a 22-year-old mare who’s had three foals, one of which was half thoroughbred.

“They have relatively clean legs, so a lot of them were bred as good heavy or middleweight hunters, straight crosses, but they didn’t really go back to the pedigree enough so they kind of disappeared. Her crossbred is dark brown, so looking at him you wouldn’t think that’s a Suffolk, but there are others you look at and you can tell they have Suffolk in their history.”

Princess Anne asks what else could be done to perpetuate the breed. The Suffolk has always been exclusively chestnut (traditionally without the T) but could the gene pool be widened?

“It’s often about colour,” she says. “In the States, the native population learnt to breed coloured animals. If that’s the only difference, what does it matter?

“So I think there is scope to progress. I think sometimes we quibble about technology but with rare breeds it’s a really useful addition. It gives you scope you didn’t have before.”

Tullis agrees that all options need to be considered. “We’re going down a funnel and they call it the extinction vortex, which is very difficult to climb out of. We have to look at what’s out there and not have tunnel vision.”

But he remains optimistic: “We have the technology we are already using, freezing sperm and eggs, then tissue is the future as it contains the whole DNA,” he says.

“We have to look at all technologies – they’re all tools in conservation – if we want to save these species. We owe it to the next generation.”

He pats one of the mares.

“These horses, the female line, are the future,” he says. “These are the horses that helped save the elephants and the rhinos.”

Facts about the Suffolk horse

• The Suffolk is one of four British heavy horse breeds, alongside the Shire, Clydesdale and Percheron – all of which are among the biggest horse breeds in the world
• The breed is often known colloquially as Suffolk Punch, but just Suffolk is correct.
• They are always chestnut – spelt the traditional Suffolk way with no “t”.
• Listed as a priority by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, the highest level of endangerment. The data is showing improvement, but prognosis is guarded as the number of breeding animals is still very low.
• All studbook horses can trace their male lines back to a single stallion, “Crisp’s Horse of Ufford”, foaled in 1768.
• Unlike other heavy horse breeds, they have minimal feather, preventing them from being weighed down by heavy East Anglian clay.
• According to the Suffolk Horse Society’s secretary Belinda Rudderham: “On average, 85 mares go to stud each year; the society registers 40 foals”.

Do you have experience with Suffolk horses? Let us know at hhletters@futurenet.com

With thanks to D&H, who facilitated ambassador Tullis Matson’s interview at Gatcombe Park

If you were to design an elite event horse, Kananaskis probably wouldn’t be the prototype. Now 18 years old, he stands just 15.1hh, with legs made of proverbial glass and is – according to his rider Cerys Macaulay – only “18% thoroughbred”. He’s had the best part of three years out of the game, due to Covid and injuries, and requires an unconventional work routine.

Yet, this brilliant little horse has jumped clear round two junior and a young rider Europeans, several Nations Cups and a five-star. This year, well into veteran status, he was crowned runner-up at the under-25 World Championships at Millstreet and the equivalent national class at Bramham.

“The horse’s record is ridiculous,” says Cerys. “He’s been abroad more times than most people have been on holiday.”

Cerys started riding “Ru” only two years ago, when he was rehabbing from an operation. Up until then he’d been campaigned by her boyfriend Richard Coney. But he was in the last-chance saloon in terms of his competitive future.

“He had an injury to his right leg in 2021; the following spring he did his left leg – then had surgery on the right one,” Cerys explains.

“Richard said, ‘I’m a bit big for him anyway – why don’t you rehab him and see if you can keep him in any sort of work?’ I’m so grateful to Richard and his mother Wendy for giving me this opportunity.”

Cerys spent the winter hacking, “mooching about” (though he’s cheeky to hack), played around at a few novices and by the end of the season they finished fourth at Cornbury three-star.

Cerys, who runs a rehab business, Honington Grange Equine Rehabilitation, manages Ru very carefully. Most of his daily work is on the water treadmill and trotting up hills. He rarely goes in the school, and has regular Hofmag sessions (pulsed electromagnetic therapy) plus time in the salt and oxygen room to boost his respiration and coat.

Cerys says it’s a combination of this nurture and his zest for the game that makes him so successful.

“He tries very hard and he’s also really athletic in his body,” she adds. “He doesn’t do any galloping and we hardly jump him; he just does as much low-intensity work as he needs. He’s probably not as fast or fit as he could be, but he’s sound and in one piece.

“At Millstreet, he was jumping to the top of the wings. He loves going to a party. He shouts his head off when he arrives at a show and then drags my groom Liv Smith around like he’s saying, ‘I’m the man, look at me!’ You can tell it’s his thing.”

Cerys doesn’t seem one to shout about her ambitions, but this year’s were very modest when you consider what she’s achieved.

“I thought we might as well give the under-25 trials a crack seeing as he’s such a good horse and it’s my last year,” she says. “And he ended up at the World Championships.”

The pair stole through the field from their 12th-placed dressage mark – then after a fast cross-country round leapfrogged from seventh to silver with a clear showjumping.

“I didn’t think I could ride well under pressure but when you have to get it done, I seem to be able to think, ‘Come on, let’s do it,’” she says. “I was surprised by how well I rode in the showjumping because I was really nervous. My team was winding me up because my heart rate was over 200 beats per minute during my round!

“And then, when everyone was waiting to go into prize-giving, they all had to wait while Ru decided he needed to wee,” she laughs. “Every time he goes into an arena, whether it’s at home or a show, he’ll pretend he needs to wee, standing with his legs really far apart for ages.”

While Kananaskis is a gloriously eccentric star of eventing, Cerys has taken an equally unconventional route into the sport. Her professionalism is impressive by any stretch, even more when you consider how relatively new she is to the sport.

She grew up in the suburbs of Manchester in a non-equestrian family, and got her horsey fix in a riding school until the age of 14. Call it chance or destiny, but the fork in her life that led down the eventing path has a serendipitous ring to it.

“My stepdad sold a car to a man whose daughter did a bit of eventing,” she explains. “He said, ‘My daughter would like to get into eventing but we don’t have a clue what we’re doing.’

Cerys ended up moving her ex-riding school pony to the daughter of the buyer’s yard and entering the eventing world.

“I only did a couple of events – it was my birthday treat – and got eliminated,” Cerys smiles.

Her first two ponies were both riding school rejects.

“The first one was a four-year-old that a lot of people fell off and the riding school was closing down,” says Cerys. “The manager asked mum if we’d have him and although she said no, they persuaded us it wouldn’t be that expensive on working livery. That was my mum’s worst financial mistake ever!”

During Covid, Cerys found she had extra time on her hands while studying for a degree in rehab and exercise science, and started working for Tyler Cassells, where her horse was on livery. She had a four-year-old she couldn’t get on with; Tyler had a novice schoolmaster, Dooney Rock, he was happy to let her ride – and so they swapped.

“I loved Dooney Rock,” Cerys says. “He was fantastic across country and took me to intermediate, but not in a particularly stylish fashion. I was always last.”

By now she was going out with Richard, who let her compete his 17.1hh three-star horse Drumconnick Cavalier (George), “the one that set me up”.

“George was my first proper horse; he made me think I could do this seriously,” she says. “We didn’t think he’d do as well as he did but in less than 18 months we went from novice to four-star. It wasn’t really planned, but he was a kind horse who didn’t mind if I got it wrong.”

She’s now based at Richard’s yard in Lincolnshire, renting a barn from the Coneys alongside fellow eventers Holly Woodhead and James Avery. It looks like a typical eventing set-up – a mix of competition horses, schooling liveries and breakers – but Cerys’ grind behind the scenes is extraordinary.

She also runs her rehab barn with the water treadmill, salt room, combi floor and Hofmag machine. In her dwindling spare time, she’s also a professional equestrian and pet photographer. In Covid she even worked as an HGV driver.

Her family has instilled a serious work ethic. As we speak on a Friday lunchtime, she’s already ridden 10 horses and an afternoon of admin lies ahead before another day on the road visiting yards with the Hofmag machine.

“My grandparents and my mum were always really supportive, but they said ‘Riding’s not a career, you can’t play ponies all day – you need a job and then you can play ponies,’” Cerys says. “The rehab barn pays the bills, that’s what funds the eventing yard. It’s that age-old thing of trying to get more owners.

“I can’t have a day off because I’m always on my phone – booking the farrier or organising water treadmill sessions. If not I’ll miss out on business opportunities.”

The work is endless, but the results are coming. She ticked off this year’s goals by the summer, yet there’s no sense of complacency or assumption that she’s made it. Kananaskis will be 19 next year, and Cerys is building from the bottom up.

“With Ru, my goal is just to keep him sound and happy,” she says. “If he looks like he wants to keep going, great, but he doesn’t have to do four-star. He needs a job, but he could also do prix st georges dressage or jumping, and just have a nice time.

“My ultimate aim is to do a five-star, particularly Badminton as I grew up going there every year. To do that well would give me a lot of satisfaction.”

Next season she’ll be out of the under-25 category, and finds the idea of “aiming for senior teams, being British, quite scary”.

“If I had a horse that was good enough, of course I’d think about that, but for now I want to keep producing nice young horses well and maybe doing some Nations Cups – that’s a great way of getting team experience without so much pressure.”

The wonderful Ru may be coming to the end of his remarkable story, but for Cerys, this is just the beginning.

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Helen Starkie is one of the judges who has the enviable task of judging at the 2026 Horse of the Year Show (HOYS).

This year, what each judge is assessing will be revealed just the night before the class. Trialled in 2024, this format is back by popular demand. So, while we won't know what Helen is judging for the time being, we can learn a little more about her, her background in showing, and what she will be looking for in the ring.

Helen Starkie’s background in horses

Lancashire-based Helen has been involved with horses since a child.

“Being a pony-mad child, my parents bought me my first pony when I was 12 years old,” says Helen. “He was a great all-rounder that I enjoyed competing at local shows. In the 80s we hacked to shows, did three or four classes and then hacked home. How things have changed!”

Both of Helen’s sons – Jack and Morgan – rode and showed ponies, predominantly natives. Both sons were successful, too, winning the mountain and moorland (M&M) first ridden class at HOYS; Jack won aboard the multigarlanded Waxwing Paintbox in 2006 before going on to take the mini M&M championship, and Morgan steered Wendon Choice to the title in 2013.

“The photos take pride of place on my living room wall,” says Helen. “Competing with their ponies gave them a strong work ethics and made them competitive. They are 24 and 30 now and are both doctors.”

Jack and Morgan also rode a pony that Helen considers has had a significant impact on her: Pumphill Bennet.

“Both my sons rode him with great success and many wins at HOYS, Royal International, Olympia and county shows. He never stopped giving his all and the partnership that he had with the boys was a pleasure to watch. He’s 25 now and enjoying his well deserved retirement at home on our farm.”

Helen says, reflecting on her time in showing: “Showing has also taught me good sportsmanship, accepting wins modestly and to act professionally when results were not always in my favour.”

Helen’s judging experience

“I started judging and stewarding when my sons got older and I had time to put something back into the system, and hopefully encourage and advise people coming into showing,” she says.

Since then, Helen has judged a host of shows up and down the country, including judging the M&M final at London International, an appointment she considers a highlight.

“I also judged in New Zealand this year, which was a fantastic experience and I would love to go back there.”

What will Helen be looking for when judging?

“At HOYS this year I am hoping to see forward moving ponies with good limb and where applicable, true to type movement and conformation.

“I am a big fan of tradition in showing regarding dress, performance, manners and sportsmanship,” she says.

“One of my pet hates is ponies going over-bent and ponies not being true to type and lacking good limb.

“My advice to HOYS first-timers is to plan your working in times, and enjoy every moment and enjoy all the show.”

To stay up to date with the latest equestrian news in the run-up to Horse of the Year Show, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

There’s no better way to inspire a child than for them to see their heroes encouraging them. And for 100-odd budding jockeys competing on a landmark day of Pony Club racing at Newbury, some of the very biggest names in the sport were cheering them home.

“A fantastic initiative and a brilliant way to encourage young people into the sport,” summed up 20-time champion jump jockey Sir AP McCoy, after attending the Pony Club meeting staged at Newbury Racecourse for the first time.

The Vine branch of the Pony Club organised the raceday, on the Bank Holiday weekend, with nearly 100 children between the ages of nine and 16 competing. There were six Pony Club races, an a further three Pony Racing Authority races.

Besides AP, several other top jockeys and trainers were at Newbury to support this landmark event at the Group One track, as well as event rider William Fox-Pitt, whose daughter Chloe has enjoyed a great deal of success in pony races this year.

“Competing in such a professional environment helps children learn, improve and develop the desire to succeed,” added AP. “It was wonderful to see so many leading figures from racing supporting the day, and I thoroughly enjoyed being there.”

Nicky Henderson, six-time champion jumps trainer, was involved on a personal basis, with members of his family competing – on different levels.

“We had a fantastic family day out, my grandson competing in one of the races and my granddaughter sporting one of her mother’s best hats and winning a prize in the ‘best turned out’ awards,” Nicky said.

“So beautifully organised, nice and local and so great to see so many young really getting involved in this wonderful sport at such a young age.”

Five-time champion Flat jockey Oisin Murphy was also watching on, and presented prizes to the winners alongside fellow Flat star Hollie Doyle.

“Pony racing at Newbury was brilliantly organised and gave young riders a wonderful opportunity to gain valuable racecourse experience,” Oisin said.

“Huge credit must go to Lady Warren, Newbury Racecourse and everyone involved. I hope the event continues to go from strength to strength.” ‎

Do you know someone who might be interested in the sport? Find out how to get started in pony racing.

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Next week’s Agria Blenheim Horse Trials (17-20 September) will showcase the work of a course-designer who is leading on a major track in the UK for the first time, with Jay Hambly responsible for the course.

Canadian Jay, 52, says he is “super thrilled” to have the job at the Oxfordshire event, which hosts a CCI4*-L and an eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S.

“I have many friends in the UK and they’re super excited about it. I wouldn’t never downplay it – to come to Blenheim, to design in the UK, doesn’t happens for a lot of people outside of the UK,” he says, referencing US designer Derek di Grazia at Defender Burghley Horse Trials as one of the few other instances.

Jay says he isn’t one who’s good at pushing himself forward. His involvement at Blenheim has grown out of longstanding friendships with British designers and course-builders who have been, and still are, associated with Blenheim.

Like most course-designers, Jay rode up to advanced level.

“I went through Pony Club, got my A test and then I lived at a place called Checkmate, which in North America was a famous eventing facility in the late 80s and early 90s – before we really had star levels, there was Checkmate, Kentucky and Fair Hill,” he says.

“As a kid, to pay for riding horses and being a working student, I would work for Checkmate and help David Evans build. The designer was Mark Phillips and the technical delegate was always Mike Etherington-Smith. So that’s the group who taught me – David, Mike, Mark, and then also Mike Tucker, and later, Ian Stark and Derek.”

Looking for ways to pay for “his hobby and habit of riding”, Jay became a course-builder and then a designer. These days, he still competes but not at the top-level – typically his business is in producing ex-racehorses through the lower levels and selling them ono.

On the course side, he was on the build team for the Olympics in 2008 and 2020. He is the designer at events such as Bromont, Rebecca Farm, the grand prix eventing showcase at Bruce’s Field and the American Eventing Championships at Kentucky, as well as assisting Derek at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Jay has been responsible for the track at several Central American and Caribbean Games and is lined up to do next year’s Pan American Games in Peru.

Blenheim cross-country course: a similar route to 2025

Jay assisted Mark Phillips in designing last year’s European Championships track at Blenheim and then – strongly encouraged by previous Blenheim designer David Evans, who is still the event’s course-builder – he went through the process of applying to take over as designer, with confirmation he had the job in the late spring of this year.

He says the permanent features of the site at Blenheim – the lake, the stabling, the arena and the tradestands – mean that the route is fairly constrained and for this year at least, people should not expect major changes to that, although he will look to make some more alterations in the future.

“In the four-star short for the eight- and nine-year-olds, you want to keep the jumps out in front of those horses so it’s not too complicated for them to pick up the lines – you’re trying to encourage those horses to get more confident, finish better than they started and become team horses in the future,” he says.

The Blenheim cross-country course for the CCI4*-L will be somewhat softened from the European Championships last year.

Jay explains: “I have added a combination earlier, because last year the Dew Pond was the first combination, so this year they have something to do before they get there. And I tried to spread the efforts out a little bit more, to have it feel a bit more balanced, as last year it was very intense from the ditch and wall at the start of the trade fair through to the rollercoaster piece of ground.”

Apart from the first and last fences, the two courses use pretty much completely different fences in order to ensure the best possible ground for the horses.

Jay says the organising team at Blenheim have been “amazing” and he’s actually done much of the work remotely rather than by being on-site.

He explains: “Because I know the venue and the fences, I did a lot of it on a computer. I would go back and forth with David – nobody knows the ground better or obstacles available better David.

“Yes, you have to go to the venues to finalise layouts, put the jumps in place, to see how the ground works and where the lumps and the bumps are. But you can get your distance, your track, your concept finished before you ever get there, when it’s a place you’ve been to before.”

When we spoke in late August, Jay had an onsite course walk with Mark Phillips planned, with enough time for tweaks to be made after that as necessary.

And what does Jay hope people will say about his Blenheim cross-country tracks?

He doesn’t want it to be a memory test, where riders end up eliminated by jumping the wrong fence because of the number of options, and he says he doesn’t have a particular trademark style.

“But I would hope that when it is all said and done, people feel it’s hard enough because it needs to be a competition,” he says.

“I think you can really reward people with time, so I hope the time is difficult and if you ride flawlessly, you get rewarded without time-penalties and then I hope that trickle down happens so people are appropriately rewarded with less time-penalties for riding well.

“And I would hope people feel like their horses are better for having done it at the end, that things were clear to them and their horse, and any mistake was what happens on cross-country.”

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When you say the name Michael Owen in the equestrian world, people are just as likely to think you mean the five-star event rider as the former England and Liverpool star striker.

But the footballing Michael Owen has, in fact, been obsessed with horses since he was a child.

“My mum used to ride horses, and every time I played football on Saturdays, my dad would stop by on the way home at the bookies and have a 50p bet,” Michael explains.

“So we would watch the horses that he bet on on Saturday afternoon, and I just got into it from watching it. The colours, the animals, everything about it.

“So it was obviously in my blood somewhere. That just grew and grew and, by the time I was 18, I was so into it – and I could afford it – that I bought my first racehorse. What followed over the next few years... I was addicted to it, loved it.”

At the age of 23 and at the peak of his playing career, Michael bought Manor House Stables, an old dairy farm in Cheshire where his racing outfit is still based today. It gave him security that when his short footballing era was over, his life would still have the thrill of following a passion.

“I thought I’m going into this business, and when I retire from football it gives me something I’ll have to get up for and enjoy and it couldn’t have gone any better,” he says. “It’s just perfect, it made retiring easy to stomach, it gives me a purpose in life.”

“That was 23 years ago, [starting with] 10 horses and two members of staff; now we’re 135 horses and 50 members of staff, winning races all over the world.”

But Michael’s interest in racing has metamorphosed over the years, sparked by betting and being enriched as he experienced the full prism of the sport. But the horse has always remained central.

“The horse underpins everything: the beauty of the horse, the athlete, the speed, everything about it, underpins it,” he says.

Twenty years ago, if you asked Michael, he’d have had a different focus to now.

“I’d say, ‘oh, I love having a bet’, trying to pick out a winner and work out the puzzle of the distance, the trip, the handicap system, all these different things.”

But as the years have ticked by, Michael has started to apply his own experience of sport science and training to his racehorses.

“This is my background, so I’m listening to all the science and thinking, ‘that will make our horses go faster, that will make our horses recover quicker, that will prepare them better’ – I’d be quizzing the trainer, quizzing the vets.

“And I’m fascinated by the business side: growing a business, surrounding yourself with really bright people in their specialist fields, I love it, Iove it. I love every stage, and could tell you another 10 things I love about the horses.”

One big pivot has been his social life.

“I used to be pretty quiet, pretty focused on football,” he says. “If I went racing I just wanted to sit in a quiet corner of a box and read my Racing Post and watch the racing. I didn’t really want to go into the crowds and mingle, and get beer spilt on me – it just wasn’t me at the time.

“But as I’ve developed, as I’ve got older, I’m the most sociable person there, always last at the bar – well hopefully first at the bar, because that’s more generous!”

One of the many aspects that brings him joy is naming his horses.

“That’s one of the lovely things about owning a horse, you get to choose the colours the jockey wears, you get to name it,” he says.

“I’ve named so many over the years. My first ever horse was Talk To Mojo. My brothers and sister are called Terry, Andrew, Leslie, Karen, so T-A-L-K, my dad’s Terry Owen, I’m Michael Owen and my mum’s Jeanette Owen. I thought I’d combine all the family.

“The second horse I owned was Etienne Lady because I scored my famous goal against Argentina aged 18 in St Etienne.”

He recalls the day he named the foal that would become arguably his greatest horse so far, Brown Panther.

“I owned the mother and when he was foaled, the stud manager phoned me and said ‘you’ve had the baby, it’s a colt, come and see it’. They bring him out the stables, he puts his head down and looks, and the way he walks, he sort of stalks, and I said ‘he’s like a panther, there it is, there’s the name, Brown Panther’.

This prowling foal ran in the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne Cup, won at the Dubai World Cup meeting and Royal Ascot as well as the Irish St Leger and Goodwood Cup.

“He went on to be one of the best horses about, the pride of my life, just an exceptional horse. He danced every dance on every corner of the globe. He was just amazing.”

His footballing background is integral. Michael describes himself as the “chairman” of Manor House, with the trainer – Hugo Palmer – the “manager”. The jockeys and horses he likens to his “players”. Everyone has their role. In the same way his managers never told him “how to score a goal”, he leaves the training to the experts.

“I was born to play football, but I wasn’t born to run a business, so I’ve had to learn on the hoof,” he says. “I know my business, I think I know what works, but I don’t train the horses myself, I don’t treat the horses. I don’t tell the riders [how to ride], and I don’t ride the horses myself.

“That’s one thing that I’ve learnt from football, surround yourself with the best people and put round pegs in round holes.”

Michael won golden boots, the FA Cup, and the Premier League in his former career, how far do his ambitions reach now?

“Manor House is in the Premier League, but we’re like a Leicester City, 16th or 17th in the league,” he says. “Ten years ago we were 88th. We’re young, hungry and upwardly mobile.

“Where can we go? I know where I want to go and I’ll not stop – ever – from achieving that. And that’s probably my biggest fault and also my biggest positive, I will live and die by that.

“Because if you don’t risk, you don’t challenge yourself, then you will just be another one of the 400 yards and I don’t want to be a partaker. Taking part doesn’t count in my eyes, you’ve got to win.”

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Paige Watson, groom to Max Warburton’s Deerpairc Revelry, has won this year’s Spillers groom’s prize at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials – and a £1,000 cheque to go with it.

“Technically it’s £1,100,” Paige corrects, laughing. “You get an extra £100 if your horse starts cross-country as well.”

Asked how she’ll spend it, she adds: “I’ll probably do something sensible, like pay off a credit card. That’s the adult move, isn’t it? Sorry, boring. I should go on a big spending spree!”

Purple shampoo and no shortcuts

Ask Paige her secret on keeping Deerpairc Revelry’s striking grey coat so clean and there’s no hesitation. “Purple shampoo is my best friend – I have a five-litre drum of it, just for him.

“He gets a bath probably twice a day when he’s here. At home, he’s actually really dirty, but at a show he keeps himself quite clean.

“But as a groom, there are no shortcuts. Don’t ever think there’s an easy way to do something, or that it’d be quicker if you skipped a bit. That’s when you get caught out.

“You just have to be on it all the time and do everything as best you can. That’s all that matters. That and baby oil – I love baby oil.”

She was presented with the award after this morning’s (7 September) pre-showjumping trot-up, for which she had an early start. “I started at about half five this morning – it’s a lot of icing, walking about, making sure they look okay,” she explains.

“The priority is that they’re sound and ready for the trot-up, and then you can start to titivate, get them clean, do all that. Quick bath, plait him, and it’s an hour and a half, maybe – not too bad.”

Deerpairc Revelry – as so often seems to be the case with greys – doesn’t always cooperate once he’s presentable. “He’s already rolled in his rug this morning – covered in shavings. He’ll have to have another bath. I’ve just accepted now that he has a bath in the morning and one at lunchtime.”

A six-year partnership, and a horse with character

Paige has groomed for Max Warburton for six years, part of a grooming career now stretching back around a decade. “Before Max, I worked for Matt Heath and Ben Hobday,” she says. “I worked at a tack shop, and I was a hunt groom for a while too – but nothing non-horsey.”

Horses have been a constant since childhood. “I’ve had them since I was about five. Always horses. Nothing else has ever really interested me.”

Deerpairc Revelry, she says, is full of contradictions. “He’s a funny character – quite quirky, can be a bit of a handful. He gets very lit up by clapping, especially anything behind him, so he’s a bit worried about that.

“But he’s very easy in a lot of senses too. Apart from digging holes in his stable, he’s a really lovely boy. I’m just very lucky to have a horse like him, taking me to cool places like this.”

For all the glamour of a Burghley week, cross-country day itself sounds like something to be endured rather than enjoyed. “Sick. Very sick,” Paige says of how she feels watching Deerpairc Revelry go round – the 12-year-old stallion went clear with 14.8 time-faults.

“It's very non-verbal in the stables on a Saturday morning – not a lot of talking. You want them to do well, but first and foremost, you just want them to come home. You spend day in, day out with these horses, and regardless of the result, you just want them safe and sound.”

Recognition, and advice for the next generation

The prize itself means something beyond the money, Paige says. “It's nicer just for the recognition, I think. We’re behind the scenes most of the time – the horses turn up, the riders are sat on their backs doing all the hard work, and we’re just there in the background.

“I definitely don’t expect £1,000 prizes all the time! I don’t think any groom really goes to a show expecting it. We don’t do it for the money. We do it for the love of the horses we look after.

“If you’re lucky enough to come to places like this, it’s a privilege – you never get bored of it.”

She’s honest about the less romantic side of the job too. “You might think you’re just picking up poo every day – day in, day out. But there comes a point where you think, actually, maybe it was worth all the 2am starts and 10pm finishes. Then you feel quite lucky.”

Despite the long hours and the nerves watching her charges compete, she adds that she wouldn’t choose anything else: “I don't think there’s any other career for me.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

US-based Australian Ema Klugman arrived at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials this week for her first British five-star, squeezed in around a demanding legal career.

“I’m only two years in, so I think I’m still working out some of the kinks and trying to figure out exactly how to manage it,” Ema, 28, said.

Her ride this week, the 13-year-old grey Chiraz, was produced in the UK by Nicola Wilson up to two-star level. He finished on 109.3, after a safe but slow round across country that picked up only time-penalties, and two fences down in the showjumping.

“I never really thought I would be a professional, full-time rider,” Ema explains. “I went to university, and then graduate school – I’ve always been pretty academic, so I was hoping I could find a career that I could mesh with horses.”

She’s spent the past two years working for a judge, managing caseloads and deciding cases, before moving into private client work. “I’ve been doing federal civil cases, basically monetary claims for the most part – contracts, things like that.”

For now, the horses are getting the greater share of her attention. “Right now I have a lot of really good horses, so I’m focusing on them a bit, doing a little less work,” Ema said.

“It can be some very early mornings and very late nights, particularly in winter. I usually get up before six, go to work, go to the gym, start working, and then I try to leave work mid-afternoon if I can, and go get on and ride. It’s pretty much pitch-black when I finish at 10 or half-ten, sometimes. And the weekends are obviously very full with competing.”

She isn’t shy about admitting that doubts sometimes creep in. “Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing – I could just be normal, go home and have dinner with my wife, have a nice evening. Instead, I’m riding circles around the indoor arena! It’s worth it, though, to come to something like this.”

But there are practical reasons behind the balancing act too. “In America, you have health insurance with your job, so it’s a bit of a safer career. A lot of riders don’t have health insurance because they’re self-employed.”

She might well have been thankful for that insurance after some drama on cross-country day. “It’s only his second five-star, so it was quite a big ask to bring him here,” Ema said. “But I believed in him, and he believed in me.

“I lost a stirrup at the Leaf Pit – he had a bit of a funny jump down, and I suppose I should have put my heels down more. I tried to get it back on the way to the brush, then thought, screw it, there’s no way I’m getting it back, I’ve just got to ride.

“So I jumped the next three fences without a stirrup, which wasn’t quite according to plan. But he was great – he had no idea, and just stuck to the line.”

With the week now behind them, Chiraz will now have a break. “He’s had a big year doing his first two five-stars,” Ema said. “He’ll do some four-stars this fall, and then probably Kentucky five-star again next year, and just keep improving.

“Now that he’s jumped around here, I believe in him even more than I did before.”

For Ema, the return to reality is rather more immediate. “I’ve got to get my horse home, get myself home and organised, probably do a bit of paperwork. And then back to the office.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

We’re probably all guilty of carrying a stereotypical image of a groom as a young person – it’s a tough physical job, requiring plenty of energy, and in many cases, national and international travel. Mags Hill, groom to Simon Grieve at this week’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials defies that stereotype.

Mags is 67 years old and she’s worked with horses for 50 years.

“I was born into the hunting fraternity, because my dad was a huntsman in Devon. So we were brought up with horses and hounds. I used to ride my dad’s hunter when when I was a little nipper and play cowboys and Indians with my brother,” says Mags.

Mags was a serious runner in her teenage years.

“I used to run for the county. I was an 800m runner and I could do that in under two minutes,” she says.

“I quite enjoyed that until I damaged my knee when I was 16 and that put an end to that career. They said I could have surgery, but I thought, ‘Well, what’s the point? It’ll only give me another six months and then it’s going to be back to where it was.’ So I picked horses back up and came back into this world.”

Mags started helping with the hunt at weekends and then was employed there full-time when she left school.

Over her five decades working with horses, she’s covered a huge range of areas – thoroughbred studs, racing, hunt groom (“I worked at one of the famous hunts of the world for 17 seasons, under my sister, who was head groom, but perhaps I shouldn’t say which pack”), point-to-pointing and showing.

“I used to ride, but I don’t ride any more because I broke my leg quite badly in two places in two separate incidents,” she says. “I’ve got a metal plate with screws in and screws in my foot attached to the plate. The surgeon said, ‘If you have another fall Mags, you will lose your foot.’ So the decision’s made for you. But I’ve got my foot and I’m here. I can still work, I can still run around after Simon.”

Mags Hill, groom to Simon Grieve: ‘Going to events is like a mini holiday’

Working for Simon is Mags’ first job in eventing and she has been with him for 14 years. She works in a team of three on the yard, with her daughter Amanda Singer and Brooke Rodwell. Amanda has two children, six-month-old Matilda and three-year-old Stanley.

Mags has already hit the shops at Burghley: “Amanda says, ‘Mum, don’t buy anything’, but you can’t come to these places and not buy something for the grandkids. They’ve got loads of toys, so I bought them a sweatshirt each.”

Brooke and Amanda go to the one-day events with Simon, while Mags’ role is to look after the yard on those days – plaiting, bathing and preparing horses for the next day’s competition – and then to travel to stay-away fixtures.

She says: “It gets me away from the yard, because I’m there all the time and I live there too. Coming away is like having a little mini holiday, isn’t it? That’s what we say when Simon and I get in the lorry, ‘Oh we’re off on a mini holiday again.’

“I’ve been around quite a lot of places with Simon. Ballindenisk, Pau and my favourite is Le Lion, for the young horse championships – it’s lovely there and everything is so relaxed.”

Mags says she has always been competitive, whether in running, racing or now in eventing. She doesn’t get nervous.

“I love to watch – I’ll watch on the screen for cross-country,” she says. “In racing, you go to the paddock with the horse. You lead it up. You put the jockey on. You let it go, and it comes back, and it’s more or less the same here. You put him on, you send him off, he comes back. It’s not that much more difficult.

“I don’t walk the course any more. I used to, when I was younger, but I’m getting older now, it’s a long way round and it’s quite hilly. My little legs get tired.”

Mags says Simon’s ride Autograf (Buster) can be a bit more grumpy when he’s fit and knows where he is, but it’s clear he has plenty of respect for his tiny groom.

“We were going back down the ski run here earlier in the week,” she says, indicating the slope out of the collecting ring, “and I said to Buster, ‘I don’t want to be going down here on my bottom, Buster’ because it was slippery, and Buster really slowed down and was very good. Sometimes he just marches off with me, but he does listen.”

Mags and I are speaking on Friday evening at Burghley. Her plan for today, cross-country day, was to feed Buster at 7am, muck out, take him for a walk, give him a few hours to chill out and then start to get him ready for his 1.05pm start time.

After cross-country, Brooke and Amanda will be there to help Mags and they’ll stick to the same routine as last year, when Simon had a great round to finish 18th. Mags will lead Buster for the critical post cross-country minutes and the others will be in charge of washing off.

“Everybody knows what job they’re doing tomorrow and if they don’t I’ll shout at them,” she says.

Mags emphasises that increasing recognition for grooms in the industry is a positive move, recognising the long hours they put in to support riders and owners.

“Sometimes you just need a little bit of love yourself, if that’s what you can call it – Simon does that. He brings breakfast in most mornings and when we go away, I don’t have to buy anything, he buys it all,” she says.

Mags’ favourite memories

Mags picks out three favourite memories from her many years’ experience.

“We were doing a hound parade at the Royal Show and Concorde flew over. We had a picture of the hounds and hunt staff in the middle of the arena and Concorde above them. I think the picture made the front cover of the Horse & Hound,” she says (we’re working on the fact checking here…).

“And then we went to Chatsworth to parade there and we had seven packs of foxhounds, four packs of beagles, three sets of basset hounds, all in the arena at the same time. We were trying to keep that lot all separate to do each parade, then at the end they all went in the middle and we put them in one lorry.

“Then we had to sort them all out and that was quite funny. We still ended up with some of somebody else’s hounds and the huntsman had to ring up the neighbouring packs to come and pick up their hounds.”

Finally, Mags talks about the fact Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s successful National Hunt horses Colonius and Isle Of Man retired to go hunting with the pack she worked for.

“We were very privileged that she sent them to us, privileged to look after and ride them,” she says.

“And she came to see us all – she took the time to talk to every single one of us on the establishment and she even shook hands with the children, which they thought was lovely. How many people have that privilege to meet the Queen Mum?”

After all Mags’ experience, she surely knows how to manage riders as well as horses. Her top tip if Simon’s ever in a bad mood? Give him an hour to calm down “and then I’ll take him a biscuit”.

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

Ruth Asquith is groom to Katie Magee’s Treworra – known at home as Wilf – at this year’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

“He’s everything you want in a horse,” she says. “Tall, dark, handsome, talented and sweet. He’s a gentleman, and he’s very easy on the ground – that just makes all the difference.”

But grooming is something she nearly walked away from for good.

Ruth spent almost eight years as head girl for Nicola Wilson, right up until Nicola’s life-changing fall at Badminton in 2022.

“I adored Nik, and I adored those horses – they were my entire universe,” Ruth says.

“When she had her accident, there was the initial ‘Oh my goodness, is she going to live?’ – that’s awful. But then it’s the aftermath. Watching all the horses go, one by one – it was the right thing, but that was devastating. It nearly destroyed me.

“I lost my job and everything I loved in one fell swoop. You move out, and all of a sudden – who are you without the horses? Who are you without Nic? They’re everything.

“There were three of us who’d worked there a really long time – we were a little family unit, and then all of a sudden we were torn apart.

“You know, the first thing I’d do in the morning was go out and kiss those horses. And on a night, doing late checks – I was the only person who lived there in the end – and I would go around and give them all their nighttime kiss and cuddle. I was so invested in them, and it was so hard to say goodbye.”

What carried her through, she says, was watching how Nicola herself responded during her recovery.

“She was so strong – always having a positive attitude. If something went wrong, it was, ‘We move on, tomorrow’s a new day.’

“She never felt sorry for herself. That helped, because then we were all like that – we just tried to make the best of it as we could.”

Rebuilding and finding balance

After Nicola’s accident, Ruth went to America to work for rider Gabby Dickerson. When she came back, she decided it was time to step away from grooming altogether.

“I said, ‘I’m not grooming anymore, that’s it. I'm going back into vet nursing and I'm going to have more of a normal life.’”

Two weeks later, Katie called. “She asked if I’d mind coming to help out – and that was nearly two years ago now, and I’m still there.”

These days Ruth splits her time: four days a week in equine veterinary work, two with Katie. “I love the way she works. I think we’re quite similar in our mindsets – both hardworking, quite calm people. You just get on with it – very much how Nicola works too, to be honest.”

The experience with Nicola has reshaped what she actually wants from the sport and how she approaches it.

“I have a very different perspective now from what I used to have,” she says. “I always adored the horses, and the thing that used to upset me most was other people being disappointed in them. But now, as long as they come home safe, I’m just grateful to be here. I try to enjoy every second of it.”

She still keeps half an eye on the horses she once cared for – like JL Dublin, who Nicola fell from and is now ridden by Tom McEwen – but from a distance.

“I follow their careers,” she says. “It’s hard – you take on a new horse, the last thing you want is the old groom hanging around. But I follow them from afar. I always keep an eye on their results, and I always want them to do really well.”

On what advice she’d offer those considering a career in grooming, she adds: “Your enthusiasm is way more important than your knowledge level. If you’re willing to learn, that’s the key – and loving the horses, no matter what.”

She’s quick to credit the friendships that have carried her through the harder times, naming fellow grooms Amy Phillips, Jess Mackey and Chloe Fry. “It’s a small world and when the chips are down, those are the people you need. It’s important to have a balance in life. It really is.”

Asked about her hopes for Burghley, Ruth keeps it simple. “Honestly, I just want them to come back safe and sound on Sunday. We’ll have a good time regardless – but we all know what he’s capable of, and it would be lovely for Katie to be up there. She deserves it – he deserves it.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

Tiana Coudray scored 33.8 aboard D’Artagnan to sit 11th after the second day of dressage at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials – in a test that included the first 10 of the competition, awarded by judge at C Xavier Le Sauce (FRA) for their halt before the reinback.

The 12-year-old gelding gives Tiana, in her own words, “his entire heart and soul” – though, as she explains, that enthusiasm sometimes works against her.

Indeed, getting D’Artagnan settled enough to produce a dressage test at all was, by Tiana’s own admission, the biggest challenge of the day. “He’s been really tricky – he’s normally such a good boy, but he has an incredible vigour for life,” she laughed.

“To get up here [to the arena], you have to ride through the middle of the Leaf Pit and Discovery Valley, and for him that’s game over – he’s like a spaniel on speed at that point. So trying to get a dressage test out of him was not looking promising – I didn’t have high hopes.”

But in the end, the test went better than she dared expect – perhaps even missing a little bit of the flair he was showing in the warm-up.

“If anything, he was maybe a little too quiet, which meant we missed some changes which on another day he wouldn’t have. But look, we’ll take it – he was obedient, he was listening... he was perfect.”

The pair’s journey up to the main arena the day before had also been eventful.

“We had a bit of a disaster getting up here yesterday – and I thought that’s it, our weekends over!” she said. “They make you walk right past the cross-country jumps, and then you hit the hill, and he was three strides up the hill and into the warm-up at about 700 metres a minute.

“So today we put a fly mask on him to try and block out the noise, led him with someone on each side, and fed him Polos the whole way up, like ‘Look here, look here, look here!’ I’ll try anything, and to be fair, it worked."

D’Artagnan’s rapid rise through the levels is part of what makes him such a compelling ride.

“We bought him when he was rising eight, so it’s not really a long-standing relationship yet,” explained Tiana.

“He’s flown up the grades very quickly – he’s 12 now, but factor in that he was basically starting out at eight, and that’s incredibly young. He’s come on so much in the last four months – I can only imagine where he'll be in another six.”

Talk of D’Artagnan’s talent pricing him out of Tiana’s hands has followed the pair for a few seasons now. An offer arrived around 18 months ago, turned down by then-owner and Tiana’s groom, Annabelle James: “She said no, life’s too short, you need to have fun.”

A fresh approach this spring brought new co-owner Kyrle Arscott into the picture instead. “It’s slightly secured the situation, which has been amazing, and it’s been so fun to have her along.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

Anthony Clark has spent his career buying, producing and selling horses which have gone on to be successful at the top level – but never ridden at five-star himself until this week, when the 52-year-old makes his debut at Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

“I’ve done loads of four-stars and it was never that I didn’t want to do a five-star. I just needed to sell horses on to pay my mortgage, pay bills because it costs money to keep afloat, doesn’t it? Life gets in the way,” said Anthony after his dressage test at Burghley today.

“It’s amazing to be here. The people down the stable yard can’t be nicer, more helpful. It really does make me almost well up because I just feel so privileged to be here.”

Anthony has sold 11 horses which have gone to compete at the top level with other riders, including Jollybo, who went to two World Championships with Canada’s Hawley Awad, Bolytair B, a five-star horse for US-based Australian Dominic Schramm, and Figaro Van Het Broekxhof, who won the Grantham Cup at Belton with Tom McEwen.

Anthony said he feels proud when he sees horses he sourced and produced being successful with other riders.

“I like buying horses. I’ve got 14 horses at home and my partner recently was like, ‘You know, this has to stop some time…’,” he laughed.

Anthony, 52, recently represented Britain for the second time in the veteran European Showjumping Championships – for over 45s – and won his second team bronze.

Anthony Clark’s Burghley horse

Anthony Clark’s Burghley ride is the 15-year-old grey Ballinaguilkey Fortunus.

Anthony explained: “A great friend of mine had him as her horse – she bought it from Vere Phillipps – and then she had a life change and had to sell him. He came to me to be sold and he was jumping like 80cm, but I really liked him. I liked his cheeky nature and I got a group of friends to buy him alongside me.

“We produced him up to three-star and he was worth quite a lot of money. Another lady was going to buy him and own him outright, but she got put off because he got a slight arthritic change in his knee, and she was like, ‘Oh, I can’t have a horse that’s not perfect.’ The vet frightened her to death and said he could go lame tomorrow.

“So in the end, I said I’ll just take him on and run him as mine, so I’ve run him now for the past two years. I always said he’d be a five-star horse in my mind and he’s been very good at four-star. And I’m very old, so I thought now’s my chance to try a five-star.”

Burghley wasn’t the original plan

Although their results are not particularly eye-catching, Anthony and the grey have a solid record, with three jumping clears at CCI4*-L. The rider never intended for Burghley – perhaps the toughest five-star in terms of cross-country challenge – to be his first five-star.

He explained: “I entered him for Pau Horse Trials last year and he got a boot rub about two weeks before travelling that needed antibiotics. Then I entered Badminton Horse Trials and he got cellulitis about three weeks beforehand.

“I think the terrain makes Burghley really hard. I have some guidance from Caroline Powell and Louise Bell and they know my horse. He’s a really good jumper.

“If it doesn’t pan out, I'll just pull up, go home and rethink things. But I’m going to try. I only live in Cambridge, so at least I haven’t travelled a million miles to get here. And it’s not like going to Pau in the wet and the mud. This is actually nice ground.

“I’ve probably made the bad life choice, but I think it’s a good life choice for me.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

Jess Elliott, groom to Austin O’Connor at this year’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials, says his ride Sixmilewater is known at home as Buster – but she’s nicknamed him Buster The Bull.

“I gave him that nickname because he is full of it. He’s got character. At the trot-up yesterday, he was towing me round, running about,” she says.

That said, the 12-year-old by OBOS Quality 004 has matured since his first five-star at Burghley last year.

“He was a little bit fruity last year and this year, he knows when he’s going to do something and he just switches. You can walk him hand grazing and he’s quite chill sometimes. And then when he knows he’s going to do something, he flicks and he’s a completely different character.”

Jess started working for Austin in August 2025 and is his head girl. She came to Burghley last year with Buster and then went to Mars Badminton Horse Trials with him in May this year.

She says: “He just keeps getting better every time and he’s stronger. Fitness-wise, in his canter work, we’ve got him exactly where we would want to be.

“On his last prep runs, Austin has put him up the gears a bit more and asked more of him, and he just keeps going. Sometimes he’s a bit of a bull and takes the rein and Austin’s like, ‘Whoa’, so we need just to keep between the flags and we’ll be fine.”

Jess Elliott: from eventing to showjumping and back

Jess, 27, is from Ayrshire originally. She had horses herself when she was growing up and then started working for Padraig McCarthy and his wife Lucy, initially combining grooming with riding, then moving more towards the grooming side.

“They were looking for a head person, and I fell into the role, learning on the job. I did working hunters, so I had that background of tidiness and I could plait,” she says.

After four years with the McCarthys’, Jess was Piggy March’s head girl for a year.

She says: “Pigs is amazing and the whole team at Maidwell were brilliant. But Piggy was slowing down a little bit with her eventing, and I was keen to keep going and be busy. An opportunity with Ben Maher came along.”

Jess spent eight months with the British showjumping star, experiencing the constant travelling of the showjumping lifestyle.

“My first week was London International and then I moved to Florida for four months. Then I came home from Wellington, had one week off for my birthday, went into quarantine in Germany, and flew to Shanghai for the Global Champions Tour,” she says.

Jess says she learnt much about the finer details of travelling horses and grooming tricks from the showjumping circuit. In return, she transferred her knowledge such as making ice pockets for horses legs with tubigrips.

She says: “I put it on when we were in Cannes and Ben was like, ‘What is this?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just what we use in eventing, I thought I could try it out’, and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea.’”

Grooming ambitions

Jess has groomed at championships, including the Pratoni World Championships with Padraig McCarthy, but didn’t go to the recent worlds in Aachen with Austin because his top horse Colorado Blue (“Salty”) is always groomed by Fran Denning at events.

However, she was in Aachen for the weekend because she goes out with Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian, so she attended to support him.

Her ambitions in grooming are to go to an Olympics – she’s gunning for Austin to be selected for Los Angeles 2028 – and to fly with horses.

What does she enjoy about her job?

“I love being with the horses – I really know my horses now. At Burghley last year I didn’t know Buster well, but getting a connection with them and just being able to take them to places like this is crazy,” she says, indicating Burghley House in the background.

“Whether it’s eventing or showjumping, we’re so lucky to come and look at that view. I’m really good friends with all the grooms, so you’ve got a group of you all together.”

Groom Jess Elliott also says Austin O’Connor is “a good egg and his heart is always in the right place”.

“He’s a great person to work for and he’s very fair. I am scared to ride sometimes because we’ve got the Ridgeway up the back of the yard and if you fall off, the horses can go for miles, so he puts me down for lungeing – he takes into consideration that I don’t want to ride all the time,” says Jess, who also says Austin helps make it possible for her to see Alex.

“And he’s great with the horses and with his kids, Wilf and Alfie – on the yard, there’s always a family atmosphere.”

With Austin’s dressage at 11.42am tomorrow, it will be a early start for Jess.

She says: “Buster will have a good lunge and a session with Tracie Robinson – she’s brilliant and gets the best out of Austin and Buster. Because Buster is quite buzzy, him being out of the stable is better – in the mornings I’ll take him for a good graze or walk, then it’s a lunge or a little ride.

“It’s just keeping his mind ticking over, always having him thinking, otherwise he gets a little bit crazy in his head. You have to get the adrenalin up and then down and manage that. Then hopefully by the time you go to the test, you’ve managed the levels so the adrenalin spike isn’t crazy.”

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

The Defender Burghley cross-country course for this year’s event has been designed by US course-designer Derek di Grazia.

The track is 6455m long with an optimum time of 11min 20sec.

This is the fifth year Derek has been responsible for the Burghley Horse Trials course. Let’s take a look around…

Burghley cross-country course: fence by fence

Fence 1: Defender Starter

Fence 2: Mayston Equestrian Parasol Table

Fence 3: Defender Lodge

Fence 4: Defender Lion Bridge

View of fence 4 from on top of the Lion Bridge

Fence 5: Capability's Lakeside Brush

Fence 6ab: 65th Anniversary Splash

Fence 6ab direct route (flags will be added)

Fence 6a long route, which involves riding a loop but avoids the need to jump into the water

Fence 6b long route

Fence 7abc: Boodles Raindance

Fence 7a – unfortunately I was not wearing waterproof boots, so this fence is shown from the landing rather than take-off side!

Fence 7b direct route – jumped at an angle after the step up

Fence 7c direct route

The alternative involves looping round and is quite time-consuming.

Fence 7b alternative

Fence 7c alternative

Fence 8: World Horse Welfare Pardubice

This fence follows the steep down and up to pass through Capability’s Cutting.

Fence 9abcd: Defender Dairy Mound

Fence 9a direct route

Fence 9bc direct route

Looking over fence 9bc down to fence 9d

Fence 9d direct route

The alternative route involves crossing the mound in a slightly different direction, and finishing up facing away from the direction of travel. In total, it requires four jumping efforts rather than three on the direct route.

Fence 9a alternative route

Fence 9b alternative route

Fence 9c alternative route

Fence 9d alternative route

Fence 10abcd: Fairfax & Favor at Keepers

Fence 10ab direct route

Fence 10cd direct route

The alternative route involves three jumping efforts rather than two and finishes facing away from the direction of travel.

Fence 10a alternative

Fence 10bc alternative

Fence 10d alternative

Fence 11: Irish Horse Board Cottesmore Leap

Fence 11 alternative

Fence 12ab: LeMieux Stable Gates

Fence 12a comes after the long gallop down Winners’ Avenue

Fence 12b

Fence 13: Pol Roger Table

Fence 14abc: Pedigree Ditches

Fence 14a direct route

Fence 14bc direct route

The long route involves making a complete circle of the area and jumping three elements rather than two

Fence 14a alternative

Fence 14b alternative

Fence 14c alternative

Fence 15ab and 16abc: Joules at the Maltings

Fence 15a direct route

Fence 15b direct route

Fence 16a direct route

Fence 16bc direct route

The alternative route here is on a longer line and involves five jumping efforts rather than four.

Fence 15a alternative

Fence 15b alternative

Fence 16a alternative

Fence 16b alternative

Fence 16c alternative

Fence 17: Horseware Ireland Rug Rail

Fence 18: Equine America Log Stack

Fence 19abcdef: Trout Hatchery

Fence 19a

Fence 19bc direct route

Fence 19de direct route

Fence 19f direct route

The long route involves an extra jumping element and more distance, turning away from the direction of travel.

Fence 19b alternative

Fence 19c alternative

Fence 19d alternative

Fence 19ef alternative

Fence 20: Champion Oxer

Fence 21: Defender Timber Trailer

Fence 22abcd: Defender Valley

Fence 22a direct route

Fence 22b direct route

Fence 22cd direct route

The alternative route once again requires riders to jump an extra fence and cover more ground. The ditch, part b, is used on both routes.

Fence 22a alternative

Fence 22c alternative

Fence 22d alternative

Fence 23: Low Park Ditch Rails

Fence 24abcdef: Holland Cooper Leaf Pit

Fence 24ab direct route

Fence 24a alternative

Fence 24b alternative

Riders can use the direct or long route exit fences (24cdef) after either route through the initial fences (24ab).

Fence 24cd direct route

Fence 24ef direct route

The long route here is not as time-consuming as some, though it involves an extra jumping effort.

Fence 24c alternative

Fence 24de alternative

Fence 24f alternative

Fence 25: Defender Valley Log

Fence 26abc: Mars Equestrian Stables

Fence 26a (the temporary rails, judge’s hut and dressage arena will be removed before cross-country starts)

Fence 26b

Fence 26c

Fence 27: Lambert’s Sofa

Fence 28: Defender Finale

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website and enjoy our Burghley live news service throughout the event

Welcome to Horse & Hound’s expert form guide featuring all Defender Burghley entries. Exclusively available for H&H subscribers, I have analysed the recent performances of all the horses and riders entered for Burghley to give you the full picture ahead of the competition.

Throughout Defender Burghley Horse Trials, we’ll be running H&H’s exclusive Burghley live news service starting with the first horse inspection on Wednesday 2 September. The live report will include analysis of the action throughout the event and interviews with the riders moments after each phase, so make sure you join us to keep abreast of the latest news as it happens.

In the meantime, check out the full Burghley form guide below, and keep it on hand while you’re watching Burghley on TV or following our Burghley live news service.

H&H’s form guide went to press on Monday, 31 August, so includes withdrawals up to that date.

Key to horse colour and gender

b = bay, db = dark bay, br = brown, bl = black, ch = chestnut, gr = grey

mare = m, gelding = g, stallion = st

Burghley entries

Riders 2-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-56

Top British showjumper Robert Whitaker has made 2026 a year to remember, winning his third King George V Gold Cup at the Agria Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead with Equine America Vermento

“To win the King's Cup three times is amazing,” Robert Whitaker told H&H’s showjumping editor Jennifer Donald, when they caught up for the 180th episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, sponsored by Equine America. ”It's definitely up there with winning the World Cup in Helsinki with Catwalk and my Hickstead Derby win.”

The venue holds a special place in the heart of competitors and showjumping fans alike. This is also true for members of the Britain's most famous showjumping dynasty.

“Hickstead has been a part of our lives,” explains Robert. “We've been going for years. As a kid watching all these classes, you always want to win the Derby and the King's Cup, and I'm fortunate to have done both. I'm really happy with my horses, my owners and my team at home – we've had a great year so far.”

Robert Whitaker on the King George: “It’s a difficult ring”

Looking back on that special day, Robert felt he didn’t have the ideal draw for the class.

“I was the first rider to go clear, which was good to be in the jump off, but it meant I was first to go. I thought there were going to be a few more clears, but I think there were five clears in the end.

“He's actually quite a quick horse, so my plan was not to overcook it and go too fast because I didn't think the other competitors were going to be ultra quick, and the ring is so huge.

“From fence one to the finish, there's a lot of space between each jump, so the horses can get really strung out and a bit long and flat in their jump. So my plan was to go in and just keep it neat and tight, and just be quick where I could be quick, and keep his jump up in the air.”

The international arena at Hickstead can be a tricky place to ride, but both Robert and Vermento have plenty of previous experience to draw on.

“I think Hickstead's quite a difficult ring,” adds Robert. “It's a bit up and downhill, and the fences are a little bit different to other shows, but I've jumped him there from a young horse, and I think that's helped a lot. I think that's probably what's given him the little bit of an edge at that show.

”The King George is always difficult, but I know he jumps the water and the double of ditches, which are always in in that class, so that helps a lot when you know they jump them well.”

How a trip to Calgary helped

Robert credits a trip to Spruce Meadows for setting Vermento up for Hickstead, even though they didn’t have the best time in Canada.

“I went to Calgary for four weeks in the summer, and I had a bit of an up and down show there with Vermento,” he explains. “He did some really good rounds, and then I did some rounds where I thought I wasn't just where I wanted to be, but in the final grand prix, he jumped fantastic and was fifth.

“So I think for Hickstead this year, my preparation in Spruce with its big ring and long poles, probably helped.”

Unsurprisingly, bearing in mind all the success Robert has enjoyed on grass, he is a fan of big natural arenas, which he thinks can help the course-designer.

“I think it's nice to see these grass arenas because they look good and they're a bit more impressive. But also, I think when you keep jumping on the sand all the time, it's always the same for the horses. You're not jumping up and downhill – it's a flat surface, so it's difficult to build different courses where horses make mistakes.

“When you're on the natural ground and it is a little bit up and downhill, or maybe it's rained a little bit, the conditions aren't always the same. It makes it a little bit trickier for your horse – and a bit easier for the course builders.”

Will Vermento be back next year?

The question on everyone’s lips is, will Robert be back at Hickstead next year with Vermento to try and equal his uncle Michael Whitaker's record of winning the King’s Cup a fourth time?

“I don't see why we can't do it,” says Robert. “He's won it three times. You know, if he's fit and sound next year, he's only going to be 14. So if I look after him. maybe save him a little bit for that show next year, I don't see why he can't win it again.”

That will be cause for another massive Whitaker family celebration!

To hear more from Robert, listen to episode 180 of The Horse & Hound Podcast here, or search “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking equestrian news throughout the year, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Jess Mendoza was 15 when she decided that “horses would be the main part” in her life. Thousands of pony-mad teenage girls declare similar dreams; few follow it through. But Jess’s single-minded pursuit of those goals took her from pony gold medals to the Rio Olympics in just four years; and from Wiltshire, via the Netherlands, to America.

“I knew I didn’t want to go down any other avenue, I just had to figure out how to make money from it,” says Jess, fresh from playing her part in Britain’s Nations Cup victory at the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead.

But let’s go back a step, because before the practical realities of business come into play, there’s usually an emotional trigger that sets the path. For most elite riders, it’s one special pony that lights the touchpaper. Enter Tixylix, a “big mama” of a mare, who also later ignited Jodie Hall McAteer’s career.

In 2007, when Jess was 11, Tixylix won double gold with Zoe Adams at the pony Europeans. As fate would have it, when Jess’s parents were looking for a 148cm a couple of years later, Tixylix was based a few miles from their Wiltshire farm.

“She was owned by someone in the next-door village who had a car garage,” Jess explains. “His daughter was riding her a bit, but every day my dad went down the road to the garage to try to convince him to let me buy her. Eventually they became friendly enough for me to have a trial – but we already knew we wanted her. “She was wonderful from the beginning and really shaped my pony career.”

Jessica has gone on to have an affinity with mares – notably Spirit T and In The Air – and arguably Tixylix laid the foundations for these relationships.

“She was like a mini horse and bred like one,” Jess says. “She wasn’t petite; didn’t have any pony features. She was tall, long and crazy-blood. You couldn’t jump her at home – she was a typical chestnut mare.”

Besides winning at Horse of the Year Show and Olympia, the pair represented Britain four times at the pony Europeans, winning two golds and a bronze.

While she was studying for her A levels, Jess and her parents moved to the Netherlands as her burgeoning business plans began to take shape.

“I didn’t know if I would be selling horses, training or competing, but basing myself in Europe was the best thing I did for my career, because I could go to all those FEI shows every week and get that experience,” she says. “Eventually I learned that going to America and training people could be another route to making a business.”

Jess has been based on the east coast since Covid precipitated the permanent move, splitting her time between Florida and New York – with a few summer months in Europe.

The States offer a very different business model to this side of the Atlantic, but it’s one that works for Jess. Besides competing, which is much more lucrative than in the UK, Jess estimates that most of her business is training other riders. This ranges from those competing at 1.10m to others jumping five-star grands prix.

“It’s very different financially in America,” she explains. “At FEI shows, you’re spending about $4,500 [£3,340] to enter – compared with $400 to $1,000 in Europe. However, you can jump two horses in a grand prix qualifier of $100,000-plus in prize-money and a grand prix of up to $1m dollars, and ranking classes too. So there are many more chances to jump more horses and win more prize-money – I’d take a lot of my income that way.

“What’s also interesting, for me, is that it’s a lot more client-based. In Europe, it’s more common to see amateurs who do it by themselves or with their family, whereas in America, you essentially have to have a trainer, there is not another option. The girls I train are a pleasure, and many of them and their parents have become owners, which is a great opportunity to get quality horses.”

Another commercial enterprise is Llangollen, a 1,100-acre retirement farm, owned by a client in Virginia, that she set up this year with her husband, fellow showjumper Nicholas Dello Joio. They have 20 retired competition horses so far, and are hoping to build to 150.

“In England it wouldn’t work because more people have land, but in America, it’s very uncommon to have large farms – clients put their horses with the trainer,” she says. “So it’s a unique opportunity because it’s rare for people to retire their horses on their own land.

“We’re getting a lot of interest. I think people are gravitating towards us because they know we understand competition horses, that retirement is not just about putting a horse in the field but giving them time to adjust.”

Jess is married to an American, firmly established stateside, and her accent has an American lilt. There is much she may love about her adopted country, but Jess is still a Brit to her core. Of her home in New York, she smiles, “It’s a lovely climate and more like England in its style of barns and houses, it’s like home.” She even misses the food.

“That’s actually a good thing,” she laughs, “because if I lived in England I would be a lot bigger! I’d eat my way through the day. I love English food. When I go back home, that’s what I look forward to – a Sunday roast or a really good Indian takeout.”

And when it comes to competing, there is nothing she rates higher than representing her homeland.

“I really do love the teams – that’s my favourite type of competition,” she says. “I get more nervous watching my team-mates jump than doing it myself – it’s an element you don’t have in individual competition.”

This ability not to be affected by nerves while she’s riding is surely a prize asset.

“If you ask my husband, he’d say I’m a little different, maybe strange, but I don’t really think too much on the mental side of things,” she says. “My dad set it into me, good or bad, from a young age, that you just do it, don’t overthink it and just take the next step. It’s a very simple mindset but I try not to overcomplicate things.”

That said, with her training hat on, Jess knows that her mindset isn’t for everyone.

“There’s not a perfect way or a good or bad mindset to approach showjumping,” she says. “I’ve been around so many different people – some find sports psychologists helpful, some don’t. Maybe in two years’ time I’ll have another perspective, but right now, I have a very simple way of approaching the sport.”

Her team-mate nerves have been tested in three Nations Cups this season, with two podium finishes.

“One of my favourite things is to win a Nations Cup,” she adds. “Obviously winning an individual grand prix is great, but winning a Nations Cup is almost more fun.”

Jess’s Nations Cup rides are two half-siblings out of an Indoctro mare: Summerhouse (by Guidam) and In The Air (by Air Jordan Z) – “but they couldn’t be more different”.

“I was on the way to try Summerhouse and 10 minutes before I arrived the guy doing the deal said they had his sister if I wanted to sit on her,” Jess says. “I jumped the gelding first and he was perfect, I couldn’t find a fault. So the guy said, ‘Well, you don’t need another one,’ but I wanted to try her just in case.”

The black mare slammed on her brakes at the first fence.

“The guy said, ‘Come round again, she’s just spooky. So I did and she stopped again. He said, ‘Just once more, she’ll be all right.’ And she was good.

But something piqued Jess’s interest – and that gut instinct has been richly rewarded in the time since.

“It wasn’t the most romantic trial, but she’s ended up being great,” Jess says. “She’s a funny character – like a cat. She doesn’t love people but she also needs people. She wants to be near you but not petted.”

As with Tixylix, jumping In The Air – known as Fly – at home is a delicate procedure.

“If I put a vertical up with different coloured poles, she’ll stop three strides out, so I have to do canter poles to start with, then add a cavaletti and build up – it’s like jumping for children,” says Jess. “But when she gets to a horse show, she’s in game mode, she’s fine.”

Her younger (but bigger) brother is “completely different – whatever you put up either at home or in the ring, he’ll just cruise over”.

“He’s massive and she’s tiny,” says Jess, “but although they’re very different in lots of ways, they are both very blood. All my horses are different, but as long as they have a big heart and a good amount of blood, that’s all I need.”

This pair spearheads her string of six – with Ascadina PP Z rounding out the trio competing at 1.60m grands prix. This is the number Jess feels she can do justice to alongside training clients as her long-term goal of LA 2028 looms ever closer.

Once upon a time, before her operation in America gained serious traction, Jess briefly channelled her creativity into another venture, painting animals and large abstract canvases, even running a stall at Olympia.

“I do paint, but now it’s only when I need money or I have a lot of time – luckily I’m good on both at the moment,” she smiles.

Jess’ artwork is spectacular, but if you’ve bought one of those paintings, it’s likely to be a rare limited edition, because she’s figured out exactly how to make her teenage dream come true.

In just a few days’ time, riders will be assessing the Defender Burghley cross-country course challenge for 2026 – checking strides, working out routes and deciding what will suit their particular horse best.

We sent multi-medalled event rider Tina Cook to Burghley Horse Trials to preview the course, which is designed by Derek di Grazia. You can read all her thoughts in the current issue of Horse & Hound magazine (issue dated 27 August) and we have a few pictures for you here…

Fence 7abc: Boodles Raindance

This is the first real combination on course. Rider on the straight route jump up a step, followed by a short one stride, over an angled house and then two strides to another angled house.

Fence 9abcd: Defender Dairy Mound

The direct route here consists of a log trailer, four strides to a log, then down a slope to a corner at the bottom. As the name suggests, the complex is set over a mound and terrain is an important part of the question.

Fence 10abcd: Fairfax & Favor at Keepers

The brush had not yet been added to the frames here when Tina visited so these fences will look quite different, but you can get an idea of the challenge. The two skinnies on the direct route will be taken on three strides.

Fence 14abc: Pedigree Ditches

Again, brush will be added here, with the first spread fence consisting of a brush oxer. There is then a right-handed curve to the open corner over a ditch.

Fence 22abcd: Defender Valley

In the later stages of the course, riders taking on the quickest option here jump a set of rails, then an open ditch, then up a slope to a brush arrowhead.

For more insight to this year’s Burghley cross-country course, we also have videos of Tina walking the course.

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Gemma Owen is carving out quite a career for herself in the equestrian world. While millions of TV viewers know her from the 2022 season of Love Island, in which she finished runner-up, horse sport fans know she’s an accomplished dressage rider, who represented Britain at the junior European Championships. And now racing’s getting a look-in.

She’s still competing in dressage, currently at inter II on her Polish-bred gelding King Ron-P (Ron William x Corleone Z), who has won at grand prix with Sarah Rao.

“Ronnie is a grand prix schoolmaster,” Gemma says. “He’s not the easiest ride – he’s quite complicated, but incredibly talented, so amazing for teaching me all the harder movements.

“He’s teaching me a lot, in terms of the grand prix movements and also patience and resilience. He is amazing.”

The latest equestrian string to Gemma’s bow is her recent foray into the racing world. Over the past year, she’s transformed herself from the long stirrups and deep seat of the dressage world, to raising her irons and galloping down the home straight at “Glorious Goodwood” in the Markel Magnolia Cup at the end of July.

The transformation is captured in detail in a new Amazon Prime docuseries, Meet The Owens, a six-episode insight into the Owen family’s daily life, produced by Whisper.

Gemma, the eldest child of England football star Michael Owen (not to be confused with the five-star event rider of the same name), is portrayed as she starts from scratch in her quest to become a jockey. There are thrills and spills, hard work in the gym, hours on the equicizer – and ultimately the charity race goal.

Gemma describes her early gallops as “humbling”, with a stark contrast between the two disciplines.

“I’ve trained dressage for as long as I can remember, and how the dressage horses are and how the thoroughbreds are is completely different,” she says. “My position when I’m riding dressage to going up the gallops is completely different as well.

“It took a while to fully adjust. Your stirrups are so unbelievably short and I remember when I first started riding out and I thought my stirrups were short, I look back and I literally look like I’m a dressage rider that wanted to do a bit of jumping or something. It was humbling.

“But I’m getting there,” she adds. “My legs and lower body I found OK; it was more my upper body strength that I found more challenging and had to develop.”

But however tough the challenge, there’s no question which Gemma deems harder overall.

“Nailing the perfect test is definitely harder [than winning a race],” she says. “There is so much that goes into dressage, and you are dealing with the tiniest, tiniest detail. You’re constantly chasing the perfect picture. Which obviously is subjective to a certain extent.

“Racing, there are loads of different challenges – I have to concentrate in a different way when I’m riding dressage to when I’m going up the gallops.

“It’s just a completely different way of riding. It’s not necessarily when you’re going up the gallops, it’s more the stopping and starting, walking to the stables, from the collecting ring, all of the little bits in between you just have to be so on it.

“These horses are so young and you just can’t switch off, they will spin round and go off with you! Learning to control the pace up the gallops is something I had to learn. If you pull the reins that doesn’t necessarily mean stop, it means they take a hold and we’re going faster. So I’m like, ‘If I can’t pull the reins how do I stop?’ But it’s all learning.”

Dad Michael was known as one of the most competitive strikers of his era. Now he’s running Manor Farm Stables, a Flat racing yard with trainer Hugo Palmer, he’s channelled that ambition to a new sphere.

Gemma admits she’s no match for his intense drive.

“Dad is more competitive,” she says. “I’m extremely competitive and want to do well in everything I do, but Dad is ridiculously competitive. When it comes to card games or a family quiz, whatever it is, everything has to be a competition.

“Mum, on the other hand, when it came to the Magnolia Cup was like, ‘enjoy the experience, enjoy learning a new discipline’. I think I’ve got the best of both of them I’d like to say.

“Dad and I have a lot of similarities. One of the first things Dad says about me on the show is ‘she’s a female version of me’ which is kind of accurate. I do think in a similar way about a lot of things. I’m extremely driven, focused, competitive and determined.

“When I set my mind to something I want to achieve it and put as much in as I can and get the best out of it. In those ways we’re similar.

“But because of my mum’s slightly different approach, I try to enjoy the journey and learning of a new skill as much as it does kill me when I don’t do as well.”

When it comes to the dressage, Michael has been happy to take a back seat. There’s a hilarious (and very relatable to most riders) moment where Michael is prancing around his lawn as if he’s practising a dressage test. But that’s about as far as his involvement goes.

He’s been crazy about racing, however, since he was a child. And there’s a scene in the show where Gemma goes upsides on the gallops when she wasn’t meant to – and goes really fast. Cue frosty exchange between dad and daughter.

“In dressage he’d support from the sidelines but he’d never tell me how to ride, whereas the racing he knows a lot more, he’s more passionate about, he’s more knowledgeable,” Gemma says. “When you’re learning something new there are a million things you need to think about and we had a miscommunication.

“We were meant to be going single file, and I came up upsides, which now I know is a completely different thing and the horses know they’re racing each other, as opposed to just cantering nicely.

“I had to learn that the hard way but I think having Dad here and passionate about the racing stables is incredible and I’ve learnt a lot from him.”

When it came to riding in the big race, it nearly didn’t happen at all. Michael relates how she had a fall on a racecourse gallop at Southwell a few days before – but somehow she was back in the plate in time for Goodwood.

She finished fourth – on a miler called Turbo Trotter for whom the sprint distance was far from ideal. Not good enough, says Gemma, who rued her own bad start.

“I was frustrated with myself – I completely missed the start,” she says. “I made up good ground and finished the race strong. The horse gave me an incredible ride and I’m so happy to have ridden him. But I should have been more on it and ready for the start to go at any point. Yup, I’m competitive.”

As for what the future holds? Will she carry on racing?

“Yeah! And dressage! I’m going to try,” she says. “Racing’s completely different, but I love it so much I don’t want to stop.

“I love the people, I love the horses , I love the routine and the involvement I’ve got here now. So if I can do both, I will. Racing in the morning, dressage in the afternoon.”

• For more exclusive insights into top riders and their horses, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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In episode 180 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, which is sponsored by Equine America, top British showjumper Robert Whitaker talks to our showjumping editor Jennifer Donald about his third King George V Gold Cup win at Hickstead, what life was like growing up in a famous showjumping dynasty and how his partnership with the talented Vermento came about.

In this episode, Robert explains that he rode Vermento’s dam, a tall hot black mare called Vicky, in classes up to 1m50. He talks about how mother and son are different and why his father John Whitaker’s stallion Argento was a great match for her when they decided to put her in foal.

To hear more about Robert’s early life in the Whitaker family, how a trip to Spruce Meadows helped set Vermento up for Hickstead this year and why he thinks they can equal his uncle Michael's record of four King’s Cups at Hickstead next year, listen to the podcast.

Want to listen to more podcasts?

Every episode is available for H&H fans to listen to via your favourite podcast app, as well as here on the website. Search for “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your preferred podcast app and click subscribe to be notified about each new episode.

• View all episodes of The Horse & Hound Podcast

Whatever your preferred discipline, there is so much to enjoy listening to in our podcasts. We love to hear your feedback on any of our podcasts, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows, interviews with top riders and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

“The goal was to broaden the audience and bring in a base that might never have had any idea about the sport,” sums up Ben Asselin of Faultless, the new six-part documentary series he’s produced with his older brother, Kyle Koss.

“If you can get them attracted to a certain character, or a certain story, they’re like, ‘I had no idea that’s what it took.’

“From just the 80 seconds in the ring, you don’t see all the hard work, the setbacks, the injuries, the financial burdens that go into it – and that’s where the real stories are.”

Ben had ridden at five-star level for years. Kyle has never sat on a horse competitively in his life. Between them, they’ve produced a series following 14 of the world’s leading showjumpers across a single season, focusing mainly at venues included in the Rolex Grand Slam.

It’s made by Brighter Frame Productions and Terminal B TV, in partnership with Spruce Meadows and Rolex, and narrated by three-time Emmy nominee Walton Goggins – of The White Lotus fame. And it exists, in large part, because of a Canadian venue that has belonged to Ben and Kyle’s family for half a century.

The idea itself, though, began somewhere much more improbably, with a non-alcoholic Martini. Kyle was in Los Angeles developing said Martini – the first in the world by his reckoning – with a business partner, Danny Stepper, when the conversation turned to television.

“I asked Danny because he grew up in Hollywood and I knew he might know some people,” Kyle recalls. “I said, ‘Is there anybody you know in reality TV?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I know this guy named Tom Forman.’”

That introduction – to Tom, a veteran producer at Terminal B TV – became the backbone of the series. But the concept had been forming for longer, born at the family’s Christmas table the year before.

“As someone a little more on the outside of the sport, I was thinking how showjumping would really benefit from something similar to Drive to Survive in Formula One,” Kyle says.

He took the idea to Ben, then recovering from a ruptured spleen and easing away from top-level competition himself.

“I gave him a document, which was the treatment of the episodes,” Kyle says.

Ben brought a lifetime of contacts within the sport; Kyle brought the deal making.

“We come at it from two different places,” Kyle says. “Ben being the athlete and I'm kind of just the observer. But I have more of the business background. It was a massive challenge because we’d never produced a TV show before. But I’d never made a Martini either!”

Scratch beneath the motivations behind the decision to make the show, and Spruce Meadows is usually somewhere underneath it. Their grandfather founded the venue, drawing on Europe’s best when he built it.

“He learnt a lot from European venues like Hickstead and Aachen,” Ben says.

Kyle adds: “He wanted a facility where North Americans also had an opportunity to compete on an international stage. It was part of a broader ambition, too – to put the sport in front of an audience that had never had a reason to watch it before.”

Faultless is a continuation of that ambition.

“We were representing our own brand, in Spruce Meadows. We were representing the Rolex Grand Slam. But we were also representing all these different venues that have been around for longer than we have,” Ben says. “And we didn’t build those, right? So it was a huge responsibility.”

The timing sharpened that further. Faultless was shot during Spruce Meadows’ 50th anniversary year, against the backdrop of a $5m grand prix prize purse and a Rolex Grand Slam bid that handed the season a ready-made narrative arc before a single camera began rolling.

Faultless isn’t the first attempt to bring cameras into the world of elite equestrian sport. But for Ben there’s a reason why most of those attempts missed the mark. He recalls hearing from the Whitaker family about previous approaches.

“Even speaking with the Whitaker boys, there have been numerous times where a production crew has tried to come in and film that. And they just want to go and film them at the bar or get into the drama of their families. And that’s something that we really wanted to stray away from.”

The brothers looked instead to Drive to Survive for a template – and, tellingly, to what they felt other equestrian-adjacent documentaries had got wrong.

“We found that the other equestrian docuseries that were out didn’t necessarily capture the actual top level of sport, per se – focusing more on the lifestyle around the sport,” Ben says. “We wanted to have something that resembled the same level of respect for the sport that our venue at Spruce Meadows did.”

Kyle picks up the same point from a different angle, pointing to the range of riders the series actually follows.

“You’ve got a Steve Guerdat, a Martin Fuchs – dialled in, but even the difference between those two is quite substantial. And then you go from a Lillie Keenan to a Kyle King, completely different backgrounds. But they all share the same goal.”

A few decades ago, equestrian sport was something of a regular fixture on mainstream British television. These days, you’re more likely to spot a horse on a fashion runway than in the ring. Fashion houses have leaned hard into equestrian imagery for the Year of the Horse and Rupert Campbell-Black has galloped onto the small screen in Hulu’s adaptation of Rivals – yet the sport itself is barely visible at all. It raises the question: does equestrian media need to start telling new stories?

“I wanted to make something that I wanted to watch,” Kyle says, “because in some cases it can be a bit boring to watch 30 riders go around the ring. But it can also be a bit boring to watch a Formula One race for 90 laps.”

His argument isn’t that the sport lacks material.

“There’s so much there that you can unpack and create a real narrative around what this actually is that people just don’t see. I think there’s a real potential for all horse media, for all horse sport, to take it and say, you know what, this is a special thing.

“You’ve got men and women competing against each other on an equal playing field. You’ve got people coming from all walks of life, not just people that had tonnes of money growing up.”

Irish rider Daniel Coyle's story, told across episode five, is his go-to example.

"He talks about how he couldn't read or write,” he says. “There wasn’t that much opportunity for somebody like that. And he's now made himself one of the top athletes in the sport.”

Ben adds: “A lot of the time in the equestrian industry, we’re always marketing to ourselves. To actually educate people on what's going on, you have to open up the doors to it. I feel like a lot of the time we hide too much and then you try to just show the best things about it, but that's not reality.”

Kyle, for all his self-described distance from the sport, makes an animated case for why the horse’s place in the world deserves much more screen time. He traces it back to their own upbringing in western Canada, along the old Cowboy Trail.

“The horse was the real key component to that,” he says, of his province’s development. “We wouldn’t have anything without horses. And you know, my grandfather knew that.”

Of course, equestrian sport is under increased scrutiny at the moment when it comes to its social licence to operate, and Ben is conscious of that pressure without letting it make him cagey. His instinct runs the other way – show more, not less, on the theory that the reality holds up better than people assume.

He stresses how he was keen to show how the horses in Faultless have their “diets dialled in”, their “exercise programmes dialled in”, their “mental wellbeing dialled in” – they’re full-time athletes with full-time support staff, not animals wheeled out on competition weekends.

But none of which means the series flinches from risk. Spruce Meadows has form here. The venue used to run a YouTube series called Thrills and Spills, which showed the sport’s worst falls alongside its biggest wins, and Ben says that same instinct carried over into Faultless. Martin Fuchs’ serious fall at Spruce Meadows, mid-Grand Slam bid, makes the final cut.

“You can’t write that. You can’t script any of that. But you also see that now he’s back and he’s winning again.”

Getting riders to hand over their worst days, as well as their best, took more than a good pitch – it took Ben’s own standing in the sport.

“There was a lot of social capital on the line – a lot of relationships that mean a lot to us,” he says. “I think the confidence from the riders came from the longstanding relationship that our family has had with the sport.”

Both brothers insist nothing was staged for effect.

“We were not telling people, go over and talk to this person. We were not manufacturing storylines,” Kyle says. “We took the footage that we had and that footage created the storylines that we followed naturally.”

Riders were mic’d from a distance rather than crowded by a crew, and some, Ben adds, “forgot they had a mic on.”

Neither brother sounds like someone planning to stop at one season. Ben flags Richard Vogel’s live bid to become only the second rider ever to complete the Rolex Grand Slam – after Scott Brash – as unfinished business the series is well placed to follow. But Kyle doesn't dress up the economics.

“We’re not making money out of this,” he says. “It was a large investment. But we think that in time, it will be a good investment – not just for us personally, but for the sport in general. If it can broaden the audience base, it really lifts everybody up.”

Whether Faultless genuinely does for showjumping what Drive to Survive did for Formula One is still an open question. But the brothers have put themselves at the front of the queue for reimagining what equestrian media could look like.

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Wondering what prize money is on offer at Burghley Horse Trials? The Defender Burghley Horse Trials is one of the top events of the year with a suitably impressive prize pot, and therefore attracts the best event riders from across the world.

This year, the winner will take home £120,000, which is an increase of £5,000 from 2025 and just £5,000 less than the prize money allocated to the Badminton winner. The prize money for first place hit the six-figure mark in 2022.

There is additional prize money allocated to some of Burghley’s special prize winners – for example, last year £1,000 was awarded to the breeder of the highest-placed British-bred horse.

The total prize pot for the competition in 2026 is £388,000.

Burghley Horse Trials prize money in 2026

Below are the proposed prizes for the top finishers in the five-star competition. The exact prize money, however, depends on the number of horses that start – this year there are 55 confirmed entries in Burghley’s drawn order.

Burghley Young Event Horse prize money

The two Dubarry Burghley Young Event Horse classes will be worth a total of £8,000 for 2026, with a first prize of £1,500 for the five-year-old champion and £1,250 for the four-year-old champion. Prizes go down to tenth place.

The prize pot also includes a £100 breeder's prize and £100 for the highest placed mare.

• To stay up to date with the latest equestrian news in the run-up to Burghley Horse Trials, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Britains golden era in para dressage already feels a distant memory and the World Para Dressage Championships in Aachen won’t be the place it returns.

Once untouchable – team champions at every Paralympics until Paris – Britain finished sixth in Paris then fourth at last summer’s Ermelo Europeans. But the team in Ermelo went closer than most would’ve thought, finishing just 0.7 points off the bronze medal spot, buoyed by an impressive championships debut from Jemima Green and Fantabulous, who took individual bronze in all three grade II tests.

But close only counts for so much and the honest read is that Britain are no longer among the undisputed favourites for team honours. A podium finish in Aachen looks like a stretch.

That’s partly down to who’s coming back. The USA arrive as reigning Paralympic champions and the best para dressage nation in the world – and three of the four combinations that swept five golds in Paris return unchanged for Aachen.

Rebecca Hart (Floratina), Fiona Howard (Diamond Dunes) and Kate Shoemaker (Vianne) return, while Marie Vonderheyden takes over the ride on Fan Tastico H – US rider Roxanne Trunnell’s Paris grade I silver-medal horse – having partnered him since early 2025. If Aachen goes to form, gold should be heading back across the Atlantic.

Behind them, it should be the two nations who shared the top two Ermelo steps. Germany bring back both their Ermelo grade winners in the same combinations – Heidemarie Dresing and Poesie 143 in grade II, Regine Mispelkamp and Bayala in grade V – giving them a proven core to build a team score around.

The Netherlands counter with strength in even greater depth – Rixt van der Horst and Eisma’s Royal Fonq NOP return as reigning grade III European champions, Britney de Jong and Caramba NOP as Ermelo’s grade V grand prix B winners, and crucially Sanne Voets is back aboard Demantur after sitting out Ermelo, adding a Paralympic medal-winning combination the Dutch didn’t even need at Europeans.

Denmark, Ermelo’s bronze medallists, look the shakiest of the European top three. Katrine Kristensen returns on Goerklintgaards Quater, but Tobias Thorning Jørgensen has switched from multiple-championship-medallist Jolene Hill onto Blue Hors Zackorado. With further changes elsewhere in the team, it’s harder to read their medal chances.

Para dressage World Championship team medal predictions

Para dressage World Championship individual medal favourites

Fiona Howard (USA)

Fresh from a hospitalisation for kidney surgery last December, Fiona’s season took a record-breaking detour. While her triple Paralympic gold partner Diamond Dunes stayed off the CPEDI circuit, she rode US team-mate and coach Kate Shoemaker’s Vianne just days before March’s Wellington CPEDI and broke her own grade II freestyle world record – set on Diamond Dunes in 2025 at 83.27% – with an 84.934% score on a horse she’d never competed before.

Back on Diamond Dunes for Aachen, the pair picked up where they left off: 78.1% in the grand prix A and 80.83% in the grand prix B on their return in July.

Rihards Snikus (AUT)

Rihards and grade I ride King Of The Dance made history at the 2022 worlds, winning Latvia’s first-ever equestrian gold, before adding individual and freestyle Paralympic titles in Paris, and double gold at last summer’s Europeans.

Now 18, the gelding hasn’t competed at all in 2026, leaving his form for Aachen a genuine unknown after such a long absence. US team members Marie Vonderheyden and Fan Tastico H – world number two in the grade and unbeaten in the freestyle, bar one runner-up finish this season – look well placed to capitalise if the champion isn’t fully sharp.

Kate Shoemaker (USA)

Newly installed as world number one – dethroning long-time team-mate Fiona Howard’s 15-month reign – Kate has been near-unbeatable in 2026, winning almost every start across Wellington, Aachen and Aalborg, with only a single freestyle retirement blotting the record. On that run, she was also a winner in an able-bodied inter I test (67.29%).

Kate bought Vianne (below) outright at the end of 2024, after taking over the ride from Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, then lent the mare to her US team-mate Fiona for a week in March, so that she could go on her record-breaking run.

Rixt Van Der Horset (NED)

Runners-up in all three grade III tests in Paris, Rixt and Eisma’s Royal Fonq NOP (below) have kicked on since, sweeping all their tests at last summer’s Europeans. Their one defeat of the season came in the grand prix A at Hagen last month. They were beaten by Denmark’s Tobias Thorning Jørgensen and Blue Hors Zackorado – who will run them close in Aachen – but they responded by winning both the B and freestyle there, the latter their best score of the season at 85.69%.

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout the Aachen World Championships, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Excitement levels are soaring as a pantheon of equine and human greats gather at the equestrian Mecca of Aachen for the World Showjumping Championships.

Can Great Britain – so successful at the past four Olympics – brush aside a near-50-year wait for a World Showjumping Championships gold? Will the epic showdown between equine behemoths United Touch S and Point Break materialise?

A vast, truly global field of 30 nations will be lining up for team honours this
year (view the full showjumping World Championship form guide) and European countries continue to prove a dominant force in these championships. However, we’ve had a raft of big-name withdrawals from some key nations in the run-up to Aachen, so the team medal decider might be less
clear-cut than we thought.

The Swedes arrive as defending world champions, but they aren’t quite the invincible force of recent years when they reigned concurrently as world, Olympic and European champions.

Reigning European champions Belgium were hit hard by the withdrawal of Gilles Thomas and top stallion Ermitage Kalone but still field a stellar cast, while Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallists Great Britain arrive as one of the favourites fielding the same three riders, although all the British horses are championship first-timers.

The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany and red-hot Ireland, under new chef d’equipe Jessica Kurten, look to be the other key nations in medal contention, with the latter’s riders enjoying a rich vein of form.

Key opposition from outside Europe will likely come from the USA, which fields an enviable mix of experience and exceptionally talented youth. The UAE are proving rising stars on the international stage under William Funnell’s tutelage, while Saudi Arabia and Japan could perform well.

Who will top the individual World Showjumping Championships podium?

We’re most looking forward to the tussle for individual honours.

US rider Kent Farrington’s decision to skip these championships put a slight downer on the anticipated showdown between the world’s best, but Aachen could be a career-defining moment for world number two Richard Vogel with his mighty stallion United Touch S. Previous Aachen form will be a key asset in this unique venue and United Touch’s grand prix victory there in May pinpoints the European champions as favourites for gold.

Ben Maher’s Point Break has long been touted as one of the best in the world
and the time has come to prove just how good he is.

Of course, these championships are far from a two-horse race.

Strong opposition could come from USA’s Laura Kraut, who is surely due an individual medal, but has had to perform an 11th-hour swap from her intended horse Bisquetta to the more-experienced 16-year-old Baloutinue. The multi-medal-winning Swiss duo Martin Fuchs (Conner Jei) and Steve Guerdat (Dynamix De Belheme) are two of the greatest championship riders of all time.

But the shrewd money may be on Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam and the hugely-popular James Kann Cruz, who arrive in cracking form.

So the stage is set for one of the greatest battles in equestrian history.

Bring it on!

Find out more about the rest of the field with from our complete showjumping world championships form guide.

Horse & Hound’s individual medal favourites

Richard Vogel (GER)

The reigning European champions and Aachen grand prix winners, Richard and United Touch S, look to add world gold to their collection, and improve on the European team bronze. The pair are live contenders for the Rolex Grand Slam, having also won the Dutch Masters in March – and the major question has to be can anyone stop them?

Ben Maher (GBR)

Multiple medal-winning rider Ben brings star stallion Point Break, with whom he also jumped double clear to help win the Rotterdam LLN. This will be a championship debut for “Bodhi”, whom Ben has been riding since he was six and with whom he came second in last year’s World Cup Final. He ranks as one of the best horses in the world. Home fans will remember their second place in the Windsor Rolex grand prix. This will be Ben’s second World Championships; he was on the team that won bronze in 2022 and finished fourth individually with Faltic HB.

Steve Guerdat (SUI)

The 2023 European champions and reigning Olympic silver medallists, Steve and Dynamix De Belheme, are on top form, jumping double clear to secure Swiss victory in the Falsterbo Nations Cup. Steve has been blessed by so many fabulous horses, but cites this mare as one of the best.

Laura Kraut (USA)

An individual medal remains one of the few accolades missing from the 60-year-old’s glittering CV. This was due to be a first championship for original partner, Bisquetta, who she had been competing since 2021. However, in the week before Aachen, it was announced that she would be riding the far more experienced 16-year-old Baloutinue, with whom she competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics and last week helped USA win the Aga Khan Trophy at Dublin Horse Show.

Martin Fuchs (SUI)

The 34-year-old and the tricky but talented Conner Jei were not on their usual top form at last year’s Europeans, finishing 55th individually, but have since found their feet, winning a CSI5* grand prix and finishing second in three more. Martin is known for his speed, he’s one to watch from the start.

Shane Sweetnam (IRL)

Shane won his first five-star grand prix in July with James Kann Cruz; they’d already helped Ireland to team European silver, in 2023, and represented their country at the Paris Olympics. Their 2026 form had indicated such a win was coming, as they’d jumped double clear in the LLN, with second and third at CSI5* level and seventh in the Aachen grand prix. James Kann Cruz and Shane now have a great partnership; the big-strider covers the ground but pulls off the tightest turns and leaves the fences up.

Sophie Hinners (GER)

This is a second championship for Sophie, 28, a huge talent who won European team bronze last year and finished sixth individually. She and Iron Dames Singclair, formerly with Peder Fredricson, helped Germany to a string of Nations Cup placings and jumped triple clear for third in June’s Aachen grand prix.

José Maria Larocca (ARG)

Argentina last won a medal at these championships in 1960 but a potential dark horse could be this 57-year-old rider and his Pan-Am medal-winning 16-year-old Finn Lente. Their triple clear and runner-up finish in this year’s Aachen grand prix topped an exceptional run of form and they could spring a surprise.

Nina Mallevaey (FRA)

Another rising star who has earned her place on the team alongside legendary French riders and could be bidding for a medal at her second senior championship. She and Dynastie De Beaufour were fifth in the Aachen grand prix last year, helped France win the recent La Baule Nations Cup and have gained invaluable experience competing in the USA.

Max Kühner (AUT)

Max has formed the backbone of the Austrian team at six Europeans, the 2024 Olympics and two world, earning top-10 individual placings at four. His versatile EIC Cooley Jump The Q has won five-star grands prix and been placed in six-bars and puissance classes.

• To stay up to date with the latest news and reports throughout the Aachen World Championships, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Welcome to Horse & Hound’s expert form guide, which is exclusively available for H&H subscribers. We have analysed the recent performances of some of the horses and riders entered for Aachen to give you the full picture ahead of the competition. There were 179 showjumping entries, so we have narrowed it down to the teams and individuals who are most likely to fight for the medals.

We will be running H&H’s exclusive live reports service throughout the showjumping World Championships, starting with the speed leg on Wednesday 19 August, including analysis of the action and interviews with the riders moments after their tests, so make sure you join us to keep abreast of the latest news as it happens.

In the meantime, check out the full showjumping World Championships form guide below, and keep it on hand when you’re watching the showjumping or following our live reports service this week.

Countries are listed in order of their sporting country code.

Key to horse colour and gender

b = bay, db = dark bay, br = brown, bl = black, ch = chestnut, gr = grey

mare = m, gelding = g, stallion = st

Withdrawals and substitutions

This form guide was finalised on 10 August – as a result, there may be some differences between this guide and the final confirmed start lists. We have, however, marked up some late replacements.

Showjumping World Championships form guide

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil