The British squad for the eventing World Championships in Aachen (12-16 August) has been revealed, following much speculation. Unsurprisingly, the effort is spearheaded by the trio who won team gold at the Olympics two years ago.

Laura Collett (London 52) and Tom McEwen (JL Dublin), the individual gold and bronze medallists at last year’s Agria European Championships, are joined by their Paris team-mate Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo), who missed the Europeans owing to her pregnancy but made a spectacular comeback at Mars Badminton Horse Trials with her third win there.

Their selection will shock nobody and will not be in any way controversial.

Gemma Stevens had emerged as a favourite for a place on the squad this spring with Flash Cooley and they have duly landed a spot.

The West Sussex-based rider and this smart grey have banked lots of super four-star form in the past few years, including experience at Aachen. This will be Gemma’s first senior championship since she was on the gold medal-winning team at the 2018 worlds in Tryon with Arctic Soul. Flash Cooley is the only horse or rider on the squad making a championship debut.

One has to assume the fifth and final spot was a tough decision – and whoever received that magic phone call, several others could feel aggrieved.

Caroline Harris is the one heading to Aachen, her recent win at Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials with D. Day evidently sealing the deal. Their two five-star wins bracket five top-10 four-star short results over the past two seasons – and a single, high-profile error at the European Championships at Blenheim Horse Trials.

It will be announced once the British squad are in Aachen for the eventing World Championships which four riders are on the team and who rides as an individual but at this stage, it’s probably fair to assume Caroline, the least experienced rider of the squad, will be the individual.

The reserve list gives us an idea of who narrowly missed out on a spot – alphabetically, David Doel (Galileo Nieuwmoed), Yasmin Ingham (Gypsie Du Loir), Tom Jackson (United 36) and Harry Meade (Cavalier Crystal).

The obvious omission from the combined squad and reserve lists? Bubby Upton with Its Cooley Time. Selectors obviously decided their run of falls couldn’t be overlooked, despite their win at Defender Bramham Horse Trials. It will be a harsh blow to Bubby, but she will no doubt come back fighting and has plenty of team appearances in her future.

British squad for the eventing World Championships 2026

Ros Canter with 14-year-old gelding Lordships Graffalo
Owners: Michele and Archie Saul
Breeder: Lordships Stud and Pennie Wallace
Breeding: by Birkhof’s Grafenstolz TSF, out of a mare by Rock King
Groom: Sarah Charnley

Laura Collett with 17-year-old gelding London 52
Owners: Keith Scott, Karen Bartlett and rider
Breeder: Ocke Riewerts
Breeding: by Landos, out of a mare by Quinar Z
Groom: Tilly Hughes

Caroline Harris with 12-year-old gelding D. Day
Owners: Lucy Matthews, Fiona Olivier, Marie Anne Richardson and Heather Royle
Breeder: Fiona Olivier
Breeding: by Billy Mexico, out of a mare by Dilum
Groom: Nellie Smith

Tom McEwen with 15-year-old gelding JL Dublin
Owners: Deirdre Johnston and Jo and James Lambert
Breeder: Volker Goettsche-Goetze
Breeding: by Diarado, out of a mare by Canto 16
Groom: Adam Short

Gemma Stevens with 14-year-old gelding Flash Cooley, 14
Owner: Pru Dawes
Breeder: Jim O’Neill
Breeding: by CSF Mr Croon, out of a mare by OBOS Quality
Groom: Georgie Driver

Reserves in alphabetical order

David Doel with 15-year-old gelding Galileo Nieuwmoed
Owners: Mary Fox, Gillian Jonas and rider
Breeders: J. W. and A. P. Jurrius
Breeding: by Carambole, out of a mare by Harcos

Yasmin Ingham with 10-year-old mare Gypsie Du Loir
Owners: Janette Chinn and The Sue Davies Fund
Breeder: Pierre Gouye
Breeding: by Herald 3 out of a mare by Canaletto

Tom Jackson with 10-year-old gelding United 36
Owner: Michael Stenning
Breeder: Heinrich Bohmke
Breeding: by Ucello out of a mare by Espiri

Harry Meade with 16-year-old mare Cavalier Crystal
Owners: Charlotte and Peter Opperman
Breeder: Thomas Horgan
Breeding: by Jack Of Diamonds out of a mare by Cavalier Royale

The entries are announced in collaboration with the British Eventing selectors and World Class Programme principal partner Agria.

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Ros Canter and Izilot DHI are among the Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials entries (18-21 June), as the pair look to defend their CCI5* title.

Ros could be on track for history to repeat itself; last year she won Badminton with Lordships Graffalo in May then Luhmühlen five-star with Izilot DHI in June. She showed she is in phenomenal form at this year’s Badminton when Lordships Graffalo won his history-making third title. She is also entered with Lady Milnes Coates and Deirdre Johnston’s MHS Seventeen, who finished 19th in the German five-star last year.

This year’s Luhmühlen Horse Trials takes place just eight weeks before the World Eventing Championships in Aachen (13-16 August) and only 30 are entered in the five-star class, of which 13 are British combinations. Fiona Kashel and Monbeg Cazador are on the list and would make 31 entries, but the pair are already shown as withdrawn.

Pau five-star 2024 winners Caroline Harris and D Day (owned by Lucy Matthews, Fiona Olivier and Marie Anne Richardson and Heather Royle) will make the trip to Luhmühlen; Laura Collett will bring forward Lucy Nelson’s Hester, who finished seventh here last year, and Harry Meade is entered with 11-year-old five-star first-timer Jet Fighter, owned by Abigail Bernard. Sam Ecroyd will ride Mister Big Ears (owned by Julie and Michael Hall and Penelope Ecroyd), who is also making his top-level debut.

There are two home-side riders in the CCI5*; Heike Jahncke and Mighty Spring FRH (owned by Carsten Küst and rider) and Katharina Meyer and Aspen T (owned by Monika Tietz and rider). Jonelle Price will ride her own and the Grape Syndicate’s Grappa Nera and Tim Price is entered with Susan Lamb, Therese Miller and his own Happy Boy. Last year’s Luhmühlen five-star runner-up Samantha Lissington will ride Delarado, a five-star first-timer owned by Rachel Bessell, Ella and Magnus McGrigor, Kate Maitland, Braydon Lissington and Samantha.

Luhmühlen Horse Trials entries for the CCI4*-S

The CCI4*-S Meßmer Trophy, which incorporates the German national championship, has 63 entered, including Emily King and Valmy Biats, who finished 39th at Badminton following some miscommunications across country. The other Brits are Gordon Murphy with Kevin McNab’s Highmoon and John Tilley and his own Licence to Cooley.

Among the 18 German entries are last year’s champions Julia Krajewski and Uelzener’s Nickel (owned by Bernd Heicke), Christoph Wahler and Stefan Haupt and Hendrik von Paepcke’s D’Accord FRH and Calvin Bockmann with his family-owned Altair de la Cense.

Course designer Mike Etherington-Smith has introduced “several tweaks” to this year’s tracks.

“It’s a privilege to design at events like this. Luhmühlen is a top-class event and that’s exactly why riders enjoy competing here. All the fences are now in place and we are working on the final details,” he said.

“It’s fantastic to work alongside Kai-Steffen Meier, who brings a great deal of experience and is an excellent sounding board for ideas.

“The course is just that little bit more demanding this year to ensure riders stay focused and continue making decisions all the way round depending on how their horses are feeling. We are also using more frangible fences throughout the course to further enhance safety.”

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Emily King and Valmy Biats have dropped down the leaderboard following the Mars Badminton Horse Trials cross-country – while others have enjoyed big climbs.

Emily and the 17-year-old gelding had been lying equal 11th going into the second phase, but it wasn’t to be their day. Emily rode a circle at both fence 20abcd Spillers Sustainability Bay and fence 30abc the Savills Keepers Rails, picking up 40 jumping penalties. The pair also collected 19.2 time-penalties.

“It was so foot-perfect and that nearly was a little bit of the problem,” said Emily.

“I came up to the water [Spillers Sustainability Bay] and he was a little bit flat; I landed and moved him on and he suddenly took a massive stride. I could tell we were going to be on basically no distance to the rail and I just overprotected him. I thought, ‘I don’t want you to scrabble all over it’.”

Badminton final scores

Emily continued: “I did a circle and came again, which in hindsight, I think if the rest was a bit more scrappy I probably would have rolled with it. But the fact it was so perfect and he was so absolutely spot on everywhere, I just made a bit of a mistake. He jumped all the hard stuff, I couldn’t have asked for any better, so I’m really annoyed with myself.”

Brazil’s Marcio Carvalho Jorge is another to drop down the leaderboard, having been sixth after the dressage with 11-year-old Royal Encounter. The pair had 15.2 time-penalties and 20 jumping penalties for a circle at fence 28ab Rathbones Curve.

“He was a good boy, but unfortunately he got tired in the end,” said Marcio, adding the combinations all rode well.

“It’s his first five-star and he did really well for his first one. He was inside the time, if I’m not wrong, near the nine minutes, but then he got tired. But it’s ok, it’s his first time at the distance and he will get there. He will be a good five-star horse in the future.”

Badminton Horse Trials cross-country leaderboard climbers

Ireland’s Sam Watson is one of the day’s big climbers. He has moved up from 53rd after the dressage with Ballneety Rocketman and now lies 20th, thanks to a speedy clear round across country, recording just 0.8 of a time-penalty.

“I did the exact same thing I did with Bushman when he was a youngster. People won’t believe me, but the quarry, I just let him run in there a little bit, because this is a course to put manners on a horse,” said Sam.

“He’s a horse that needs to let me in a little bit as he just takes over. I nearly lost my line on it, but it just got his attention. We can’t ride around that course by ourselves. After that he realised that he was the one jumping the fences, and he was class. He was green in places and he goes really brave in places, and he can gallop. He was a really good boy.”

Laura Collett and 13-year-old mare Bling added just four time-faults to their 33.5 dressage score following a super round across country to lie in 16th overnight.

“I’m absolutely delighted. She’s been waiting to do that all week,” said Laura. “She was phenomenal from start to finish. I couldn’t fault her. She was always looking for the next fence; how much she’s come on in a year is unbelievable.”

Bling ate up Eric Winter’s track showing no signs of tiredness towards the end.

“I’m a bit annoyed I didn’t use her a bit more, she galloped the whole way to the line. I’m not used to riding one so blood,” said Laura.

“There were a couple of single fences where I just took too much away and should have just let her roll and trust her jump, but the combinations I couldn’t fault her. Pretty much everything rode to plan, it’s all a bit of a blur but she was absolutely amazing.”

Just behind Laura and Bling on penalties is Tom Rowland and 16-year-old Dreamliner. They finish the day on 37.8 after jumping clear across country, with 5.6 time-penalties.

“I’m really proud of him. It’s his third time here and he has done very, very little since Badminton last year. He seems to like it here,” said Tom.

“It was a bit of a hairy round because I knew that to be competitive and fast, you had to be up on your minutes early on. With him I’ve always sort of left a bit in the tank, and this year I definitely emptied the tank more than I’d have liked.

“He dug really deep for me. I had this obsession of being in the time at five-star and I haven’t done it. I thought ‘today’s the day’, but he couldn’t have gone any faster and that twistiness at the beginning does take it out of them.”

How to watch and listen to Badminton Horse Trials

To watch Badminton Horse Trials live or via catch up, including the trot-ups, from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world, you need a 2026 Badminton TV Pass. Badminton TV is once again powered by ClipMyHorse.TV, but you do not need a full ClipMyHorse.TV subscription to watch – you can just subscribe to Badminton TV for £22.99. Go to badminton-horse.tv to sign up. If you are already a ClipMyHorse.TV premium member, Badminton TV is included in your subscription. Also check out the Badminton app, which provides free live results and much more this year. Sign up for Badminton Plus membership for £4.99 to access the live Radio Badminton broadcast and receive exclusive offers from on-site exhibitors. Search for Badminton Horse Trials in your app store.

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You may also be interested in:

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‘He’s the reason I’m still doing this’: home-bred gelding impresses on Badminton cross-country to lead

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Brazil’s Marcio Carvalho Jorge and 11-year-old five-star debutant Royal Encounter have gone third at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials on the second day of dressage (Friday 8 May), scoring 29.2.

Wiltshire-based Marcio has completed Badminton twice before, his highest placing 23rd in 2014 on Josephine MCJ.

“I’m really happy – he’s such a nice horse, with such a good brain,” Marcio said. “He coped really well with the crowd. I think it’s his first time in an environment like this, and I’m really pleased with him.”

Marcio bought Royal Encounter as a five-year-old with co-owners Annabel, Alistair and Ken Vere Nicoll, and has produced him from BE100 up to five-star.

Badminton final scores

“He’s always had a nice brain – he’s very cute, he sleeps all day,” said Marcio. “Even today, before we tacked him up, he was lying down sleeping. He does this every day, doesn’t matter if he’s at a competition or at home. It’s funny, but it’s also good, because he rests his body and his legs.”

Asked if Royal Encounter had exceeded expectations, Marcio was measured in his response: “We had expectations, but we never know, competition is competition, sometimes it goes right, sometimes it goes wrong. But we always thought that if everything went well, it could be a good result.”

Marcio added that he’s walked the Badminton cross-country course and was clear-eyed about the challenge ahead for a five-star debutant.

“It’s a nice course – big, as it should be at Badminton,” he said. “But it’s not one or two jumps, it’s all together that’s the question. It’s his first five-star, so let’s see what happens.”

Laura Collett happy to “survive” Badminton dressage with Bling

Laura Collett – not long back from surgery – and Bling were next into the arena, scoring 33.5 penalties to go into joint 21st place – a result Laura was happy with after a difficult start to the week.

The 13-year-old mare came across hound exercise on Wednesday and bolted with Laura.

“There aren’t many horses that scare me, but she does,” Laura said. “When the red mist comes, there’s no thought process in what she’s doing – she just bolts. And when she goes, she properly goes.

“We bolted down the avenue. Luckily, no one was around. So we’re just very happy we’re here, we survived, and we’re still going. We’re just trying to do all we can to keep her chilled and calm – and it seemed to work.”

Bling finds dressage physically as well as mentally difficult, Laura said, but has recently started to soften.

“Just before Burghley last year, she started to think about maybe working with me and not 100% against me,” she said. “We’re definitely not fully there yet, but it’s a work in progress – she’s tricky in her head, so everything’s a bit of a mind game to get her to work in the way that you want her to.

“At home now she’s feeling really good, but it’s a whole different ball game when you go into an atmosphere and do a test like that.

“I was just very pleased she didn’t break in the counter-canter, because she’s just about got her head around doing a flying change on a diagonal line. Then it was like, ‘Oh no, you’ve got to do medium and stay counter-canter, then do a change’ – and she’s been a bit like, ‘You decide what you want, one or the other, not all three at once.’

“That’s just her mentality. If she understands something, if she allows herself to understand it, then she’s fine. But she’s not very good at giving herself that opportunity to listen.”

“Absolute chocolate legend”: Swiss debutant Nadja Minder joint seventh on Toblerone

Badminton debutantes Nadja Minder and Nicole Basieux’s 19-year-old gelding Toblerone – Nadja’s partner since her young rider days – put in a fantastic performance just before the break, going into joint seventh on 30.3 penalties.

“He’s an absolute chocolate legend,” said Nadja, who picked up three 9s on the way to her Badminton dressage score. “He was quite lit up in the warm-up, more than usual, but he’s such a professional, he tries so hard, and he just knows his job.”

Nadja, who is based in Switzerland, said the gelding had been getting better with age.

“To be honest, he feels better now than when I got him six years ago,” she said. “He’s got more supple through work, and he’s just an absolute athlete and machine.

“He started quite late, so he’s not as used as probably other 19-year-olds. He doesn’t need that much preparation now – I can just go from show to show and do what’s necessary.”

Nadja, whose mother is grooming for her this week, had a last-minute withdrawal at her previous attempt to come to Badminton.

“I had the Olympic dream, and I wanted to ride Badminton one day,” she said. “To come here now feels so unreal, with my mom as my groom – we’ve been on this journey together.

“It’s a childhood dream, and I’m so grateful for Toblerone and his owner for making it possible. We know how hard it is to get to one of these, so it feels special.”

How to watch and listen to Badminton Horse Trials

To watch Badminton Horse Trials live or via catch up, including the trot-ups, from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world, you need a 2026 Badminton TV Pass. Badminton TV is once again powered by ClipMyHorse.TV, but you do not need a full ClipMyHorse.TV subscription to watch – you can just subscribe to Badminton TV for £22.99. Go to badminton-horse.tv to sign up. If you are already a ClipMyHorse.TV premium member, Badminton TV is included in your subscription. Also check out the Badminton app, which provides free live results and much more this year. Sign up for Badminton Plus membership for £4.99 to access the live Radio Badminton broadcast and receive exclusive offers from on-site exhibitors. Search for Badminton Horse Trials in your app store.

Enjoy the best of Badminton with Horse & Hound

To ensure you keep up to date with all the breaking news, behind the scenes insight, and the best of the action throughout Badminton Horse Trials with no limits on how much you can read, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website from as little as £1 a week. Sign up now. And don’t miss our bumper 28-page magazine report on Badminton, including in-depth analysis and exclusive comments from top names, in the issue of Horse & Hound dated 14 May.

You may also be interested in:

‘Focus is a very different thing at the moment’: new mother Ros Canter blasts into Badminton dressage lead

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Horse & Hound’s exclusive Badminton 2026 form guide, featuring every horse and rider

“You’ve only got one life and one head – and you can’t really put a price on that.”

This was Laura Collett’s take on rider protection, shared in a discussion at the first British Equestrian Trade Association safety conference on 21 April.

The European champion, Olympic gold medallist and five-star winner, who is sponsored by Uvex helmets and Racesafe body protectors, gave “an eventer’s perspective on safety” during the conference, the aim of which was to reduce risks to help make riding safer.

Laura suffered serious injuries in a rotational fall in 2013; she was asked whether this had changed her perspective on safety equipment.

“I think I’ve always been very pro safety,” she said. “After I had the bad fall, I was just very grateful I was already slightly a step ahead. I was wearing the air jacket on top of a good body protector, and was told by doctors at the time that they thought the air jacket did save my life.

“The horse landed directly on top of me and I did have a few injuries but all things considered, when you hit the ground and have a horse land on top of you, the fact I was able to walk away from that without any hugely significant injuries meant I was very grateful for all the equipment I had on. I’ve not changed my thought process from that day, other than I continue to be grateful and continue to try to wear the very best there is around.”

Laura said that before that incident, she had been “very, very lucky” and had not even broken a bone in a fall.

“You do slightly think ‘It won’t happen to me’ but at the same time you know you’re riding an animal with its own brain and we gallop towards solid fences,” she said. “The reality is that accidents can happen, and freak accidents can happen; it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re riding a ‘bad’ horse.”

Laura said the fall made her slightly change her mindset in the horses she rides, but that this will not prevent all falls or accidents.

“The very best horse can make a mistake and you don’t know when it’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s not like you can just say ‘I’m going to wear a body protector at the big events’ or anything.

“Years ago, you saw a lot of people riding without hats; there seemed to be a perception that it was cool. I personally never thought it was cool to ride without a hat, because the horse can spook or trip or anything can happen, and you can fall off. Even if you’re the best rider in the world.

“It’s often a case of how you fall too; you see other people, and I’ve had falls myself, that look very dramatic but you get up and walk away, no bother. You see another one that you think looks insignificant but just the way the person falls, they can have a worse outcome.”

Laura said she wears the same protective equipment at home as for competitions; the same cross-country helmet and body protector with built-in air jacket.

Improved design

She said design has improved; a body protector with an air vet on top could feel too bulky but from her perspective, her gear has no impact on her riding.

“I have full faith in the products I use, and I have very much tested them over the years!” she said. “And I’m very grateful they’ve stood up to the test.”

Laura said the improvement in technology means protectors and helmets are more comfortable now. And although she said this does not bother her, there are some who may not have worn them before owing to their appearance.

“You can have whatever colour air jacket you want now,” she said. “All those things I think make it so people can’t come up with excuses for not wearing them. I’m sure some people still do! But I think if they were honest with themselves and tried them, they’d realise they don’t really have a leg to stand on, saying they’re uncomfortable or they impact them in a negative way.”

Laura considered changes in safety over the years; she was one of those who preferred a top hat for dressage but now would think that “looked wrong”.

“Times do change and people have to accept they’re actually changing for the better,” she said. “It just sometimes takes a little while for people to realise, but I think you look back at old photos, when people were barely wearing a helmet, not attached, and you just think ‘What were they thinking?’”

Laura said her first priority for safety equipment is the standard of protection, then comfort; she advised anyone who may not feel comfortable to try different brands and find what works best for them, stressing the need to have equipment fitted professionally.

Laura Collett on safety equipment

And asked about her view on anyone who might be reluctant to spend large sums of money on safety equipment, she said: “You’ve only got one life.

“At the time, it can seem like a lot of money having to replace the helmet or something that’s broken, but you’d rather spend that money than have another fall with the same helmet, and it be compromised in a way you can’t see. Something will have happened in that fall and you can’t take that chance.

“With head injuries we know it’s often the second that can be a lot worse, even if it’s less impact, so you want to have as much protection as you can and I don’t think that’s something you take lightly. You’ve got one life and one head and you can’t really put a price on that.”

Laura added that were she to speak to her younger self, or a younger rider, she would advise them not to take the risks.

“Don’t try to think you’re cool by not wearing safety equipment,” she said. “A big part would be to always replace the hat. That’s one thing that’s slightly changed for me; even the smallest of falls. If you hit your head, even though you’ve not been concussed, you walked away, still replace the hat.

“When I had my bad fall, my hat had a tiny little crack, and we thought nothing of it. But they took it apart and the difference in the cushioning, the impact it had on the inner shell of the hat that you couldn’t see from the outside, was pretty scary. That hit home for me; the hat can do its job without you realising but it means you need to replace it.

“Everyone who saw my fall was really shocked I didn’t have an injury; I hit the ground and the horse fell on top of me so to come away without a brain injury was pretty impressive, and that’s something you really appreciate. You realise that you can’t be taking chances when it comes to your head.”

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European eventing champion Laura Collett is back riding following surgery and is expected to return to competition this week.

The 2022 Badminton winner has two horses entered at Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market this weekend (17 to 19 April). Laura’s five-star mares Hester, owned by Lucy Nelson, and Bling, owned by Yvonne Ferguson, are among the CCI4*-S field.

“Two weeks post op and back in my happy place,” said Laura on Sunday, adding that the Collett team is now “full steam ahead” in returning to eventing next weekend.

Earlier this week she also posted footage of her seven jumping lessons with British Equestrian eventing performance manager Dickie Waygood and said it is “good to be back” and that “all horses are feeling fab”.

Laura, a three-time five-star winner, re-injured her collarbone in a cross-country schooling fall this spring. She had initially broken her collarbone in November 2025, which required surgery last year.

On 27 March, she said that she had a “freak fall” in training, owing to the low sun, which displaced the plate and re-injured her collarbone. The horse was fine.

Laura started her season successfully at Tweseldown and Lincolnshire, but said that although she had managed a couple of events, she needed an operation to “get it fixed”.

The double Olympic team gold medallist is entered at Mars Badminton Horse Trials (7 to 10 May) on Bling, with whom she finished 10th at Defender Burghley in 2025.

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European eventing champion Laura Collett is on the sidelines after re-injuring her collarbone in a training fall.

Laura, a three-time five-star winner, broke her collarbone in November 2025, which required surgery last year. Today (27 March) she said that she had a “freak fall” while cross-country schooling a few weeks ago, owing to the low sun, and has displaced the plate and re-injured her collarbone.

“Thankfully the horse was totally fine, which is the main thing,” said Laura.

“Although I’ve managed a couple of events, I’m going to have to sit the next couple of weeks out while I go in for an operation to get it fixed.

“I’m very aware of how lucky I was, so although it’s hard to be missing out at the start of the season, it could have been a whole lot worse and I have an amazing team behind me keeping the horses in tip-top shape for my return.”

She added that she will be “for ever grateful” to helmet manufacturer Uvex Equestrian and body protector firm Racesafe.

“Accidents happen and it’s important to realise it’s not all plain sailing. You just have to pick yourself up and come back stronger,” said Laura.

“A huge thank you to my amazing owners who have been so understanding and supportive.”

Laura started her season successfully at Tweseldown and Lincolnshire this month. She has now withdrawn all six of her rides entered at Barbury this weekend (27 to 29 March) and the two horses entered at Oxstalls next weekend (4 to 5 April).

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Mr Bass, who finished second at Luhmühlen Horse Trials with Laura Collett and won three times at four-star, has died aged 18. The horse, who was known for his cross-country prowess and dressage score finishes, was put down last Wednesday (18 February).

“He was such a character – always wanting to be involved in everything and just loved work. The bigger the challenge the more he rose to it,” Laura told H&H.

Laura found Mr Bass, stable name Chuck, in Peter Thomsen’s yard in Germany.

“I was looking for young horses to produce to sell on the day Mr Bass arrived, pretty much unbroken. I was lucky – I asked the price before we loose-jumped him and Peter said the price would have been quite different the next day,” she said.

“I sold Chuck to an owner halfway through his five-year-old year, but he failed the vet on X-rays, so my vet told me to have fun on him until something went wrong. We did things like the indoor derby in Stuttgart. When he was seven, Keith Scott and Nick How came on board to help me run him.”

Laura and Mr Bass won the seven-year-old World Championships at Le Lion D’Angers in 2015 and the following year were second in the eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S at Blenheim Horse Trials and fifth at Boekelo CCI4*-L. In 2017, Mr Bass won CCI4*-S at Ballndenisk and Burgham and was second at Blenheim CCI4*-L.

Another CCI4*-S win followed at Houghton in 2018 and that season Mr Bass went on to achieve second place at Luhmühlen on his five-star debut. After third at Haras du Pin CCI4*-S later that year and fourth at Belton CCI4*-S in 2019, he went to Badminton Horse Trials, where he “bolted” round the cross-country to sit 18th overnight but had to be withdrawn the following day with an injury.

He returned to the sport to score four more top-five four-star results in 2020 and 2021 and finish 16th at Pau Horse Trials in 2020, but his injury recurred and Laura retired Mr Bass when he was 13 at the end of 2021 as she felt it was too big a risk to bring him back to eventing. He had a happy retirement in the field “bossing all the babies around”.

Mr Bass was known for being “a machine across country and the king of finishing on his dressage score” – he was the only horse to do so when second at Luhmühlen.

“He was fearless and loved to gallop and jump,” said Laura. “He taught me how to ride fast cross-country – I was a total passenger and had no say in the speed we went.”

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

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The Horse & Hound Podcast 170: European eventing champion Laura Collett on London 52’s career

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The breeders of European eventing champion London 52, Olympic dressage medallist Mount St John Freestyle and showjumping star Donatello d’Auge have been celebrated at the Longines World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) awards.

The ceremony, which crowned the breeders of the year in eventing, dressage and showjumping – based on the final WBFSH 2025 rankings – took place on 24 January at Jumping Amsterdam.

WBFSH president Jan Pedersen presented Ocke Riewerts (London 52), Stephan Kurz (Mount St John Freestyle) and Susana Epaillard Garcia Cereceda (Donatello D’Auge) each with an inscribed bronze Brigitte Boss trophy and a Longines timepiece.

This is the second time Ocke, who is based in the North Sea island of Föhr in northern Germany, has received the award for London 52 (Landos x Quinar Z), having won in 2022. London 52 and Laura Collett were crowned European champions at Blenheim last year, and were third at Luhmuhlen CCI5*.

“I never expected that achieving this honour once would be possible – let alone twice,” Ocke.

A WBFSH spokesperson said Ocke’s work “stands out for its depth of tradition and meticulous care”.

“Ocke’s philosophy emphasises the value of repeating proven crosses and breeding horses capable of excelling across all three eventing disciplines – as well as possessing the courage to tackle today’s demanding courses,” said the spokesperson.

“London 52’s story is a reminder that greatness can emerge from modest beginnings; a single foal, bred with care and conviction, who rose to the top of international sport and now carries his breeder’s name among the legends of equestrian sport.”

Mount St John Freestyle (Fidermark x Donnerhall 11), who was previously produced and campaigned by Charlotte Dujardin, had another fantastic year with Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, winning individual silver and helping Denmark to team bronze at the European Championships in Crozet. The pair posted three +90% freestyle performances in 2025, including 91.1% at the Frankfurt CDI5* in December.

“Following what Freestyle does, her career achievements, it’s great” said Stephan, who is based in southern Germany.

“There are so many coincidences that happened to come full circle, where everything worked out perfectly.”

Susana, of Haras de La Bosquetterie in Normandy, won the showjumping title for Donatello D’Auge (Jarnac x Hello Pierville) for the second time, having received it in 2023. Donatello is ridden by Susana’s husband Julien, the pair have consistent results at the top level and finished number one in the FEI showjumping combination rankings last year.

“Two years later he is still there, among the best,” said Susana, adding that she is very proud of Donatello’s management.

“Patience is the big secret… let them grow, and once they are doing the sport, then [have] patience not to ask them too much, too often.”

The WBFSH spokesperson said Susan’s second award “stands as a testament to this philosophy and to the enduring legacy of one of modern showjumping’s great athletes”.

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Rayef, who took Laura Collett to four under-21 medals and her first Badminton Horse Trials, has been put down, aged 26.

“He taught me how to deal with the highs and lows of the sport – he was unpredictable and you never knew which version of himself would turn up,” said the European champion and Olympic medallist.

Rayef was the first horse Laura took from BE100 all the way to five-star. She travelled seven hours to try him and instantly fell in love “because he was by far the most beautiful horse I’d ever laid my eyes on,” said Laura, adding that he has been part of her family for 20 years.

She told H&H: “He was a cheeky monkey who knew exactly what he did and didn’t like and managed to have everyone wrapped round his little finger.”

Owned by Jason Houghton, Rayef was Laura’s partner in winning double gold at the junior Europeans in Avenches, Switzerland, in 2007 and the pair followed up with double gold at the young rider Europeans in Waregem, Germany, in 2009.

They started competing at three-star (now four-star) level together the same year as their junior Europeans successes, finishing in the top 10 at that level seven times. Highlights included sixth in the World Cup qualifier at Chatsworth in 2008 and third at Barbury CIC3* (now CCI4*-S) in 2011 and Aachen CIC3* in 2012.

In 2011, when she was 21, Laura made her Badminton debut with Rayef and finished eighth. The pair were selected for the European Championships at Luhmühlen Horse Trials that summer as individuals, Laura’s senior championship debut, although it wasn’t a fairytale ending as they were eliminated on the cross-country.

After a couple of strong CIC3* results the following spring, Rayef and Laura were among the non-travelling reserves for the London 2012 Olympics.

Asked about Rayef’s place in her career, Laura said: “He really put me on the map – I got my first call-up for a senior squad in my first year out of young riders and he showed me what it was like to sit in a press conference at Badminton after leading after day one of dressage.”

Rayef enjoyed a happy retirement with Laura’s mother Tracey.

“He wanted for nothing – she adored him and he lived out his retirement living like a king,” said Laura.

“He’d always looked a million dollars and he just started to struggle with eating so it wasn’t fair to let him deteriorate or suffer.”

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

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A nine-time youth medallist, Laura Collett, 36, has won three five-stars and five senior championship medals with her own, Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott’s London 52, including two Olympic team golds and individual bronze in Paris. At the Agria European Eventing Championships at Blenheim in September this year, the pair finally won the senior individual gold medal that Laura has coveted for so long.

In the 13 November issue of H&H magazine – in shops now – Laura tells H&H’s editor Pippa Roome about the final build-up to her epic performance. Here’s a taster of a week that ended so much more gloriously than it started…

The run up to Blenheim in Laura’s own words…

On Tuesday before the championships began, I had a dressage lesson with Ian Woodhead before I left home. It was a total disaster and I had a complete meltdown. Ian kept laughing and saying, “Don’t panic,” and I was like, “Panic? I’m going to the Europeans and I can’t do a flying change.”

He said, “Don’t worry, I’ve ordered 20 flying changes special delivery on Amazon.”

I was not in the best mood arriving at Blenheim.

We’d been told who was riding on the team and as individuals, plus the order, the week before, but it’s always open to change until after the trot-up. We’d been asked our ideal position – I said I didn’t mind third or fourth, but I’d like number four and I felt the horse had earned that. On my pony, junior and young rider teams I was always number four… so perhaps I need that spot to get an individual gold.

On Wednesday morning, Tom McEwen and I went hacking together for about 90 minutes and then I did five or 10 minutes stretching with Dan, but I wasn’t ready to try a flying change.

I had a lesson with Ian on Thursday morning, thinking that if necessary I could school Dan again in the afternoon. But the flying changes were perfect, so I was a lot happier after that!

Championships are funny – you are fitting in course walks, which took a long time with the water crossings and timing them to walk the arena fence when the dressage isn’t running, watching team-mates and riding your horse. At the end of the day, you feel like you haven’t stopped, but equally you haven’t done that much.

On Friday morning, I took Dan up the canter track and then did some canter poles, all in his jump saddle. It’s a way to get some energy out without having to drill him and it gives him some playtime.

I replayed some of my previous tests to get in the zone, and went through everything I needed to remember in my head.

“He needs the crowd”: Laura Collett at the European Championships

I got on Dan just over 40 minutes before my test time and trotted up to the arena. Sometimes we’ve overdone it in the warm-up, so I kept giving him little breaks. It was quite hard mentally – you feel like you should be doing something, but I know him so well and I was adamant I wasn’t going to overcook him.

As I circled in the final warm-up, Dan grabbed the bit and shoved his head in the air. I was thinking, “Oh no, I wish I hadn’t given him so many walks.” He loves to wind me up.

The test went to plan except the last centre line, where Dan started to park up early. Ground jury president Sandy Phillips was laughing and I was too – I felt like I was kicking to keep him in canter after such a beautiful test!

We scored 20.6 to sit second behind Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH. I was relieved. There are such high expectations with Dan and every test he’s done this year has been nice, but lacking the wow feeling. He needs the crowd – he’ll only give it his all when it really matters and that’s fine by me.

• Read Laura’s moment by moment review of her Europeans week in this week’s Horse & Hound (13 November).

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The Horse & Hound Podcast 170: European eventing champion Laura Collett on London 52’s career

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Laura Collett and London 52 have had huge success over the past six seasons – three five-star wins, two Olympic team golds, individual Olympic bronze and most recently, individual gold at the European Championships in September.

But it has been a long journey to the top for this pair involving hard graft, a fair share of disappointment and years of developing their partnership.

On the current episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, sponsored by NAF, Laura talks about the highs and lows of their years together and what has gone into making “Dan” the horse he is today.

The 2019 season was a particularly tumultuous one for the pair.

“I felt a huge amount of pressure surrounding him,” says Laura, looking back at the spring that year. “He was one of the most talked about horses and he went into Bramham Horse Trials off the back of a really good spring campaign. It was kind of, ‘Everyone’s thinking he should go and win and be selected for his first championship.’

“It got to the stage where I felt like I wasn’t good enough to ride such a good horse, so I started riding him defensively, not wanting to make a mistake and not wanting to let him down – and then because I was thinking like that, I actually did the absolute opposite and did let him down.

“He still needed his hand holding. He was very green and inexperienced and going to somewhere like Bramham, he needed me to be 100% confident on him. And I was sitting there thinking, don’t mess it up, don’t let him down and then gave him no really clear instructions.

“So he had a blip. He misunderstood the ditch hedge early on and he sort of got hung up on it. I managed to stay on and carried on. But at the next fence, he was very put off and I think he was actually quite sore, so he stopped at the rail going into the hollow. So I pulled him up because I just felt like we needed to regroup, both of us, and go away and put things back together, which we did.”

Laura then went to Aachen and, in the lead after dressage and showjumping, had a glance-off at the final combination across country.

“I again went very defensive, trying to protect him at the last combination, and I think it just confused him slightly, because I’d been really positive the whole way round,” she says.

“I was kind of shocked then to get the call-up for the Europeans that year. We went to the Europeans and felt like everything again was going really well, until the last water combination, where we ended up upside down in the water.”

“It was three things that went pretty badly wrong and it would have been easy to just put him away and say, ‘You know what, let’s regroup and go again next year.’ But it was actually Pippa Funnell and Tina Cook who said to me, ‘Don’t put him away on the back of what’s happened this year, you need to go and have a really confidence-building run.’”

Laura decided to take Dan back to Boekelo, where he’d run well previously.

“It was very much going there with one aim and one aim only, and that was to have a fun run and a good run,” she says. “We didn’t care about the result. I wasn’t going there to be competitive. I was going there to put the wheels back on.

“And for me, that event was the turning point in his career, because he flew around the cross-country. We both had a ball. It felt like we were back on track. And to top it off, he ended up winning.

“And I remember him standing in the prize-giving – having stood in the prize-giving 12 months before, shaking and thinking he wanted the ground to swallow him up – he stood there like a really proud horse, like he suddenly realised he was as good as I always thought he was. I think that was the point that he decided he loved crowds and never looked back.”

“Let him learn to enjoy it”

What did Laura Collett do with London 52 between the Europeans and Boekelo to set up that result?

She explains: “Pippa said to me, ‘Just go and take him cross-country schooling, just you and him, no pressure. Just let him learn to enjoy it and you learn to enjoy him again.’ And so I took him several times before Boekelo and just almost treated him like a four-year-old, just trotting and popping and letting him realise that not every time he went cross-country was going to be stressful and a big occasion. So it was about letting him just enjoy the job again.

“And even now, I took him cross-country schooling the week before we went to Blenheim, just to make sure that everything was confident. It’s not being afraid to go back to the basics. No matter how good he’s been at an event, I always make sure I go and do that before the next one, so that he doesn’t feel under any pressure. We always put the confidence back in the bank.”

The success Laura Collett and London 52 have had since that Boekelo is true testament to the power of training and building a partnership in horse sport.

“What he’s proved the most is that if you build a partnership and you build trust in that partnership, then anything’s possible, because he absolutely is not the bravest cross-country horse,” she says.

“He’s learned and it’s taken, I would say, really and truly, up until this year, at the age of 16, for me to feel like now I go out on the cross-country and he feels like an absolute machine, whereas there were a good few years where I definitely felt like I had to hold his hand and really reassure him.

“He would have several times on a cross-country course where he felt like he questioned what I was asking him to do, but he only went because he trusted me, and that is what made it so special that he then won a Europeans on his cross-country performance. So that’s something that, as a rider, I’m really proud of.”

Hear more about Laura and London 52’s partnership, from where she found him to what he means to her, on the current episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast. 

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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On our 170th episode of The Horse & Hound Podcast, which is sponsored this month by NAF, we caught up with 2025 European eventing champion Laura Collett to talk about her brilliant equine partner London 52’s career. While Dan, as he's known as home, now looks every inch the modern day championship event horse, their journey hasn't all been plain sailing, with plenty of highs and lows along the way, as Laura explains.

Episode 170 of our popular audio service The Horse & Hound Podcast, which is sponsored this month by NAF, is now live and features the reigning individual European eventing champion Laura Collett.

Each 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

On this episode we caught up with Laura shortly after she was crowned European eventing champion at Blenheim Palace to talk about her brilliant equine partner London 52.

Join us as we take a long look back at London 52’s career with Laura, including how he’s developed into the superb event horse he is now, including the challenges, the triumphs and the landmark events that have been the cornerstones for his career so far.

• We would love to hear your feedback on all our podcasts, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com

Horse & Hound Podcast: episode 170

If you’d like to listen to our previous podcasts with Laura (episodes 103 and 11), they are available below.

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From a wild Welshie to her new European champion, Laura Collett picks out 6 horses who’ll always have her heart

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

When Laura Collett won gold at the 2025 European Eventing Championships, she credited her partner London 52 as her “horse of a lifetime”, one who has far exceeded anything she ever dreamed he would achieve. But while the multi-garlanded “Dan” rules the roost, Laura Collett’s top horses and ponies from throughout her career have shaped her into the rider she now is, from a feral Welsh section A to her treble five-star winner.

In the issue of Horse & Hound magazine that Laura guest-edited (3 July, 2025), she picked out six of the horses in her life that have had the biggest influence on her career.

Laura Collett’s top horses

Penwayn Ryan – “Win or bust”

Tubby, as we called him, was an 11.2hh Welsh section A that we got off the Welsh mountains as a feral, unbroken pony. I backed him and he ended up going supreme at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) when I was 13. That was really my farewell to showing, which I’d been doing since I was six.

I remember thinking that he might just bolt back to the lorry. He did it once at Royal Three Counties, turned round and bolted out of the arena midway through!

Tubby was the first to teach me about the highs and lows of the sport – it was win or bust. It felt pretty epic just to get to HOYS; going supreme was a final hurrah.

Noble Springbok – “He set me up for life”

My pony of a lifetime. He had a one-line advert in Horse & Hound in a job lot from the Noble working hunter yard, saying: “Five-year-old, 14.2hh potential showjumper/event pony.” He’d grown too big to be a 14hh working hunter, so he was a chuck-out.

“Spring” was the first pony I went to see when I decided I wanted to do something more exciting than showing. I fell in love with him, as any 13-year-old kid would on a cool pony, but Mum was adamant we weren’t buying the first pony we saw. But as I’d always had one of my own to buy and sell, and I’d just sold a Welsh section B, it was technically my money.

Mum said, “Well if you want to buy him, you phone up and do the deal yourself.” So I did.

We did the Pony Club championships the following year, then pony trials. At our first Europeans we won team gold and individual bronze – it was mad!

Selling him was the hardest thing. He would have jumped round Badminton. He was like a horse on short legs, an absolute jumping machine, and though he hated dressage I was quite good at covering things up!

Yogi Breisner originally advised me to keep him for juniors until he found out how much he could be worth. He said, “You’ve got to sell him as he’ll set you up for life,” which is exactly what he did. We bought four horses, a horse walker and a horsebox, and put a lot of money in the bank.

Walnut – “The one that stopped me giving up”

Walnut was my first horse – and the only one that I hadn’t produced from the beginning. He was a schoolmaster who’d been there, done it and got the T-shirt. We had him on loan and he was a legend in the Heythrop branch of the Pony Club.

He was 15.2hh but rode more like a pony than Spring – you just had to keep kicking. We did two years of Pony Club and JRN (junior regional novice) championships. He scored my first three-day win, which was the last three-day with roads, tracks and steeplechase.

Spring was injured the second year I had him, and I was heartbroken. “Wally” was the only horse I had at that level and had it not been for him I probably wouldn’t have carried on eventing.

Rayef – “He taught me the highs and lows”

Rayef (Henry) was one of the four I bought from selling Spring. I was flicking absent-mindedly through a magazine, and saw an advert for a cute horse with a pretty face.

He was with a 69-year-old man who’d done 90cm showjumping with him. He was advertised as a 16.1hh potential eventer, and was miles away in Cumbria. When we arrived he was closer to 17hh and bronced and bucked after fences. Mum said, “No way,” but after driving all that way I said, “I’m at least sitting on him!”

Again, because it was technically my money and he had a pretty face, I said, “You made me sell Spring, I’m buying him”.

But he did junior and young rider Europeans, winning team and individual gold at both, then I naively went to Badminton in my first year in seniors and finished in the top 10.

It all seemed so easy – until it wasn’t! We had a disaster at my first senior Europeans, so it went from the best to the worst year, and he was rather injury-prone after that. He really taught me the highs and lows as he’d either win or I’d fall off.

Fernhill Sox – “Heart is more important than talent”

Sox was the first owner’s horse I rode. Mary Hambro wanted me to event him to make him into a nicer hunter for her, but I quickly realised he was a real winner, found her another nice hunter and kept the ride.

He was an absolute saint, who taught me that heart and attitude are more important than natural ability. He didn’t move well and jumped in an unorthodox way, but all he wanted to do was leave the jumps up and put his best foot forward in the dressage.

I remember having a lesson with Tim Stockdale and he said, “This horse has to make a shape. It’s ridiculous he doesn’t bend his legs,” but he’d just go higher and higher with his straight legs – you couldn’t change him.

I won my first advanced and did my first four-star on him – and won the under-21 national championship at Weston Park. He won individual junior European gold and every three-day he did.

He showed me that it doesn’t really matter how they do it, as long as they want to.

London 52 – “My horse of a lifetime”

I was in Peter Thomsen’s yard in Germany looking for a cheap four-year-old to produce and sell, when I saw London 52 (Dan) trotting around. I said, “I want that one.” Peter said he was seven and out of my £10,000 budget, but I said, “I’ll find a way.” I’m so lucky Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett could come on board to help me buy him.

Dan didn’t do a three-day until he was eight, then won Blenheim at nine – he went up the levels quickly. Everything was very easy for him, although he didn’t like water or ditches to start with.

By the time he was 10, there was a lot of chat about him being “the next big thing”. Somehow he was selected for the 2019 Europeans – he’d won a lot but also had plenty of mishaps – but then came disaster. I fell in the final water.

We went to Boekelo – after crying in Pippa Funnell’s kitchen and she told me to get on with it – where he won and it literally changed him. At the start of the week he was still terrified of the flags and people. By the prize-giving, he stood there like he owned it, as if he suddenly realised how good he was.

I always knew he was a superstar but we both needed the belief in each other to click. We’ve achieved things I could never have dreamed of. I never believed I’d win a five-star, he’s won three. The thought of going to an Olympics was beyond my dreams, let alone to come back with two golds and a bronze.

But he’s also taught me a lot: not to be afraid to take a step back and shut out the outside noise, focusing on our partnership and not worrying about other people’s opinions.

• To enjoy more exclusive interviews with top riders, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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‘This tops everything’: glorious gold for Laura Collett and London 52 at Blenheim European Championships

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What a fitting climax it was as eventing fans at Blenheim Palace were treated to two British individual Blenheim European Championships medals. Germany were in a league of their own in the team competition, but we expect the celebrations in the Irish camp to be extensive – both on location and back home – after their first Europeans team podium in 30 years.

If you haven’t been able to follow the day as it unfolded, then we have all the highlights here for you to enjoy…

Who won the Blenheim European Championships medals?

While Germany had a large cushion to claim team gold, a momentary lapse in concentration for Malin Hansen-Hotopp did get hearts beating a little bit faster.

• Find out what caused Malin to “lose her line and her brain”

Tom McEwen put in a masterful performance on JL Dublin in the final phase to add bronze to the horse’s previous gold medal.

• Tom was philosophical about competing against “possible two of the greatest horses in our sport”

After Michael Jung produce a clear round inside the time, all eyes were on Laura Collett, but she showed no signs of feeling the pressure and jumped a brilliant clear to win.

• “I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this,” said Laura after winning gold

Laura’s gold medal-winning ride London 52 won the Blenheim eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S back in 2018, and this year’s class was once again packed with horses oozing with potential to become championship stars of the future.

• Find out how the cross-country phase of Blenheim’s young horse class played out

To catch up with all the breaking news from the Blenheim Europeans, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website, and for our in-depth analysis of how all the Europeans action played out, pick up your copy of Horse &Hound magazine, in shops from Thursday 25 September

Take a look back our daily Blenheim Europeans summaries

Four British falls, shades of 2005 and a leaderboard in turmoil: everything you need to know about Blenheim Europeans cross-country day

One sub-20, the key to a horse-shy mare and get ready for cross-country: everything you need to read from Friday at the Blenheim Europeans

Frustrating mistakes, a tussle at the top and Blenheim memories: everything you need to know from Thursday at the Europeans

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You could have heard a pin drop in the Palace Arena as Laura Collett and London 52 delivered the showjumping round that secured her that coveted individual gold medal at the Agria Blenheim European Championships.

As she soared over the final fence, the crowd erupted. Laura lifted her arm and pointed down to salute her fabulous partner, throwing her arms around him as she trotted out to an emotional support crew.

“I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this,” said Laura. “Mainly for the horse, because I feel sometimes I’ve let him down and he’s finally got the championships he deserves. This is for him, it’s all him.

“There are no words to explain what this horse means to me. I said when he won my first five-star in Pau in 2020 if he never wins anything again he’s done more than I can ever dream of. What he’s done more in those five years is just a dream – I say dreams come true but I didn’t even dream this.

“This tops everything. I came so close in Paris last year, and to come back and have another head to head with Michi [Jung], it’s what makes this sport so special. These horses are so unbelievably special to keep coming aback and producing the results they do time and time again.

“It’s unreal – and extra special to be at a home championships, a local event for me. To be sat on a horse like him and for him to come up with the goods in all three phases, it’s just wow.”

Laura and Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett’s London 52 already held two Olympic team golds, European team gold and Olympic individual bronze, plus three five-star trophies, but the one notable omission in the legendary horse’s cabinet was an individual gold.

In Paris last year, the pair had a rail down which cost them the individual title, won by Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH. And so again this championships was billed as a showdown between two of the great horses of our time, who have so often battled it out at the top of major contests. The tally was in Chipmunk’s favour 4-1, but London turned the tables this time.

Laura had moved up from second after dressage to hold the gold medal spot overnight, thanks to her fast clear across country, but she did not have a fence in hand over Michael, only room for 1.7 time-faults. One fence would drop her to silver, and she’d still be on the bottom step of the podium with two down. But gold was what she was here to win.

Laura had joked the night before, “I let Michi win Olympic gold when I knocked down one there [in Paris], so maybe he could do the same to me this time?”

London has only had two rails down in total over the past three seasons, but pressure can do funny things. In the morning session, the clock had a big impact, with only two riders going clear inside the time, so Laura couldn’t be too cautious. She was brilliant under pressure, conjuring a foot-perfect round, to cruise home for just 0.4 of a time-fault without a moment’s concern.

Blenheim European Championships medals and final results

Gold: Laura Collett and London 52 (GBR): 27

Silver: Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH (GER): 28.3

Bronze: Tom McEwen and JL Dublin (GBR): 33

4th: Calvin Böckmann and The Phantom Of The Opera (GER): 36.5

5th: Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P (AUT): 36.5

6th: Alex Goury and Je’Vall (FRA): 46.7

Teams

Gold: Germany

Silver: Ireland

Bronze: France

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Laura Collett has revived British hopes at the Agria Blenheim European Championships with a superb cross-country round that secured the overnight lead ahead of showjumping. They clocked just six time-faults – on a day when no one made the optimum time – which would relegate dressage leader and Olympic champions Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH into second.

“I couldn’t have asked for any more from London,” said Laura. “He kept on fighting, though he was feisty at the start which put me off as I couldn’t find a rhythm. Halfway through I gave him a terrible ride through the rollercoaster, then he was magic and galloped all the way to the end.”

Laura was the final Brit out of the startbox on a quite extraordinary cross-country day, when the formbook turned upside down. Four of the five Brits thus far had fallen off, with only Tom McEwen flying through the finish flags with one of the fastest rounds.

“It’s been hideous waiting today but once I got on him, I felt he’s my horse of a lifetime and gives me no reason not to trust him,” she said. “I can put him on the line and let him do the rest, that’s what he likes. He’s an amazing jumper, so to have that belief in him and he rewards me like that is one hell of a feeling.”

Laura was nursing her second-placed dressage score of 20.6, and although her team duties had evaporated, the pressure still rested on this fabulous pairing to lift the nation’s hopes.

“It was a tiny bit less pressure without the team riding on my shoulders but I’m gutted for them, so it’s mixed feelings,” she said. “Once I was on I had a job to do, we still wanted the same result – clear and fast.”

How Laura Collett galloped into gold position over Blenheim European Championships cross-country

It’s testament to the pair’s smooth rhythm as Laura was having to rein in the hard-pulling London a little, but this combination only know how to go in fifth gear and they duly sailed home for the second-fastest time all day.

“It’s a bit of a blur,” Laura added. “I had great advice from Tom, who said ‘save a little bit for the end, and really get stuck in’. It was hard work out there, but we’ve really worked on London’s fitness since Luhmühlen, as I felt I hadn’t quite got him to the point I had before – he’s more laid back now and a bit older – so we’ve kept him really fit, so hopefully he’ll feel amazing tomorrow.”

It was a confident and feisty round throughout, with London really attacking the technical arena and front lawn fences, where Laura had to ask him to wait. She held for five at the corner at the water (fence 20) where team-mate Piggy March was unseated earlier when Halo took a stride out, but London has such a massive stride and scope, he made this influential track look fairly straightforward. He even jumped the high part of the brush at the final fence, showing how much energy he still had left in him.

Tomorrow (Sunday, 21 September), Laura and London will bid to win their first individual gold. But there’s little breathing space ahead of Michael Jung – she has no fences in hand and only 1.7 time-faults to take the title.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from the Blenheim Europeans, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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The final rider rotation produced a big shake-up as the Agria Blenheim European Championships dressage came to its climax today (19 September). British fans have come to expect magnificence from Laura Collett and London 52, and once again this multi-garlanded pair delivered a sparkling performance to sit in second place individually ahead of cross-country.

They came in to cheers and went out to a standing ovation, and as the leading score – at that point – of 20.6 flashed up, London jogged out, ears pricked with Laura beaming and pointing down at her horse of a lifetime.

“I’m very relieved,” said Laura. “The expectations on him are huge to go in and perform like he has done. He doesn’t do a wow test until he’s got the people watching and cheering him on – and that’s a great quality.

“I haven’t had that feeling since Paris – he’s felt nice, but not the goosebumps feeling. He likes the crowd cheering to make him smile and show off.”

The pressure was on – last summer Laura and London conjured a record Olympic dressage score to lead in Paris on 17.5. When Laura went into Blenheim’s Palace Arena, fifth from the end, the target to beat was the 26.9 held by her team-mate Tom McEwen on JL Dublin. Laura is the anchorman on the British team, which runs in partnership with Agria, and was in the middle of a glut of top team riders in the final dressage session.

London puts best foot forward in Blenheim European Championships dressage

The Landos-sired gelding goes in such a beautiful, uphill frame, and the combination of Laura’s skill and accuracy with the horse’s expression and submission produced a truly stunning picture in the autumn sunshine.

Judges have not been throwing marks at the scoresheets, but Laura drew out a nine at the outset, for her first halt, followed by a second for her extended to collected trot transition. Her marks never dropped lower than seven, but ever the perfectionist, Laura managed to find room for improvement.

“It’s always possible to get more – that last centre line, as he’s done this test so many times, he’s got a bit wise to it so he thinks ‘we could halt at X’ [rather than G],” Laura said. “I tried to keep him going but he knew the halt was coming! The rest he felt so with me and rideable, with a smile on his face, enjoying being in front of the palace with lots of people, which is where he thinks he belongs.”

Laura admitted that London has tested her wits in the lead-up to this superb performance, with a “disaster” of a lesson just three days prior.

“I lost every flying change and had a complete meltdown – it was a disaster!” she said. “I was having a serious breakdown, but he’s quite a character still. He’s cheeky out here. Just as I went to go in to [the arena] he grabbed the bit and went to run off. Then goes in there and it’s like butter wouldn’t melt – he’s like ‘everyone’s here and I’m ready’.

“So he does test the nerves in that respect; I have to trust he knows when it matters and he winds me up the rest of the time.”

The battle with Chipmunk is on

Laura is bidding for her first individual gold medal with her own, Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott’s London 52. The pair already have two Olympic team golds, European team gold and Olympic individual bronze in their trophy cabinet. London also has course form, winning the young horse four-star class here in 2018.

“He was a baby back then and it was a very different track,” countered Laura. “It’s a serious challenging cross-country track and the time will be tight. I’ll have to get stuck in and get it done.”

London’s great rival, Michael Jung’s Olympic champion FischerChipmunk FRH, took the lead two riders later. The German horse needed 19.6 to regain his country’s overnight lead in the team competition, and scored 18.3. Currently he leads 4-1 in the Chipmunk vs London rivalry, but it’s alway tight and any time-faults on the cross-country will be pivotal. It’s all to play for.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from the Blenheim Europeans, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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The split of the British squad into team and individuals for the Agria Blenheim European Championships this week (17-21 September) has been revealed.

The British team will consist of Yasmin Ingham, Piggy March, Tom McEwen and Laura Collett. The individuals will be Bubby Upton and Caroline Harris.

At this week’s Blenheim European Championships, Yasmin Ingham will be the trailblazer for the British team – which runs in partnership with Agria – on Rehy DJ, owned by Janette Chinn and The Sue Davies Fund.

Next out will be Piggy March with Jayne McGivern’s Halo. Although Piggy has plenty of championship mileage, the grey stallion is the least experienced horse of the quartet and the number two spot on a team traditionally goes to a less experienced horse or rider, as it should be the starting position with the least pressure.

Olympic team gold medallists Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, owned by Jo and James Lambert and Deidre Johnston, take the number three rank on the team.

Laura Collett and London 52, double Olympic team gold medallists and individual Olympic bronze medallists, will be the anchor pair for Great Britain. The 16-year-old gelding is owned by his rider, Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett.

Unsurprisingly, reigning Olympic champion Michael Jung is the final rider out for the German team so he and FischerChipmunk FRH will do their dressage and head out of the cross-country start box just two horses after Laura. Michael and Laura are likely to be the chief challengers for the individual gold this week.

British individual riders Bubby Upton and Caroline Harris both make their senior squad debuts this week.

Caroline pilots her 2024 Pau Horse Trials winner D.Day, owned by Fiona Olivier, Heather Royle, Lucy Matthews and Marie Anne Richardson, with Bubby riding her own and The Five Time Syndicate’s Its Cooley Time, who won Bramham Horse Trials CCI4*-L in June.

The team order is as follows for the nine nations fielding a team:

• Switzerland
• Italy
• Austria
• Belgium
• Britain
• Sweden
• Germany
• France
• Ireland

Austria only has three riders so will not have a rider in the first rotation.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from the Blenheim Europeans, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Who are the favourites for the individual medals among the Agria Blenheim European Championships riders? Will a Brit take the title? Or will gold go elsewhere?

The best in Europe go head to head in Oxfordshire this week (17-21 September) and we have the lowdown on who to keep an eye on…

Blenheim European Championships riders: individual favourites

(in alphabetical order)

Sebastien Cavaillon (FRA)

Wild cards, as championship debutants, but Sebastien and Elipso De La Vigne have won twice at four-star and been third at Bramham Horse Trials CCI4*-S – probably would have won if the rider’s stopwatch hadn’t stopped across country.

Laura Collett (GBR)

Laura and London 52 are the stars of the British squad, who should be set to battle with Michael Jung and FischerChipmunk FRH again for the individual title, as they did at the Paris Olympics last year. They have no weak phase and recently added a 14th international victory to their tally, at the first CCI4*-S at Scone Palace, proving they are on song.

Malin Hansen-Hotopp (GER)

Strong Blenheim form as Carlitos Quidditch K and Malin won the CCI4*-L here in 2022. They were team silver medallists at the 2023 Europeans and can go better than the individual 19th they recorded then, with two top-six finishes at five-star since.

Michael Jung (GER)

The reigning Olympic champions, Michael and FischerChipmunk FRH will start as favourites, with a superb record and the almost certain prospect of being top-two after dressage. Michael is a three-time European champion.

Lara De Leidekerke-Meier (BEL)

Lara stepped into the elite ranks when she won at five-star at Luhmühlen Horse Trials last year on her ride here, the home-bred Hooney D’Arville, and followed up with 14th at Badminton. Could she get a medal at her seventh senior Europeans?

Piggy March (GBR)

Halo is a rare five-star stallion, who Piggy has been touting as “put on this planet for championships”, and he’s got Blenheim form, having won the eight- and nine-year-olds here in 2022 and been sixth in the CCI4*-L in 2023. This is Piggy’s first championship since individual silver and team gold in 2021.

Tom McEwen (GBR)

JL Dublin was a double European gold medallist with Nicola Wilson in 2021. He’s had a raft of great results since Tom took over the ride, spearheaded by Olympic success last year, as well as the odd blip, including a rider fall at the 2023 Europeans. Should be very useful team contributors and could be individual medallists on their day.

Astier Nicolas (FRA)

Astier, an individual silver medallist at the Rio Olympics, knows how to be competitive at championships. Alertamalib’Or’s only previous appearance at one was unimpressive, but on form with recent second at Bramham CCI4*-S.

Jerôme Robiné (GER)

Black Ice and Jérôme have a super jumping record (one frangible breakage being their only cross-country fault together and no more than one down since mid-2023). Seventh at the 2023 Europeans and 20th at Badminton this spring, when dressage let them down.

Bubby Upton (GBR)

A thrilling senior championship debut for Bubby. A fiercely determined and intelligent rider, who’s returned from a serious spinal injury, she has plenty of championship experience in under-21s and a smart partner in 10-year-old Its Cooley Time. This is a different league, but she could be a wild card for an individual medal.

Felix Vogg (SUI)

Another experienced championship rider, who pilots a horse debuting at the level in Frieda. She’s had good results, along with the odd blip. But Felix could surprise us on an under-the-radar mount, as at last year’s Olympics, where he was eighth on Dao De L’Ocean.

Blenheim European Championships individual medal predictions

For a full assessment of all the Blenheim European Championships riders and horses, buy this week’s Horse & Hound magazine (issue dated 18 September) for our complete form guide, plus an exclusive look back at the 2005 Europeans at Blenheim with Zara Tindall.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from the Blenheim Europeans, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Dressage leaders Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent have dropped out of contention after their Defender Burghley Horse Trials cross-country round today (Saturday 6 September).

The duo picked up 20 penalties for a run out at the final corner at fence 18b; Joules At The Maltings. Oliver and the 11-year-old mare, owned by Diana and Paul Ridgeon, went on to complete, picking up 9.2 time-faults, which currently puts them in 11th.

“I kept going with her today because people forget she’s only 11,” said Oliver. “She’s been first, second and third at this level already, and I don’t know what reason there was to run out, probably because she’s a horse, and horses make mistakes sometimes.

“But I decided to continue on, because she needs the experience, she needs not to learn that you can just run past and walk home. So she gave me a beautiful ride before and a beautiful ride after, and she should be in a winning position.

“I’ve been lucky enough to win it three times, but ‘Rosie’ seems to find it very within her scope and stride and it was just one of those things today.

On his current situation in terms of horsepower, Oliver said: “I’m very short of horses at the minute and I feel like a 19-year-old kid again setting up. I’m short of horses, short of owners, short of sponsors. So hopefully Rosie will continue to fly the flag for us until the next bunch comes through and new owners come on board.”

Laura Collett and Bling fly around Burghley cross-country

Laura Collett and the 12-year-old mare, Bling, who was bred and is owned by Yvonne Ferguson, enjoyed a superb clear round to finish with 8.8 time-faults. They currently sit in sixth.

“I’m absolutely delighted – what a mare,” said Laura. “She’s unbelievable – so tough and gritty. I thought she had it in her, but you just never know.

“I wondered whether we were here a year too early, but she took it all on and was so honest.”

Laura said that Bling has “grown up a lot in the past 12 months”.

“This time last year she was coming off the back of a year off so to jump around Badminton like she did this spring [where they finished 43rd], and then come here and take on a course like that, it’s just pretty amazing. As soon as she jumped the Dairy Mound, she just sort of went, ‘Okay, let’s go’.”

Laura explained that she was “vocal” on the way round the cross-country today.

“I kept telling her she was such a good girl, and patting her every stride – I’ll probably get told off for taking too much time telling she was a good girl! But she needs that at this stage. She’s a bit of a quirky, funny horse, and we’ve learned to come to a compromise on a lot of things.”

Laura also said that the style in which she has to ride Bling has actually improved her riding.

“I have to not ride in the way that I would normally on her, because she just wants to be left alone and I’m a bit of a control freak. I think, if anything, she’s been really good for my riding, because it’s taught me to just let them get on and do their job and trust them, and she rewarded me for trusting her. She was insane around there.”

Matt Heath and Askari, who were 22nd after the dressage were eliminated after three refusals, while Jesse Campbell opted to retire Cooley Lafitte after picking up 20 penalties at the Boodles Raindance at fence 7abc. Australia’s Sammi Birch and Finduss FPB fell at the fence dropping into the Trout Hatchery, but both walked away.

To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout Burghley and other major shows this year, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website, from £1 a week. Horse & Hound’s 20-page magazine report on Burghley is published in 11 September issue, including full analysis and exclusive comment from six-time Burghley winner William Fox-Pitt.

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Laura Collett returns to Defender Burghley Horse Trials this week for her first ride at the British autumn classic since 2011.

The British double Olympic gold medallist has been a regular at other five-stars since then, winning Pau Horse Trials, Badminton Horse Trials and Luhmühlen Horse Trials with London 52, but she hasn’t felt she’s had a suitable horse for Burghley until now.

“It’s cool to be back. I did my first five-star here back in 2010 and came the following year. Neither horse was suitable at all to be going around Burghley, but bless them, they plodded around and jumped steady clears,” said Laura after her dressage test today, recalling finishing 30th in 2010 on Ginger May Killinghurst and 40th in 2011 on Noble Bestman.

“That really opened my eyes. It takes a certain type of horse to tackle Burghley and I just haven’t felt that I’ve had one over the years. I would love to have brought Mr Bass here, but unfortunately, he picked up an injury and couldn’t come.

“When I first got Bling, I said, ‘She could just be my Burghley horse’. We’ve been chipping away and she was brilliant at Badminton so I thought we’d give it a crack.

“She’s so scopey. She loves cross-country, and it’s just been about getting the rideability on her. Any mistakes she’s had cross-country have been through her just grabbing the bit and thinking she knows best. But she’s beginning, touch wood, to think that maybe I tell her to turn for a reason.”

Bling had 20 jumping penalties across country at a big drop down at Badminton in May.

Laura explained: “She was phenomenal around Badminton. The step was totally a genuine, green mistake from her and the way she turned around and jumped off it the next time was almost more exciting because she trusted me. The first time it just took her by surprise. It wasn’t anything naughty or anything like that. She just hadn’t quite understood how she got from the top to the bottom.”

“She’s a strong, independent woman”

Bling’s owner Yvonne Ferguson bred her to be her husband’s hunter.

“I think somebody told her along the way that she was a bit too good for that. She also went hunting as a four-year-old and flipped over backwards so that was the end of her hunting career,” said Laura. “I definitely wouldn’t want to take her hunting – she’s strong enough when she’s on her own, let alone in a field of other horses.”

The 12-year-old chestnut mare Bling has a strong character.

Laura said: “She’s pretty savage. We call her the dragon. She hates being pampered, so poor Tilly [Hughes, Laura’s groom], who loves having the horses looking immaculate, has her hands full, because Bling is just telling her to get out the stable and she’s trying to make her look beautiful.

“Bling’s a strong, independent woman. She knows what she likes and what she doesn’t like, and she doesn’t hesitate to tell you that.”

Laura Collett and Bling kicked off their Burghley Horse Trials campaign with a good dressage test that scored 30.2.

Laura said: “I’m absolutely delighted with her. Obviously, dressage is not her strong phase, but she’s improving all the time. She’s still very green with the intensity of that test, but she really stayed with me, and she didn’t feel nervous in the arena like she did at Badminton. She’s still nowhere near the finished article, so if we can keep going in this way, it’s very exciting.”

To stay up-to-date with all the breaking news throughout Burghley and other major shows this year, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website, from £1 a week. Horse & Hound’s 20-page magazine report on Burghley is published in 11 September issue, including full analysis and exclusive comment from six-time Burghley winner William Fox-Pitt.

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Laura Collett and London 52 won the Malcolm Group CCI4*-S at the inaugural Scone Palace International Horse Trials with a foot-perfect cross-country clear inside the time to snatch the win from Ros Canter and Izilot DHI.

“London seems to get better and better with age, he’s such a professional,” said Laura, who completed on a score of 22.5.

The competition went down to the wire; Ros and 12-year-old Izilot, owned by Ros and Alex Moody, led after the dressage by 0.2 of a penalty, but briefly dropped their lead when they recorded 0.4 of a time-penalty showjumping. Laura and 16-year-old London – owned by Laura, Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott – then replicated this, pushing Ros and Izilot back on top going into the final cross-country phase.

When Ros came home just one second over the 6min 56sec optimum time, a quick clear from Laura and London would seal the deal. They put in the joint-fastest round of the day – an honour shared with seventh-placed Izzy Taylor and Barrington Alice – stopping the clock on 6min 49sec.

“It rode exactly as it walked, which was great. The waters were a decent question,” said Laura, who was very complementary about the ground. “I was very grateful to everybody who made it possible to be able to give London a proper run. It was a really good pipe-opener ahead of the Europeans, so it’s been the perfect prep hopefully.”

Ros finished on a score of 22.7 and said her partnership with Izilot has been solidified this year.

“He’s always been a superstar, but he’s turned into a really consistent superstar now,” she said. “This is his last run this year, so it’s really nice to finish with a happy horse.”

Ros, who is pregnant with her second child, confirmed that with her “current situation” she plans now to concentrate on one horse, with Lordships Graffalo entered for Burghley.

Of the 80 cross-country starters in this class, six were clear inside the time over Alec Lochore’s track.

Jonelle Price wins CCI4*-L at Scone Palace

New Zealand’s Jonelle Price topped The Malcolm Group CCI4*-L aboard 13-year-old gelding Capitaine De Hus Z, whom she took over from Ginny Thomasen this season. The pair led from the start and added 2.4 time-faults across country, and 0.4 of a showjumping time-penalty, to their 28.4 dressage.

Jonelle said David and Karie Thomson’s Capitaine gave her “a great spin” across country.

She described the track was a “riders’ course”, saying: “I liked the flow and I thought they made great use of the terrain, I’d just love to see it a little more substantial in a few places, a bit bigger timber. But for the first year, hats off to them.”

Of the 40 cross-country starters, 23 jumped clear, but only two inside the 10.03sec optimum time. The fastest round came from Heidi Coy and MGH C (9min 56sec) who were lying fourth after cross-country, but they were heartbreakingly eliminated in the showjumping for missing the 10th fence.

Tom Jackson took the runner-up spot with HH Moonwalk, the 12-year-old gelding’s best result since returning from a leg injury, adding 3.2 cross-country time-penalties to their 30.1 first-phase score.

“It’s been a long time coming with him. It’s been quite a journey, but he’s here and he did it really well, so we’re over the moon,” said Tom.

Read the full report from Scone Palace International Horse Trials in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale Thursday 28 August

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The squad of six aiming to retain gold for Britain at next month’s Agria FEI Eventing European Championships has been confirmed; a line-up “ideal for current and future performance”.

British Equestrian and British Eventing (BE) have released the six horses and riders who will head to the home championship, at Blenheim Palace (18-21 September). Britain won team gold at the 2023 championships, plus individual gold (Ros Canter riding Lordships Graffalo) and silver (Kitty King riding Vendredi Biats).

The British European Eventing Championships squad is:

Laura Collett with 16-year-old London 52

Owners: Karen Bartlett, Keith Scott and rider

Breeder: Ocke Riewerts

Breeding: By Landos, out of a mare by Quinar

Groom: Tilly Hughes

Caroline Harris with 11-year-old D Day

Owners: Lucy Matthews, Fiona Olivier, Marie Anne Richardson and Heather Royle

Breeder: Fiona Olivier

Breeding: By Billy Mexico, out of a mare by Dilum XX

Groom: Nellie Smith

Yasmin Ingham with 15-year-old Rehy DJ

Owners: Janette Chinn and The Sue Davies Fund

Breeder: Noell Russell

Breeding: By Tinarana’s Inspector, out of a mare by Big Sink Hope

Groom: Alison Bell

Piggy March with 12-year-old Halo

Owner: Jayne McGivern

Breeder: Bernard Hobe

Breeding: By Humphrey 61, out of a mare by Contender

Groom: Hannah Chowen

Tom McEwen with 14-year-old JL Dublin

Owners: James and Jo Lambert and Deirdre Johnston

Breeder: Volker Göttsche-Götze

Breeding: By Diarado, out of a mare by Cantano

Groom: Adam Short

Bubby Upton with 10-year-old Its Cooley Time

Owners: The Five Time Syndicate and rider

Breeder: Ennisnag Stud

Breeding: By Quality Time TN, out of a mare by Heartbreaker

Groom: Kirsty Campbell

Eventing performance manager Dickie Waygood said: “This is a really exciting group of horses and riders, which combines experience alongside new talent – both human and equine.

“We’re fortunate to have Laura and Tom returning with their accomplished Olympic rides, it’s a new championship ride for Yaz, while Piggy brings forward her next-generation championship horse. Both Bubby and Caroline have been in outstanding recent form and are worthy debutants – it’s exciting for our sport to have new faces in the squad.

“Overall, the line-up is ideal for current and future performance as we look toward next year’s FEI World Championships and LA28, while still being competitive at Blenheim. I’d also like to thank all of our owners for their support and the faith they put in our World Class programme.”

BE chief executive Rosie Williams said the team was delighted to confirm the squad.

“Hosting such a prestigious event on home soil is a huge moment for our sport, and we look forward to seeing the entire community – members, supporters, and fans – come together to cheer the team on,” she said. “We wish every member of the squad the very best of luck.”

Congratulations

Agria UK chief executive Vicki Wentworth sent “huge congratulations” to all those selected.

“They should feel immensely proud of what they’ve achieved to date, and we at Agria are honoured to be title sponsors of this iconic event, returning to home soil for the first time in 20 years at the magnificent Blenheim Palace,” she said. “Everyone here at Agria wishes the entire squad the very best of luck in these final weeks of preparation and of course, at the competition itself. I can promise we will be the ones shouting them on at the top of our voices from the sidelines.”

Selection decisions are dependent on horse and rider fitness and performance.

The BEF added that National Lottery and UK Sport funding is “pivotal” in preparing teams for championships, and that it is very grateful for the support from its partners Agria, Bates Saddles, D&H, NAF, SEIB and Toggi and team suppliers Equi-Trek and Lotus Romeo.

“We’re indebted for the year-round support they provide to the World Class programme and British teams, which helps us to best prepare for senior championships,” a BEF spokesperson said.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Olympic gold medal-winning eventer Laura Collett joins an illustrious list of names as she has become a guest editor of Horse & Hound.

The multiple five-star winner took the reins for this week’s edition of the magazine, which she said was a “surreal experience”.

“H&H is the only thing I ever read as a child,” she said. “My English teacher asked Mum at a parents’ evening how much reading I did and she replied: ‘The whole of H&H magazine, once a week.’ I remember how excited I was to get my first front cover, with Rayef in 2011, and I still get excited now!”

Laura chose the subjects for articles and features in the magazine; she said she was thrilled to be able to grill John Whitaker, “because he’s an icon and I wanted to delve into his mindset of how he stays at the top for so long”.

Laura’s superstar medal winner London 52 features on the cover, and she talks about how she cherishes every ride with “Dan” – “because I’ll never have another like him”.

H&H editor-in-chief Sarah Jenkins said the team was honoured and grateful that Laura agreed to the guest edit.

“For an Olympic gold medallist to take the time out of her busy schedule during the event season to work with features editor Martha Terry to create her ideal issue is incredibly generous,” she said. “She joins an illustrious list of former H&H guest editors from Carl Hester to Nick Skelton, William Fox-Pitt to Pippa Funnell.

“It was fascinating to find out what Laura wanted to know, what she wanted to ask of other riders and what she chose to feature. Laura wanted to interview one of her idols, John Whitaker, and from her questions we found out a few things we didn’t know despite years of featuring John in H&H. One day no doubt Laura will be the idol being interviewed by a future gold medallist, as she is already inspiring the next generation.

“The magazine even went to press early, prompting the team to say Laura is welcome back any time!”

The edition can be bought online, or use the search tool to find a shop near you that stocks H&H.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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UK-based New Zealander Samantha (Sam) Lissington recorded the best result of her career so far when finishing runner-up in the 2025 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials results today (15 June).

Thirty-three-year-old Sam, who moved from New Zealand to the UK in 2019, was riding 14-year-old gelding Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, who she owns alongside her husband Brayden and Pip McCarroll.

They were fourth after the dressage on 28.9 before jumping clear across country, finishing just one second over the optimum time, picking up .4 of a penalty. They followed this up with a clear showjumping round, inside the optimum time – one of only six pairs from 25 final day starters to do so.

“He’s so obedient and rideable, like he’s a teacher’s pet, and he always has been,” said Sam of “Sooty”. “He’s a very much a ‘yes’ man, but almost to the point where if you make a mistake, it’s because he just does what he’s told to do.

“He’s never going to take over. He’s got incredible footwork, and he’ll pat the ground and fix a mistake from that point of view, but basically, if a mistake happens, it’s my fault.”

Sam thought today’s showjumping track was “really big”.

“And the time was exceptionally tight too, so I think it was the perfect test because it shook up the leaderboard,” she added. “It was exciting to watch and exciting to ride, as well as nerve-wracking!”

Sam said this result was “a reflection of the accumulative effect of years and years of work”.

“We found Sooty as a five-year-old with the owner, Pip McCarroll, in New Zealand, and now nine years later, on the other side of the world, we’ve achieved this result.

“I knew he was going to be a good horse and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to show the world what a horse he is. But not only that because in order just for him to be here, we’ve had to shift our lives from New Zealand, survive Covid while trying to start a business and build a team of horses to the point that you build the confidence that you can ride like today – it’s just huge, isn’t it?”

Speaking of future plans, Sam, who most recently took the top three places in the CCI4*-L at Royal Jump with some of her other rides, is feeling positive.

“We’ve got quite a lot of horsepower, which is amazing. I imagine Sooty will go to Pau at the end of this year, but to be honest, this result means he’s now qualified for the World Championships, so we can afford to stick to short format events with him if we felt like that was the best prep.

“It feels like we’re riding a wave and I’m hoping that the wave is going to continue, and we take the learnings and build on them.”

Luhmühlen Horse Trials results: Laura Collett finishes third

Cross-country leaders Laura Collett and London 52 suffered heartbreak when incurring four faults at the first part of the treble at fence 10a on the final day, meaning they dropped to third on a score of 29.4.

London 52 was previously unbeaten at five-star level, with at this event in 2023, Badminton in 2022 and Pau in 2020.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” admitted Laura. “I think anyone in that position would be disappointed, more for the horse than anything else.

“He jumped amazing and didn’t really deserve to have a rail, but it’s the sport, and I’ve said all along that he doesn’t owe me anything. So for me, the main thing is he’s coming home in one piece, and he’s yet again performed and showed everyone what a spectacular horse he is and I’m so lucky to ride him.”

Laura also finished seventh aboard the grey mare Hester, who seems to be continuously improving with each run.

“The way she’s come on from here last year [where they finished 21st], she’s grown in confidence,” said Laura. “I felt she grew in confidence here last year and she’s just built on that, which is a credit to the course designer to be able to bring a green horse here and then have such a good experience that they come back a year later feeling like a true five-star horse.

“I feel very lucky to have more than one amazing five-star horse in my string.”

Read the full report about the winner and the top 10 Luhmühlen Horse Trials results

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Fast clear rounds were few and far between during the five-star Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country today (14 June).

Just four of the 46 cross-country starters completed clear inside the time around the 11 minute 2 second track, which was designed by Mike Etherington-Smith.

The fastest of those was dressage leader Laura Collett on the second of her two rides, London 52, who stopped the clock with five seconds to spare and remain on their 25.4 dressage score.

“He’s sensational – I’m not very good with words and I genuinely don’t have enough to do him justice, but he’s insane,” said Laura, who is looking to maintain this horse’s unbeaten record at five-star having won this event in 2023, Badminton in 2022 and Pau in 2020.

“The feeling he gives is like no other, so to be in my position and sat on a horse like that is something that I just have to treasure.

“Everything he does, the way he gallops, the way he listens – he’s a big horse, but he’s so adjustable and nippy around these tracks, and at the end of the day, he just loves it.

“He’s so honest, and he looks for the flags, and he makes my job very easy.”

Of the 46 combinations that started the cross-country, there were 20 clears, while 32 completed. This means that 10.8% of the field jumped clear, inside the time, 43.5% of the field jumped clear and 69.6% of the field completed.

“There was nowhere you felt like you could just sit and breathe and gather your thoughts,” explained Laura of the track. “It was, bang, bang, bang, whether it was turning and twisting through the trees or setting up for a combination.”

Ros Canter and Izilot DHI maintain their second place after the dressage. Ros and the 12-year-old she owns alongside Alex Moody, picked up 2.8 time-faults, a contributing factor of which is this horse’s inherently spooky nature.

“I rode him earlier this morning and he wouldn’t go near one of the showjumps, which was slightly concerning,” laughed Ros. “But when he got out there, he really settled. I think having the woods to gallop through at the beginning really channelled and helped him focus. He ducked and dived all over going into the main arena and coming out of it again.

“He doesn’t find it so easy to gallop for so long, but that’s why he can dance so easily in the dressage, so we know his strengths and weaknesses, but I couldn’t fault his attitude today.”

“It felt fast!”: other top riders reflect on performances

British-based New Zealander Samantha Lissington continues her superb run of form, having recently filled the top three spots in the CCI4*-L at Royal Jump in France, where she also finished third in the CCI4*-S on her ride this weekend, Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ.

Sam and this striking black 14-year-old gelding, who she owns alongside her husband Brayden and Pip McCarroll, had the pedal to the metal around today’s track and finished with just .4 of a time penalty, one second over the optimum time.

“I’m really proud of him, and it felt fast!” said Sam, who said she was still wracking her brains this morning about today’s track. “I like to watch some go and then make decisions for myself, but this course was one of the ones where I was a little undecided going out the start box, and I didn’t know quite what I was going to do in the main arena, so I felt like I just had to ride it off feel, and thankfully, it came off.”

The most influential fence on Mark Etherington-Smith’s Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country track was the much talked about fence 8abc, the Longines Kombination. This consisted of a maximum width oxer at the first part, followed by a right-handed turn to two acutely angled brush fences with blue water trays below on a forward one stride distance.

Some riders opted to put in a small curve in-between the b and c elements and clever horses made this look comfortable, however, with the nature of the main arena, with plenty of crowds and marquees to distract horses, some quite simply didn’t lock on to the c element and ran out. Ultimately, this fence caught 15 combinations out – almost a third of the field (32.6%).

Kitty King fourth after Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country

Kitty King and the now incredibly consistent Vendredi Biats – who both really deserve a five-star win having knocked on the door so many times with three top-five five-star placings, including finishing second here last year – finished bang on the optimum time and go into tomorrow’s showjumping in fourth on 31.2.

Kitty was emotional following her round, dreading the day this 16-year-old, owned by Diana Bown, John Eyre, Sally Lloyd Baker and Samantha Wilson, retires from top level sport.

“It wasn’t our tidiest of rounds and we were a bit scrappy in places, but I think that’s the makeup of the course.,” explained Kitty. “It’s very twisty and fast with lots of lines, and the horses don’t really know where they’re going, but he kept helping me out, and I helped him occasionally. He’s just such a dream and I’m going to miss him so much when he has to retire.”

This marked “Froggy’s” fifth run of the season and Kitty has been experimenting with bitting after this horse’s original Myler combination bit was banned for 2025.

“We’ve been trying to find new bits for him – he’s very sensitive and tricky, so this year we’ve run in a different bit at every event,” said Kitty. “Therefore we haven’t really got that continuity yet, because on his first few runs, the bits didn’t work, so we had to keep swapping, so for an older horse, he’s been quite confused.”

Kitty and Froggy finished fourth in the CCI4*-S at Bicton on their most recent run and she decided to stick with the new combination bit she used there for Luhmühlen.

“Although we had a good run at Bicton, we’re probably still a little bit at sea,” said Kitty. “I was really nervous going out the start box here, because I sometimes when you put the bit on the second time, they don’t work at all and he was a bit stiff and wooden in the warm up – I was thinking, ‘oh gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to turn’.

“But he just did his job and was fast as we could be – I was smacking my head into branches everywhere in an effort to save time!”

Young US rider impresses on Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country day

US rider Cosby Green, 24, who is based with Tim and Jonelle Price in Dorset, impressed with polished performances aboard both of her rides today.

She clocked the second fastest round of the day with the second of her rides, Highly Suspicious, finishing four seconds inside the optimum time to move from 16th after the dressage into fifth.

Cosby also finished just one second over the optimum time on her other ride, Jos UFO De Quidam to rocket from 36th after the first phase into ninth.

Laura Collett is another rider to have two horses inside the top 10, with the grey mare Hester seeming to have grown in confidence over the past 12 months – she retired across country at Badminton last year and then picked up 20 penalties in the five-star here last year, but today she finished just three seconds over the optimum time and has moved from 13th into sixth.

“She was phenomenal. The improvement in her in 12 months from where she was here last year was amazing,” said Laura. “And for me, that’s what it’s all about, is building that partnership.

“I’ve had her all the way through her career, like Dan [London 52], so it’s taken years but she feels amazing. She’s like my little unicorn that I get to fly around.”

Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country: the rest of the top 10

Origi, the mount of last year’s winner, Belgium’s Lara De Liedekerke-Meier, finished one second inside the optimum time to currently sit in seventh, but the gelding pulled up lame at the finish. Lara has since posted on social media to say that “he is being taken care of by the vet team and is happy in his stable”.

Rounding off the top 10 is Austria’s Lea Siegl, who at the age of 26 is another young rider to have two horses inside the top 10 following the Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country. She has DSP Fighting Line in eighth having picked up 3.2 time-faults and Van Helsing P in 10th. Van Helsing P dropped from sixth after the dressage having picked up 11.2 time-faults. Lea has been given a yellow card by the ground jury for “abuse of horse for excessive use of the whip” aboard DSP Fighting Line.

Some of those who dropped out of the top 10 today included Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno, who were in fifth after the dressage. Gemma pulled this 17-year-old mare up quickly after jumping through all elements of Manske’s Irish Bank at fence 20. Jalapeno was loaded onto a horse ambulance and Gemma posted on Instagram to say the mare was “comfortable in her stable”.

Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp dropped from third to 12th with Carlitos Quidditch K after activating a frangible device jumping into the second water at fence 11, while Piggy March and Halo dropped from seventh to 24th due to a run out at the final part of this same water fence at 12b. Finally, Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat, who held ninth after the first phase, opted to retire after a run out at 8c was followed by a run out at the middle part of the second water at 12a.

The final showjumping phase will get under way tomorrow morning after the final trot-up, which is at 7.45am (6.45am UK time), with less than one fence down separating the top three.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

‘He deserves to win every event he goes to’: Laura Collett and London 52 throw down the gauntlet in contentiously marked Luhmühlen five-star dressage

How to watch Luhmühlen Horse Trials 2026 live from anywhere in the world

7 standout cross-country questions at Luhmühlen five-star where riders will need to be on their A game

‘Like being in a tumble dryer’: riders react to the challenge facing them on this year’s Luhmühlen five-star cross-country track

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The 2025 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country times have been released – and the five-star is not to be missed with British riders holding seven of the top 10 places after the dressage phase.

The five-star cross-country gets under way on Saturday morning (14 June) at 8.45am (7.45am UK time), and is due to complete at 12.08pm (11.08am UK time).

Britain’s Aimee Penny and the first of her two rides, PSH Encore, will be the pathfinders across cross-country course-designer Mike Etherington Smith’s five-star track, which features 28 numbered fences with an optimum time of 11 minutes and eight seconds. The final rider on course will be Ros Canter riding Izilot DHI.

Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country times: five-star top 10

• Laura Collett and London 52: 10.49am UK time (11.49am local time)
• Ros Canter and Izilot DHI: 10.57am UK time (11.57am local time)
• Malin Hansen-Hotopp and Carlitos Quidditch K: 9.21am UK time (10.21am local time)
• Samantha Lissington and Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ: 10.05am UK time (11.05am local time)
• Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno: 9.25am UK time (10.25am local time)
• Lea Siegl and Van Helsing P: 10.53am UK time (11.53am local time)
• Piggy March and Halo: 9.53am UK time (10.53am local time)
• Kitty King and Vendredi Biats: 10.21am UK time (11.21am local time)
• Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat: 8.57am UK time (9.57am local time)
• Aaron Millar and KEC Deakon: 8.29am UK time (9.29am local time)

The CCI4*-S class is then due to get under way at 1.20pm (12.20pm UK time). This class hosts the German Championship – known as the Deutsche Meisterschaft – but, as opposed to 2024, there are no British entries this year.

View the Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country times in full.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You may also be interested in:

‘Like being in a tumble dryer’: riders react to the challenge facing them on this year’s Luhmühlen five-star cross-country track

7 standout cross-country questions at Luhmühlen five-star where riders will need to be on their A game

How to watch Luhmühlen Horse Trials 2026 live from anywhere in the world

‘He deserves to win every event he goes to’: Laura Collett and London 52 throw down the gauntlet in contentiously marked Luhmühlen five-star dressage

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Laura Collett and the indomitable London 52 lead the way after the CCI5* dressage at the 2025 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials.

The duo have an enviable record at five-star having won all their starts at this level – this event in 2023, Badminton in 2022 and Pau in 2020. They scored 25.4, which puts them 0.6 of a penalty ahead of second-placed Ros Canter and Izilot DHI.

Their test was virtually fault-free, scoring two nines from the judges – which have been a rare commodity in this class this year – one for their mid-test halt and one for their final halt.

“He’s an absolute dream to ride. He knows what he’s doing now, so it’s just about trusting the process and not getting caught up working in too much,” said Laura. “I rode him this morning and he was very, very fresh, but I just trusted that he’s old enough to know what he’s doing now. He was on the edge in there – it’s quite an atmosphere, but he loves an atmosphere.”

On whether she felt more or less pressure riding such an accomplished horse as London 52, Laura said: “I came into this year saying that after last year with the pressure of the Olympics and everything, I just wanted to enjoy him and enjoy having him around and not having the pressure. But the closer we got to here, I was definitely feeling it, mainly because I don’t want to let him down and he deserves to win every event he goes to, so it’s my job to allow him to do that.”

Going more into her test today, Laura said: “In the trot, he was wanting to show a bit of piaffe and show off a little too much, but we could have had just a bit more rhythm and connection.”

Laura explained that she rarely rides London 52 on the flat at home.

“It’s just a case of keeping him happy, to be honest – he knows all the movements now, so I probably only school him once a month on the flat when I have a lesson.”

Ros Canter: “He was an absolute delight”

Ros was delighted with the efforts of “Isaac”, who can be spooky. But the 12-year-old, who was fourth here and second at Pau last year, who won Pau in 2023, held it together in the first phase, which was bathed in 27°C sunshine but with a brisk breeze.

“I’m absolutely over the moon – he’s a spooky chap, but time and time again he pulls it off and he’s an absolute delight,” said Ros. “We’re much more secure and with each other now he’s 12 years old. We’ve been together a long time and I think he’s trusting me a bit more, and I’m certainly trusting him a bit more and I know him inside out – it’s just about building that relationship.”

Ros said Isaac’s neck is “tricky for her to gauge”.

“I have to rely on people watching me to tell me how it feels, and sometimes he feels elastic and sometimes he doesn’t. But I knew his neck was good because my supporters told me it was – sometimes it doesn’t feel as good as it I’d love it to and I would like to have him a little bit lower and rounder, but when you have him in a place where you’d have another horse, he always looks over-bent, so we just have to have him that little bit more up and out than maybe I feel comfortable with.

“I think I could always get more elasticity in the canter, and that’s kind of his weakness. He’s very comfortable in trot, which is quite unusual for event horses, as most do their best work in canter, but he’s more elastic in the trot.”

Ros said she rode Isaac “a little bit on the safe side” today but that although he is spooky, his brain is “really easy”.

“He’s not a horse that blows up and gets tense – he’s just spooky, and he’s got a real flight instinct, so if he spooks at something, it’s a bit more dramatic than maybe some other horses, but on the whole, he’s pretty chilled so it’s always about balance of having worked enough so he doesn’t spook but not having worked him so much that he doesn’t show off his true nature.”

The home crowd was delighted when Malin Hansen-Hotopp slotted into third with her 2022 Blenheim CCI4*-L winner, Carlitos Quidditch K, who also finished fourth on his five-star debut at Kentucky last year. They were another pair who made no obvious mistakes and went on to score 28,9,

“He was just awesome,” said Malin. “He came into the arena and was a bit ‘Ooh’ at the crowd, but if I stay cool and just ride, I get him like that.”

Samantha Lissington on “finding the balance”

British-based New Zealander Samantha Lissington, who is on flying form having finished in the top three with all three of her rides in the CCI4*-L at France’s Royal Jump event at the end of May, is hoping to capitalise on that, this week. She sits in fourth on Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, who finished second in the CCI4*-S at Royal Jump, on 28.9.

“He’s just so obedient and so easy to ride – I came out here and didn’t have to do a lot because he knows his job so well. It’s more just making sure we’re both sharp enough,” said Sam. “It is tricky finding that balance – you want them rideable enough, but quick enough to be on your leg for the changes, I wanted him relaxed and easy and rideable, but not too rideable that I missed a change.”

Gemma Stevens on the Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage: “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do”

As was the case on the first day of Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage yesterday, there were many murmurings about the marks in the first phase. One of the riders rueing the mark given was Gemma Stevens, who sits in fifth with Jalapeno on 29.4

“I’m thrilled with her – I don’t know what we’re supposed to do though. That is the best test she’s ever done and she has scored 22s in the past,” said Gemma. “The changes were on the button, she was soft, through and over her back, good in the frame and her transitions were amazing and she didn’t make a mistake. She normally scores in the low 20s and I don’t know why [the judges] have to be like that – I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve, what are they looking for?”

Austria’s Lea Siegl is sixth and 15th riding Van Helsing P and DSP Fighting Line respectively on scores of 29.8 and 34.4. Piggy March sits seventh on 29.9 riding Halo.

“I was absolutely delighted. I’m in my own bubble all week and I’ve got a cute little horse,” said Piggy. “The field is very hot, but I’m here for my own interest to find out where I’m at with my horse.

“It will be his first time galloping 11 minutes across country – he’s a lovely galloping horse, I just hope he settles at the beginning so he doesn’t run his race too early. But he’s 12 and I think he’s a real championship horse – he’s not the finished article yet and there’s lots more to come.”

On the scoring in the Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage, Piggy said: “I was watching Gemma’s [Stevens] work all morning and it’s been looking very, very smart, and so it’s quite demotivating. It’s nice when you do something good and judges give it a deserving mark, but they’ve stayed pretty miserable this week.

“Riders need to know what they’re training to – marks inspire them. I’ve spoken to ground juries before about it , but have never found the answer to the problem. Dressage is Marmite, isn’t it? But at this level, [this kind of marking] is actually not good enough. Riders have come back in tears and demoralised – these good sportspeople are trying to get to the very top.”

Kitty King and Vendredi Biats put in a polished performance to score 31.2 to sit in eighth. This is ‘Froggy’s’ worst dressage mark since scoring 32.8 in the CCI4*-S at Belton in March 2019.

“They’re just being fairly miserable, but I thought he did a nice test,” Kitty said.

Day one Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage leader Selina Milnes and Cooley Snapchat sit in ninth on 31.5; Aaron Millar and KEC Deakon, who were second at the end of yesterday, are 10th on 31.6.

The cross-country gets under way at 8.45am tomorrow (7.45am UK time, 14 June).

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Some riders have shared their initial thoughts on the five-star 2025 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country course.

The 6,340m track, which has been designed by Mike Etherington-Smith, and has 28 numbered fences and 46 jumping efforts has got some of this year’s five-star competitors scratching their heads.

Ros Canter, who has two rides this week in the form of MHS Seventeen and Izilot DHI, describes the track as “pretty intense”.

“You get a nice gentle start and then there are lots of combinations,” she says. “Each individual combination is very jumpable, but riders have to put it all together.”

Ros’ compatriot, Laura Collett, who has two rides this week – Hester and London 52 – says that she thinks riding the track will “feel like being in a tumble dryer”.

“I think it’s very intense and it’s not going to be a smooth ride, that’s for sure, and I think the time is going to be near on impossible to achieve,” she states.

Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country course: ‘Combination after combination’

Selina Milnes, who leads after the first day of five-star dressage aboard Cooley Snapchat, agrees with Laura’s sentiments about the course being intense.

“There is combination after combination and horses aren’t going to get much of a breather,” she says. “I’d like there to be just a few more galloping fences where you can just say to your horse, ‘well, that was good, well done’.”

In terms of a specific fence that Selina thinks will cause problems, she pinpoints fence 8abc, the Longines Kombination, in the main arena.

“I think it looks a hell of a long way in one stride between the b and c element. I think you’ve just got to jump the parallel first and then give yourself time to jump the final two elements. The skinny fences at the the Meßmer-Teich water at 11 and 12ab are very skinny too.”

Aaron Millar, who holds second place with KEC Deakon after the first day of dressage, describes the course as “twisty”.

“It’s a good test,” he says. “There’s a lot of combinations where you’re going to have to think quickly about where you’re going and where you’re turning and there’s a lot of acute angles – the course is going to keep us working and thinking.”

Swiss rider Nadja Minder is in agreement, saying that there are “ a lot of angled combinations”.

“It seems like you have to jump everything on an angle,” she says. “But I think it’s clear for the horses and there are set up fences before combinations too, so I think if you can have a good rhythm and gallop, you can use the set up fences to re-balance and I think it will be a lot of fun to ride.”

The Luhmühlen Horse Trials cross-country course has an optimum time of 11 minutes and 8 seconds and gets underway tomorrow (14 June) at 8.45am (7.45am British time).

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British rider Selina Milnes and the exciting Cooley Snapchat lead the way after the first day of dressage in the five-star at the 2025 Longines Luhmühlen Horse Trials.

There were consistent mumblings among riders that the ground jury of Katrin Eichinger-Kniely from Austria, Merel Schurink from the Netherlands and Ernst Topp from Germany were being frugal awarding marks. Indeed, not one of the 23 combinations who came forward in the first phase today broke the 30 barrier.

Selina and the 11-year-old Cooley Snapchat, who is owned by Angela and William Rucker, sit atop the leaderboard on 31.5. Their test was smooth with no obvious errors, so Selina, although delighted with the efforts of her horse, was left wondering why her mark didn’t reflect their performance.

“I’m disappointed with the mark – I actually thought he’d get into the 20s,” said Selina, who was third in the seven-year-old World Championships with this horse at Le Lion d’Angers and went on to win the CCI4*-S at Bramham in 2023.

“He didn’t really do much wrong, did he? Dickie [Waygood] said my first centre line was slightly quarters right, but other than that, I thought he was on the button.”

The judge at C, Katrin Eichinger-Kniely, placed Selina in eighth on 64.81%, while the other two judges placed them in first and second on 70.96% and 69.62%.

“I saw the judge at C’s mark first and I was surprised, but the other two judges liked it, and as long as the judge at C’s marking doesn’t change, that’s the main thing,” continued Selina. “He’s a super horse. He always stays really relaxed, so you can ride him. He needs a little bit of buzz to spark him up a bit, but he was really good today.”

Fellow Brit Aaron Millar is just 0.1 of a penalty behind Selina in second on 31.6. He was another rider to produce a virtually fault-free test and was pleased with the efforts of his horse, KEC Deakon, a 15-year-old owned by Heidi Bates.

“I slightly, slightly overworked him beforehand,” admitted Aaron. “He doesn’t need much work before he goes in, but he just dropped in the poll a little. His trot work would normally be better, we had a slight mistake in the last flying change and one of his halts wasn’t square, but he’s a performer and he always just wants to go in and do a good job.”

Further explaining his warm-up today, Aaron said: “We were down here for 25 minutes, but his best work probably came before we went in. He had last year off through injury so he hasn’t been in this sort of atmosphere for a while, so perhaps it was better to have him slightly underpowered, rather than [boiling over].”

Ros Canter on MHS Seventeen: “I’m over the moon with him”

Ros Canter and the former Nicola Wilson ride MHS Seventeen sit in third after day one of Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage. Ros and this 12-year-old, owned by Deirdre Johnston and Lady Milnes Coates, put in a solid performance to score 33.5.

“I’m over the moon with him as he’s a horse that really hates being by himself, so going into the main arena has historically been quite a difficult experience for him as he has tended to get quite tense,” explained Ros, who used the opportunity to perform one of the guinea pig tests at Bramham last week as preparation for this week.

“We’ve worked really hard to develop a system for the run-up to the event and while we’re here, and I’m just really pleased that the system worked. He came out happy and relaxed, and he went in happy and relaxed, and I think he was probably a bit harshly marked, to be honest.”

Expanding further on the system Ros has implemented to try to ensure a good first-phase performance with MHS Seventeen, she said: “He’s come out to be ridden quite a few times since he’s been here, but not for too long and never so long as to make him tired or frustrated.

“He’s been practising the trot work in the test over and over again – yesterday he probably went through the trot work 12 times. I haven’t done any other movements that weren’t in the test so as not to confuse him, because he gets better and better when he knows what he’s doing and gains confidence.

“He knows all of the movements now, but when he goes in there, sometimes he completely loses his concentration, and then me asking an aid is in the back of his mind, not in the forefront of his mind, but today he was definitely listening to me, so that was great.”

Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage: Laura Collett and Hester sit fourth

Laura Collett and the 14-year-old grey mare Hester, who is owned and bred by Lucy Nelson, sit in fourth on 33.9. Their score was trending in the mid-20s throughout some very smart trot work, but their flying changes let them down.

“It would be good if it was just a walk/trot test!” said Laura, who rides the favourite for this event, London 52, tomorrow afternoon. “She’s got so good now – she used to be hot through the whole test. She really struggles with the changes and when there’s four of them in the test, it’s really costly.

“That was a big atmosphere for her and historically it was like riding on eggshells the whole time, so for her to be able to let me in and ride her in the trot work today was great. It’s all going in the right direction and she is really starting to trust me and relax – she just makes mistakes because she struggles to wait for instructions because she’s trying too hard.”

The five-star Luhmühlen Horse Trials dressage continues tomorrow (13 June), with 24 combinations – including 10 Brits – still to go. The action in this class kicks off at 12.15pm UK time (1.15pm local time), after the CCI4*-S dressage in the morning.

• Check out all the key Luhmühlen dressage times.
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Three-time five-star winners and triple Olympic medallist Laura Collett and London 52 head up the Luhmühlen Horse Trials entries for the Longines CCI5* competition (12-15 June).

Laura and her own, Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott’s 16-year-old will try to recapture the title they won in 2023 when they return to Germany next month. The British rider will also pilot Lucy Nelson’s home-bred Hester, who achieved her first five-star completion here last year.

Recent Badminton Horse Trials winner Ros Canter will try to keep the five-star ball rolling with two entries in the top class – Alex Moody’s and her own Izilot DHI, who was fourth here last year in the CCI5*, and Deirdre Johnston and Lady Milnes Coates’s MHS Seventeen, who was 11th on his five-star debut at Pau Horse Trials last year.

Kitty King will also start among the favourites, with 2023 Luhmühlen five-star runner-up Vendredi Biats, owned by Diana Bown, John Eyre, Sally Lloyd Baker and Samantha Wilson.

Full entries

The 23 British Luhmühlen Horse Trials entries for the five-star also include Selina Milnes with the Ruckers’ Bramham Horse Trials 2023 CCI4*-S winner Cooley Snapchat and Wills Oakden with the Adams’ Blair Horse Trials 2023 CCI4*-L winner Keep It Cooley.

US-based British rider Lucienne Bellissimo will have another go at five-star after making her first start at the level at Kentucky Three-Day Event in April. Her ride Dyri runs in the ownership of her business, Horse Scout Eventing.

Those re-routing from Badminton to this five-star include Kirsty Chabert with her father John Johnston, Caroline Caines and Kate Monserrate’s Opposition Heraldik Girl and Gemma Stevens with the Stones’ Jalapeno.

Gemma also has the Stones’ clone Chilli Morning IV making his CCI4*-S debut in the Meßmer Trophy. Caroline Harris brings her Pau CCI5* winner D. Day – owned by Lucy Matthews, Fiona Olivier, Marie Anne Richardson and Heather Royle – forward for that class.

Belgium’s Lara de Liedekerke-Meier, last year’s five-star winner on Hooney D’Arville, will return in the CCI5* this year with Johan Vankerschaever’s Origi, who makes his five-star debut after finishing 13th at the Olympics.

The New Zealand entry includes Jesse Campbell, re-routing after a disappointing Badminton dressage test with Jay Jaffar’s Cooley Lafitte, and Jonelle Price with five-star debutant Senor Crocodillo, owned by his rider and the Giannamores.

As usual, most of the German riders contest the CCI4*-S, where Julia Krajewski will start as favourite on four-time four-star winner Uelzener’s Nickel (formerly known as Nickel 21), owned by Bernd Heicke.

Also notable in the CCI4*-S are Andrew Hoy and double Tokyo Olympic medallist Vassily De Lassos, owned by his rider and Dreams Come True V LLC. They have had mixed recent form, but were third in this section in 2020 and 2021.

The only German in the CCI5* is Arne Bergendahl, who re-routes with Helmut Bergendahl’s Luthien NRW after falling in the Mars Lake at Badminton.

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The Eventing Spring Carnival took place at Thoresby Park last weekend and a host of top horses came out to play in the sunshine. We know how much you love to see the equine stars having their first big run of the season so we have a set of Thoresby photos for your enjoyment below…

The feature class, the Lycetts Grantham Cup, was won by Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, while Laura Collett and Dacapo landed the other CCI4*-S, which ran under the banner of organisers BEDE. Gemma Stevens was also on great form, taking second in both sections with Jalapeno III and Chilli King. For a full report, check out this week’s Horse & Hound magazine (dated 3 April).

Thoresby photos – top horses enjoy a run in the sun

Ros Canter and Michele and Archie Saul’s Lordships Graffalo, the Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials winners, European champions and Olympic team gold medallists, finished fourth in the Grantham Cup.

Kirsty Chabert and the 2022 Luhmühlen Horse Trials runner-up Classic VI, owned by Kate Ward, Carole Somers and Kirsty’s father John Johnston, took seventh in the Grantham Cup.

Ben Hobday and Shadow Man II, owned by his rider, his father Stephen and Jane Chambers, claimed fifth in the advanced section. Shadow Man was piloted by Australia’s Chris Burton to claim the individual silver at last year’s Paris Olympics, before moving back to Ben and finishing 12th at Pau Horse Trials under him at the end of the season.

Paris Olympic team gold medallists Tom McEwen and JL Dublin won the Grantham Cup, a strong result in their build-up to Badminton. The horse is owned by Jo and James Lambert and Deirdre Johnston.

Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight – sixth in the Grantham Cup – were the winners of the one-off Bicton Horse Trials CCI5* in 2021. The horse is owned by and was bred by Chris and Lisa Stone.

Emily King and Valmy Biats, owned by the rider, her father David and Paula and David Evans, picked up fifth in the Grantham Cup, having won the class last season. They were fourth at Badminton last year and will head there again in May.

Tim Price and last year’s Burghley runner-up Vitali, owned by Joe and Alex Giannamore, put in a steady double jumping clear in the Grantham Cup.

Popular and consistent five-star campaigners Alice Casburn and Topspin, a home-bred owned by the rider’s mother Caroline, jumped a double clear in the advanced section.

Rachel Upton’s Cola III, ridden by her daughter Bubby Upton, finished eighth in the advanced. This pair have been eighth and 10th at Badminton, 14th at Burghley and fifth at Maryland 5 Star.

Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and The Salty Syndicate’s Colorado Blue, who won Maryland 5 Star in 2023.

Last year’s Bramham Horse Trials under-25 champions Emma Thomas and The Buzz Factor, owned by Emma’s mother Rebecca Velarde, jumped a steady double clear in the Grantham Cup.

Zara Tindall and her five-star horse, Gleadhill House Stud Ltd’s Class Affair, finished on the podium in third in the advanced section.

Ireland’s Lucy Latta and Lesley Crampton’s RCA Patron Saint warmed up for a return trip to Badminton, where they finished second last year.

Tim Price opted for a steady double clear with Sue Benson’s Falco IV, the world double bronze medallist and 2021 Pau winner.

Tom Rowland and Dreamliner, owned by his breeders Mark and Angela Chamberlayne, put in a double clear in the Grantham Cup. They were seventh at Badminton last year.

World champion Yasmin Ingham rode Rehy DJ, owned by Janette Chinn and The Sue Davies Fund, in the Grantham Cup and will make her Badminton debut on him next month.

Thoresby photos by Peter Nixon

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British world number one Tom McEwen is among the top riders to have confirmed their plans for the spring five-stars.

Tom holds entries at Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event (24 to 27 April) and Mars Badminton Horse Trials (7 to 11 May) with both JL Dublin and Brookfield Quality.

Following his win in the CCI4*-S Lycetts Grantham Cup at Thoresby, Tom told H&H that all being well, the aim is to take JL Dublin to Badminton and Brookfield Quality to Kentucky.

“For the last couple of seasons I’ve done everything predominantly on a surface, in terms of dressage and showjumping, through going to Kentucky or championships,” said Tom, who rides the Paris Olympic team gold medal-winning gelding “Dubs” for Deirdre Johnston and James and Jo Lambert.

“Obviously Badminton is not on a surface, it’s very much grass so it’s great to come to a big show like this and jump on the grass, and the same with the dressage.”

He added: “I didn’t really know if I was going to have a quick run or slow run, but I knew I wanted to use this for [spring five-star] prep. But there was only one way Dubs was going today, which was quick. So I thought, ‘Let’s let him rock and roll’.

“He really utilised his huge long stride everywhere and was so free-flowing, and the course really played into that.”

Laura Collett told The British Eventing Show, produced by EquiRatings, that double Olympic gold and individual bronze medallist London 52 will go to Luhmühlen CCI5*, which he won in 2023.

Laura said that after everything the horse has done for her, she does not want to put him out of his comfort zone, noting that when he won Badminton in 2022 “all the stars aligned – everything was perfect and everything was in his favour”.

Instead, she will return to Germany to an event she knows suits him well to “try to win another five-star on the bridle”.

London 52, whom Laura owns with Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott, enjoyed a solid run at Thoresby as he builds towards CCI5* fitness, and finished third in the Grantham Cup.

Irish Olympian Joseph Murphy told H&H Badminton is the plan for his five-star and 2023 European Championship campaigner Calmaro, who is owned by Richard and Tanya Ames, Claire and Charlie Mayne, and Annette O’Callaghan.

The 14-year-old grey was entered at both the Gloucestershire and the US five-stars. He has now been withdrawn from Kentucky, where he finished ninth in 2022, and Badminton will be his target.

Joseph spoke to H&H after dominating Saturday’s OI section, with four top-six placings, headed by Calmaro’s winning performance.

“The dressage was good, he was in great form, very relaxed and jumped well,” he said.

“He just felt incredible across country. He’s really well established in that phase and he doesn’t necessarily need to run at the high level all the time, so that’s why he ran in the OI rather than the advanced.

“It’s just a case of checking everything, fitness and getting runs into him with people and atmosphere, and so on. For me, it’s just like putting on a pair of old shoes – it’s very enjoyable!”

He thanked his owners for their support in allowing him to come over to Britain with a number of horses for a spring tour in the build-up to Badminton and other major fixtures this season.

“I take my hat off to everyone at Thoresby – the courses they produced were a lovely level of confidence, technicality and difficulty. It was a lovely blend. Walking the advanced and the four-star, they had the same tone as well,” he said.

“There was a very high standard of riders. That’s a benchmark for us, so that’s why personally I find it very important to come and mix in that company – it gives you a good confidence boost going forward for the next big challenge.”

The full Thoresby report will be in the 3 April issue of Horse & Hound

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Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to pick up some training gems from Dickie Waygood and Laura Collett? The pair, plus grassroots event rider and influencer Megan Elphick, joined up for The LeMieux Grassroots to Glory Masterclass on Friday, 20 December at the London International Horse Show.

H&H was on hand to bring you all the training and coaching wisdom from the session…

1. If the coach doesn’t know the riders and horses, the session should start with riders introducing themselves and their mounts.

Laura rides Cooley Iceage, a six-year-old who she cautiously admits she hopes will be her next big star.

“I’ve had him about a year now and he was very green when I got him, but he’s been competing at novice and two-star this season,” says the double Olympic team gold medallist and Paris individual bronze medallist. “He’s a horse I think an awful lot of, but he is very inexperienced and has never been in this kind of environment, so this is a very good education for him.”

Megan’s mount is her home-bred Winnie, another six-year-old who she has competed at BE80.

“I’ve taken my time with her and she had an injury this year so had the summer off, hence feeling excited to be at a party,” says Megan. “She is a very honest horse, but I have never done anything like this with her before.”

2. At elite level, coaching is very much a partnership.

British eventing performance manager Dickie says: “People ask, ‘Do I coach Laura?’ but it goes way beyond that. When I work with Laura it’s working together as a partnership because with her feel she can give me as much information on what she needs to work on as I can see with my eyes. I wouldn’t call it coaching in a true sense as at an elite level, it’s those small details you’re looking for – and getting the basics right.”

3. A jumping session starts with flatwork.

Dickie Waygood encourages Laura Collett and Megan Elphick to start the training session by testing the accelerator and the brakes on the flat, saying: “I like to see lots of transitions within the pace. Use the weight aid and maybe voice to slow down and then move on a little bit – Laura comes out of the saddle with a light seat, but she’s still in the middle of the horse. When she collects, the weight aid means using upper body posture to help the horse wait.

“In any discipline, it’s hugely important you sit in balance, then the horse can use you as a stabiliser to balance on.”

Dickie emphasises that if a rider puts one foot down two inches, they may think they are only transferring 15% of their weight, but in fact it’s more like 100%, so a small movement can be influential for the horse.

4. Don’t let the canter expand towards a jump, especially a skinny.

The pair start by jumping small fences down a line – “it doesn’t matter how many strides, I want them to keep the canter the same before fences” – before moving on to skinny fences.

“Try not to expand the canter on the way to a fence – if you expand before a skinny, you run the risk of running out,” says Dickie.

5. Look to the later fence in a line.

Once Laura sees her distance to the first fence in a line, she raises her eyes to look at the second fence.

“The moment she has seen her distance, she doesn’t need to look back at the first fence, she can see it in her peripheral vision. She’s then looking at the second fence,” says Dickie.

6. Straightness is vital.

Dickie stresses that horses need to be on railway tracks with the back legs following the front legs, saying: “You cannot do a press up with hands out to the side. When the horse’s shoulders are bulging out round the corner and he’s not straight he can’t shorten and lengthen correctly so he loses options and the shape and balance of bascule. When we come to skinnies we must have straight horses.”

Tips include not collapsing the rider’s body to one side, using a leg yield to counteract falling out and using “working pirouettes” to teach the horse to turn off the outside leg and outside leg.

7. Don’t try to catch horses out. 

Make exercises progressive. Show horses the fences first if necessary. Alter the question if needed. Ask the riders what their horses are ready for.

“Don’t teach them to run-out – that’s always a worry with skinnies,” says Dickie, while Laura suggests an alteration to a set-up during the session, an example of how the pair work in partnership.

Dickie adds: “The next part is to practise this on the side of a hill with cross-country fences, then you take it to a competition.”

8. Leg before hand when making a correction, every time. 

“Don’t land and go to the inside rein to turn – it’s common sense in time of crisis, but think of the pirouette and control the outside shoulder,” says Dickie.

Both horses perform very well during the training session with Dickie Waygood and Laura Collett – Megan youngster’s tackles some never-seen-before questions with no drama and learnt a lot, while Laura says of Cooley Iceage: “He has a great brain, he’s very honest, he fundamentally wants to do the job. I loved him before and I love him even more now.”

Dickie adds: “This is a horse to watch for the future – watch out for this horse and watch out for Laura.”

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout major shows, for training tips and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Unique lots such as training with British Olympic gold medallists are on offer in a Performance Mentoring Programme (PMP) silent auction.

Renowned eventing coach Caroline Moore set up PMP at the beginning of 2024 to offer fully funded support to young event riders and developing coaches in areas such as business, technical skills, horsemanship and the ability to be successful in the industry. She aims to raise £25,000 with the PMP auction.

Lots in the auction include training with 2024 Olympic team gold medallists Laura Collett and Ros Canter – a PMP mentor – and a day’s eventing with JL Dublin, a team gold medallist with Tom McEwen in Paris.

Other riders offering lessons and training camps in the auction include 14-time five-star winner William Fox-Pitt, PMP-supported riders Emma Thomas and Phoebe Locke and five-star competitors Emilie Chandler and Kylie Roddy. There are also opportunities to snap up sessions with British team coaches Christopher Bartle, Dickie Waygood and Ian Woodhead.

Bidding is now open

Or do you fancy learning from a top-class groom? Ros’s travelling groom Sarah Charnley is offering a day of her time and skill at a competition or at home.

If a holiday is more your thing, you can bid on mini break or a residential riding holiday or hunting fans can try their luck for a day with the Quorn. If the British five-stars are your passion, you could win a behind-the-scenes experience at Badminton Horse Trials with rider Aaron Millar or a VIP package at Burghley Horse Trials.

Other celebrity lots include yard tours with dressage multiple medallist Carl Hester, lunch with British Horse Society president Martin Clunes and a tennis racquet signed by tennis star Sir Andy Murray.

Under-25 national champion Emma Thomas has had support through the PMP this year and described it as “incredible”, including funding for training, sports psychology, talks and personal training.

“It’s educating us to be better athletes and better eventers,” said Emma, adding that she was “immediately taken care of” when she was kicked in the build-up to Burghley this year and needed assistance such as physio to ensure she could compete at the event.

The auction is open until 9.30pm on Saturday 23 November and there are 72 lots on offer.

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Noble Springbok, who won nine pony eventing European medals with three riders and started Olympic triple medallist Laura Collett’s career, has died at the age of 27.

“Going to my first Europeans and winning team gold and individual bronze would be my favourite memory of him,” said Laura. “I went there not expecting anything and was very naive about the whole thing. He started all three of us off – none of us knew anything – and was a machine who could go to a championship every year and come back with a medal.”

Laura was a show rider initially – she rode for producers and she and her mother Tracey bought unbroken ponies, made them and sold them on to make ends meet. It was a fortuitous bit of dealing that landed them the five-year-old Noble Springbok.

He was advertised in Horse & Hound as part of a job lot from the Noble working hunter yard, run by Kelly Lyons (now Ward), who had outgrown 14hh workers. Laura fell in love with him, but Tracey said they couldn’t buy the first pony they’d seen.

But Laura was calling the shots. In an interview in H&H in 2011, she said: “While we were showing I’d always had one pony of my own that I chose when I wanted to sell, so I’d decided I was going to sell this one and that money would go towards buying my showjumper or event pony, so I was a bit of a brat and said, ‘Well it’s my money, I’m going to buy this one’.”

The Colletts paid around £5,500 for Spring — beating Ben Hobday to it by hours — and with the guidance of the Pony Club, Laura moved into eventing.

In 2005, the pair scored three thirds – including in the pony national championships at Sansaw – and a win in their three British Eventing runs and went to the pony Europeans, where they took team gold and individual bronze.

“He was very sure of himself and knew how special he was,” said Laura. “He was like a horse with short legs and rode like a horse – nothing about him was really pony-like. He found jumping very easy and had to learn about dressage. I jumped some massive fences on him and felt like he would jump the world.”

When Laura was out of ponies at the end of 2005, she discussed Spring’s future with her trainer Yogi Breisner.

“He said I could keep him as my junior and young rider mount – and who knows how far he’d go – but equally that selling him could set me up for life and that’s what he did,” she said.

Laura made the heartbreaking decision to sell and with the proceeds, she bought a lorry, a walker and three or four young horses. One of them was Rayef, who she rode to eighth at her first Badminton Horse Trials in 2011 and her debut senior championship appearance at that year’s Europeans.

Noble Springbok was sold to Libby Soley, with whom he won individual gold and silver medals and a team gold and bronze. The pair won back to back pony national championships in 2006 and 2007, took top spot at Weston Park CCI* (now CCI2*-L) in 2007 and were never out of the top three in a pony trial. They also won at intermediate level.

In April 2007, during her second season with Spring, Libby had a near-fatal fall with another horse which put her in a coma with a severe head injury.

“The trust I had in Spring made me want to get back on board – he was my reason to get up on a morning,” she said.

“Words can’t describe the partnership we had. Spring wasn’t just a horse, he was my world and together we achieved what people said we couldn’t.”

Libby said Spring was “quite simply the best” and her “horse of a lifetime”, thanking him “for it all”, as well as her parents: ”Thank you for giving me the best pony in the world. There’s only us know what it took.”

The Soleys then sold Spring to the Walker family for Grace Walker to ride. When Grace’s parents Philip and Sarah wanted a professional to base themselves at the Walkers’ home at the Membury Estate, Wiltshire, and help their daughter, Libby’s mother Sue recommended Laura.

“It was special to be able to get back on him later in life and and watch him turn into a bit of a legend,” said Laura.

Noble Springbok did two more Europeans with Grace, taking individual silver, plus a team gold and a team bronze. The Walkers kept him after Grace stopped competing him in 2014 and he lived out his retirement with them.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout major shows such as London International and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Paris Olympic team gold and individual bronze medallist Laura Collett has been shortlisted for The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year 2024 award.

Laura, a triple five-star winner, spearheaded the British side’s success at Paris 2024 aboard London 52 – the horse with whom she has also won Badminton, Pau and Luhmühlen, as well as Tokyo Olympic team gold.

The pair set an Olympic record with their eventing dressage score of 17.5 in Paris, going on to stand on the individual podium and take the team title with Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) and Tom McEwen (JL Dublin).

The result in the sportswoman of the year category will be decided by the judging panel, which includes former jockey turned ITV racing pundit Megan Nicholls.

“These awards are a testament to the incredible achievements of women in sport over the past year,” said Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday Times.

“From world-class athletes who shone at global events like the Olympics, to champions on local pitches and courts, every nominee has made a significant impact. This year, we’re excited to expand the scope of the awards even further, ensuring that women’s contributions to sport at every level are recognised and celebrated.”

Past winners include leading event rider Zara Tindall and top jockey Hollie Doyle.

Olympic medal-winning rower Georgie Brayshaw, who also rides and was partially paralysed in a fall as a teenager, is among the GB women’s quadruple scull side nominated for the Switzerland Tourism Team of the Year.

Georgie, Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott and Lola Anderson won gold on the water in Paris this summer.

The team award is among the categories decided by public vote, which is open until midday on 27 November, at www.sportswomenoftheyear.co.uk.

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This month’s Pau Horse Trials is the 17th running of the French event at five-star (formerly four-star) level. Many of the former Pau Horse Trials winners have been – or have gone on to become – legends in the sport of eventing.

Let’s take a look back at them…

Pau Horse Trials winners, 2007-2023

2007: Nicolas Touzaint (France) and Hildago De L’Ile

The first winners of Pau as a top-level event, a popular victory for the home side. Nicolas went on to become the first French winner of Badminton, piloting Hildago De L’Ile to take the British spring classic in 2008. Hildago De L’Ile was a team silver medallist at the 2005 Blenheim Europeans – although with a fall across country they were the discard score – and he closed out his career by being Nicolas’ ride at the 2012 London Olympics.

2008: Bettina Hoy (Germany) and Ringwood Cockatoo

This was Bettina and Ringwood Cockatoo’s second top-level win, after victory at Luhmühlen in 2005. They were also prolific winners at three-star (now four-star level) and successful championship performers, taking team gold at the 2006 World Equestrian Games, team bronze at the 2005 European Championships and individual bronze at the 2007 Europeans – as well, of course, as being stripped of their double gold medals at the 2004 Olympics after it was discovered Bettina had crossed the start line twice. After Pau, the pair were second at the US flagship event at Kentucky in 2009 before the horse retired from eventing, going on to compete in dressage with Claire Llewellyn until he was 25.

2009: Dirk Schrade (Germany) and King Artus

Not the highest profile Pau Horse Trials winner, but King Artus was consistently placed at three-star (now four-star) level before and after his Pau win. He was fourth as an individual at the 2011 European Championships and a team gold medallist at the 2012 London Olympics. King Artus’s story had a sad end when he collapsed and died after finishing second at Wiesbaden in 2013.

2010: Andreas Dibowski (Germany) and FRH Fantasia

Again, one of Pau’s less well known winners. FRH Fantasia was a team gold medallist at the 2011 Europeans a year after Pau, although she was eliminated so not a counting score. She finished her career doing a season with Korean rider Sangwuk Song and the pair were team and individual gold medallists at the Asian Games.

2011: William Fox-Pitt (Great Britain) and Oslo

A six-year-old winner and seven-year-old runner-up at Le Lion, Oslo was also the winner of Tattersalls CCI3* (now CCI4*-L) and the eight- and nine-year-old class at Blenheim in the same year he won Pau. His career peaked here, though, as injury meant he did not compete consistently afterwards, although he did complete Badminton 2013. Oslo started his competition career as a stallion and semen was taken from him and frozen before he was cut; he was the sire of William’s five-star ride Oratorio.

2012: Andrew Nicholson (New Zealand) and Nereo

Pau’s first Antipodean winner and a hugely successful combination. By the time of his Pau win, Nereo had already given Andrew his first individual championship medal – a bronze to match a team gong of the same colour at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. He was a team bronze medallist and fourth individually at London 2012 in the summer before Pau and later provided Andrew with a long-awaited Badminton win in 2017. He was also second at Burghley three times and finished in the top 12 at Badminton on four other occasions.

2013: William Fox-Pitt (Great Britain) and Seacookie TSF

A successful top-level campaigner who was also second and eighth at Burghley and second, sixth and ninth at Kentucky, as well as winning Blenheim. He retired from eventing soon after his Pau win, following the 2014 season. William is the only rider who has won Pau more than once.

2014: Ingrid Klimke (Germany) and SAP Hale Bob OLD

It is extraordinary that Pau was Ingrid’s first five-star victory, despite her many top placings through a long and illustrious career; she made it two when she won Luhmühlen the following season on SAP Escada FRH. SAP Hale Bob OLD has a superb record alongside his Pau win – he was European champion in 2017 and 2019 and is the winner of five other championship medals, including world individual bronze and Olympic team silver. He has won 18 times at international level in all.

2015: Astier Nicolas (France) and Piaf De B’Neville

The first home side Pau Horse Trials winner since Nicolas Touzaint won the inaugural running, but he started a run of French wins at the event. Piaf De B’Neville had already won the under-25s at Bramham and been ninth at Badminton by the time of his Pau win and he capped it with individual silver and team gold at the Rio Olympics less than a year later.

2016: Maxime Livio (France) and Qalao Des Mers

A victory at Pau firmly put to rest the fact Maxime and Qalao Des Mers were until this point most famous for being disqualified from the 2014 World Equestrian Games. They also achieved two seconds on their two four-star (now five-star) runs either side of Pau, Luhmühlen 2016 and Kentucky 2017.

2017: Gwendolen Fer (France) and Romantic Love

Gwendolen’s victory made her the first French female rider to win at the top level. The pair were also 16th at Badminton in 2016 and have won four times at CIC3*/CCI4*-L level.

2018: Thibault Fournier (France) and Siniani De Lathus

Somewhat surprising winners, who had been second in the under-25s at Bramham earlier that season, but were making their debut at the top level. After two years away from the international eventing fray, Siniani De Lathus returned in 2021 and had two top-10 placings at two- and three-star.

2019: Tom McEwen (Great Britain) and Toledo De Kerser

This was the win everyone knew Tom and Toledo had in them and followed three top-11 placings at Badminton, plus world team gold and individual 12th at the World Equestrian Games in 2018. They went on to be members of the British gold medal-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where they also took individual silver.

2020: Laura Collett (Great Britain) and London 52

This was a first five-star win for Laura, while London 52 was making his debut at the level. He had been a successful horse through the grades, but also made some high-profile mistakes, so the rider was thrilled that her faith in him paid off. The pair were selected as members of the British Olympic team the following year and took home team gold from the Tokyo Games. They also competed at the 2022 World Championships and collected team gold at the 2023 Europeans. The following year, 2024, they led the Brits to team gold at the Paris Olympics and collected individual bronze, too.

2021: Tim Price and Falco

Falco delivered victory for Tim on his first time at five-star, while it was the rider’s fourth win at the level. Falco – who is owned by British former championship rider Sue Benson – went on to take individual bronze at the 2022 World Championships and lead the Kiwis to team bronze. Falco was also Tim’s ride at the Paris Olympics, where he was sixth, and finished second at Maryland 5 Star in 2024.

2022: Jonelle Price (New Zealand) and Grappa Nera

Tim Price passed the crown to his wife when Jonelle moved up in the final phase to land the win in 2022, her third at five-star. Grappa Nera did not have a great deal of form coming into the event, but the rider said she had always known the 11-year-old mare was a good horse and it was a case of when she would show that, not if. The mare went on to take sixth at Badminton in 2024.

2023: Ros Canter (Great Britain) and Izilot DHI

Ros scored her first five-star win at Badminton Horse Trials in the spring of 2023 and her second at Pau in the autumn of the same year. Izilot DHI is a very talented but also spooky horse and his Pau win was followed by leading the dressage at both British five-stars in 2024, but Ros retired him during the cross-country phase at both events. He returns to Pau in 2024, so perhaps he will keep up his unblemished Pau record and prove France is his favourite five-star destination.

Pictures by Phil Mingo, trevor-meeks-photography.co.uk, Peter Nixon, Nico Morgan and Libby Law Photography

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Double Paris 2024 Olympic medallist Laura Collett is among the nominees for the FEI Awards 2024.

Laura, who won individual bronze and was part of the gold medal-winning British team in Paris with London 52, is shortlisted for the Peden Bloodstock FEI Best Athlete. Laura and London 52 – triple five-star winners and part of the British side that also won team gold in Tokyo – set a new Olympic eventing dressage record in Paris with their score of 17.5.

Fellow Brits Lucinda Green and Georgina Unwin are among the four-strong shortlist for the FEI Inspire award. This accolade is presented to an “individual or organisation that has pursued their equestrian ambition in an inspiring way and serves as a role model to show that everything is possible, and that even when faced with challenges, you should never stop believing in your dreams”.

Lucinda is nominated for her work through the Lucinda Green Academy, including her teaching ethos and how she “demonstrates her great teaching skills and brings other knowledgeable people from around the world to help her members develop their horse management as well as their training and competing”.

Georgina, director of Birmingham charity Summerfield Stables – Horses in the Community, is recognised as a “true champion of inclusion, breaking down barriers and making riding accessible to everyone”.

One of Georgina’s recent achievements is developing a partnership with British Dressage’s urban centre pilot initiative.

“Georgina’s belief in horses to unite, heal and inspire is remarkable, as is her incredible generosity. Georgina’s passion is only matched by her tenacity to bring horses to everyone, no matter their background and position,” states her nomination.

“This tenacity is underlined by the fact that Georgina also somehow finds the time to be a part-time A-level philosophy teacher – a vital source of income for her considering the running of the stables and teaching is a voluntary unpaid role!”

The awards are decided by a judging panel and public vote, which closes on 13 October. Winners will be announced at the FEI Awards gala presented by Longines on 13 November in Abu Dhabi.

The full shortlist is as follows:

Longines FEI Rising Star – for the athlete aged 14 to 21 who demonstrates outstanding sporting talent and commitment:

Jessica Dertell (AUS) – Dressage

Chiara Zenati (FRA) – Para Dressage

Mathies Rüder (GER) – Eventing and Jumping

Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi (UAE) – Jumping

Peden Bloodstock FEI Best Athlete – paying tribute to the athlete who over the past year has demonstrated exceptional skill and taken the sport to a new level:

Théo Gardies (FRA) – Vaulting

Laura Collett (GBR) – Eventing

Bram Chardon (NED) – Driving

Christian Kukuk (GER) – Jumping

Cavalor FEI Best Groom – for the behind-the-scenes hero who ensures the horses they look after are given the best possible care:

Lisa Fundis (GER) – Jumping Groom to Philipp Weishaupt (GER)

Mette Klose Nielsen (DEN) – Para Dressage Groom to Jens Lasse Dokkan (NOR)

Bettina Cardinael (FRA) – Eventing Groom to Lara De Liederkerke-Meier (BEL)

Pille Riin Roosileht (EST) – Driving Groom to Zsolt Rimarcsik (HUN)

FEI Inspire – for an individual or organisation that has pursued their equestrian ambition in an inspiring way and serves as a role model to show that everything is possible, and that even when faced with challenges, you should never stop believing in your dreams:

Georgina Urwin (GBR) – Summerfield Stables – Horses in the Community

The Namibian Equestrian Federation programme “Enabling Through the Horse”

Dr Salom Nghinamito (NAM) – FEI Permitted Treating Veterinarian since June 2024

Lucinda Green for the Lucinda Green Academy (GBR)

To find out more and vote, visit: https://www.fei.org/awards

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Laura Collett’s Paris Olympics ride London 52 (Dan) has surely cemented his place among the legends of the sport. He has three Olympic medals – two of them gold – victories at three different CCI5*s, European team gold, and 12 international wins. What ambitions does Laura have left for her eventing superstar, who is owned by herself, Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett?

The Landos gelding is now 15 years old, but seemingly at the peak of his considerable powers. And there could be yet more accolades to add to his illustrious CV.

Laura dreams of “wrapping him in cotton wool” in preparation for the 2026 worlds, to complete the set of European, Olympic and world team golds.

“The main thing is keep him in one piece and enjoying what he’s doing. He’s changed so much over the years, he feels like he’s at his peak now, so we’ve just got to eke it out and keep him going for a few more years hopefully.”

Laura Collett: London 52 has intensified Olympic goals

As for her own Olympic ambitions, one individual medal has only fuelled the desire.

“I still don’t have an individual gold, do I? I was very, very close and I’m trying not to be tormented by having a plank down that he didn’t feel like he was anywhere near touching,” says Laura, referring to her four faults at the last fence in the team showjumping round at the Paris Olympics, without which she’d have taken the individual title. “I guess that’s the next bit of unfinished business.”

And how much does that fence down play on her mind?

“I’m trying not to think about it – there are certain moments, like when somebody sent me a list of the leading Team GB medallists and straight away I noticed that without the jump down, I’d have been at the top not fourth, but those kind of things are easy to shut down when I think of all the times it’s not gone to plan.

“To have an individual medal was the dream and I always told myself that would be satisfying, whatever the colour. It’s not that easy not to wonder and think of how close it was, but then I might have retired, so it gives me something to keep going for.”

She’s joking, but asked if this result takes the edge off her ambition, she says: “I thought it might, but it’s the complete opposite. These last few weeks have been the most unbelievable experience of my life and that makes you want it even more, makes you want to be at the next Olympics, makes you hungrier. I just need to go and find a few more Dans.”

Read the full interview with Laura in 22 August edition of Horse & Hound magazine. 

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Paralympic Games, Burghley, the Horse of the Year Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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What happens after you win an Olympic gold medal? Instant celebrity status, book deals, and a lot of champagne – or simply pats on the back and a feeling of a job well done? We paid a visit to Laura Collett at her Gloucestershire base after she returned home from her successes at Paris 2024. It was two weeks after she led her British eventing team-mates Ros Canter and Tom McEwen to gold and secured individual bronze at Versailles, and the dust was just starting settle.

“I’m not sure it’ll ever properly sink in,” says Laura. “It’s such a whirlwind, you’re out there, then it’s back to riding horses at home, going to Hartpury and Aston-le-Walls – I spent that time wondering, did it really happen?”

Laura Collett returns to Olympic stage

When Laura and I speak, she has just walked in the door from an “amazing” return trip to Paris, which made it all feel more real.

She explains: “Ros was always planning to go back for the closing ceremony. Then after we did well, she said, ‘You should come back’. I thought, ‘It’s quite a hassle…’ and then I thought, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so don’t be ridiculous – get on and plan it’. Even if I’m lucky enough to go to another Olympics, the next couple are so far away, you won’t be able to nip back.

“We had early times at Aston on Friday, took my car, drove into London, got the train, somehow crossed Paris and went straight to the athletics stadium.”

As well as the closing ceremony, “which got crazy when we realised Tom Cruise was on the roof”, the pair did the walk through Champions Park at the Trocadéro Gardens.

“That was a completely insane experience – we had breakfast in a little cafe and suddenly realised that the streams of people were queuing to get into the park,” says Laura. “We got to go in the athletes’ lounge and had our make-up done – we felt like right little celebrities.

“We thought we’d walk as part of Team GB, but they do it by sport, so it was literally me and Ros walking down in front of all these people. I said, ‘I think I’m more nervous for this than I was for competing,’ and Ros just looked at me and said, ‘I don’t know, you looked pretty nervous before the showjumping.’”

They say that success breeds success, and Laura’s return to normality has looked pretty good so far. She had five entered at Aston-le-Walls the week she got back from Paris, and won three classes.

Read the full interview with Laura in 22 August edition of Horse & Hound magazine

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Paralympic Games, Burghley, the Horse of the Year Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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In 2021, the Olympics did not go exactly as planned for Laura Collett. Despite their team gold, Laura says she has been “pretty tormented” for three years by her Tokyo performance with London 52 (Dan), whom she co-owns with Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott. This year at Paris 2024, she laid those ghosts to rest with individual bronze to add to another team gold.

“It was never going to be quite put to bed unless I came away with an individual medal – I went to Tokyo knowing I should win one and I messed up two phases,” she says, referring to a slightly sub-par dressage test and 12 showjumping faults. “I just felt the horse has always deserved an individual medal and I’ve stopped him from getting one.”

The pair started their Paris campaign by breaking the Olympic record in the dressage with a superb 17.5.

“It had definitely been a tough week in terms of trying not to make the same mistakes as Tokyo and Dan wasn’t making it easy because he was wild and never gave me the feeling that I wanted until the actual day of the test,” says Laura.

“That was the big challenge mentally for me – I kept having to remind myself, ‘I don’t need him to feel perfect until I go down the centre line,’ whereas in Tokyo, I had him feeling sensational three days before and then he went off the boil.

“For me to have dealt with that mental side of it and then him rewarding me in that way was one of those extra-special feelings and I was quite emotional.”

Cross-country jeopardy

On cross-country day, Dan pulled off a shoe and finished with 0.8 of a time-fault.

Laura says: “He was slipping on the turns and it was a fine balance, trying to look after the horse enough that you don’t slip over and make a mistake but not letting the clock slide away too much.

“Coming through the finish, the first thing was, ‘I hope he’s OK, because he’s done quite a lot of that course without a shoe’ – I was delighted with his performance, but terrified this might be the end of the game for me if he was sore. Luckily as soon as we got the shoe back on and trotted him up, he was fine.”

It was a tough day too, for the whole British camp, with the drawn-out appeal against Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo’s 15 penalties for missing a flag.

“We were all feeling it for Ros, but we were pretty sure it was going to be OK and then it got longer and longer and you realise perhaps it’s not going to be,” remembers Laura. “We were gutted for her and ‘Walter’ and the owners because none of them deserved that outcome. Then you almost felt guilty for being on a high because Ros was on such a low.”

With the appeal unsuccessful, the team scores became much tighter.

Laura Collett: “I’d always dreamed of jumping for Olympic gold”

“I spent the whole night thinking there was a high chance that I would go into the showjumping with only one or no fences in hand and thinking, ‘I hope I don’t lose it for everybody,’” admits Laura, who in the end had a “much-appreciated” four-fence buffer to secure team gold.

How did the team pick themselves up after the appeal was rejected?

“We probably had five minutes thinking, ‘This is a bit s***’ and then we were like, ‘Right, we’re not going to let the French beat us, we’ve just got to knuckle down and finish the job we came here to do’. Tom and Ros are amazing at that kind of thing.”

Laura admits the nerves were “pretty horrific”.

“I didn’t sleep at all on Sunday night,” she says. “I had a million different scenarios going through my head and not one of them was the right outcome, but I remember walking to the warm-up and saying to myself, ‘This is the position that you’ve always dreamed of being in, the last rider that jumps at an Olympic Games for the gold medal. It’s the opportunity you’ve always wanted, make the most of it because you might never have it again.’

“I had a lot of quiet time to try to get my head in the right place. Dan squealed when I went into trot and he felt like he wanted it as much as I did. As soon as I got going on him, I thought, ‘He’s my horse of a lifetime and I wouldn’t want to be sat on anything else.’”

The final planks came down, but team gold was again in the bag. And when it came to the individual round, Laura needed no second invitation, with a clear round sealing the bronze medal.

Read the full interview with Laura in 22 August edition of Horse & Hound magazine

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Paralympic Games, Burghley, the Horse of the Year Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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I had a nanosecond to decide whether asking new Paris individual bronze medallist Laura Collett for an Olympic medal selfie was unprofessional when I saw her coming out of the back door of the press conference as I finished my interview with performance manager Dickie Waygood yesterday – and then I thought, “Oh, why not?”

I was there the day Laura scored her first three-day event win at Weston Park in 2004 – it was my first three-day reporting gig – so I feel like we’ve grown up together in our respective jobs in the wonderful and crazy sport that is eventing.

I feel a little drunk today as I wind down from Britain’s team gold and individual bronze medal success yesterday. Drunk, disorientated or perhaps hungover. After three and a half hours sleep on cross-country night, I was up until 3.30am after showjumping finishing my magazine report and helping the hard-working team at home get it to press.

What a day. A second Olympic team gold in a row for Britain’s eventers. So was it better than Tokyo?

It was very different. I felt after Tokyo that, for me, no British result would ever matter as much and having lived through yesterday, I stand by that. The medal-free Rio, my first accredited Olympics, stung. It had been 49 years since Team GB cracked it. And the Covid situation made it all incredibly intense.

Tokyo was an amazing experience but at times, it felt like a tough task that everyone, from riders to journalists, had willingly and keenly signed up for and now had to see through to its conclusion.

The Tokyo eventing schedule was gruelling, combining early morning and late night sessions. I was completely numb when the team gold was confirmed. By the time I sat down to write my lead magazine copy, I had been up for 26 hours straight. The British eventing team looked dead behind the eyes when I caught up with their TV interviews after it was all over.

With Covid precautions, the joy was missing. There definitely wasn’t going to be an Olympic medal selfie opportunity. Something about interviewing someone who is 2m away in a mask isn’t quite the same as being able to really eyeball them and smell the sweat.

When Jessica von Bredow-Werndl found out she’d won Olympic individual gold in the mixed zone in Tokyo, none of us could reach out physically to congratulate her. Yesterday, I hugged Laura. I gave Tom McEwen a squeeze on the arm. I even hugged Dickie. That’s being human.

In Tokyo, we worked alone in our hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning after the sport. Here, the H&H team and sometimes our colleagues from Eventing Nation and The Chronicle of the Horse have congregated in the bar with laptops, Uber Eats and wine (don’t judge, wine helps the words flow, beer makes pictures upload quicker).

It’s fun, it’s motivating and it’s helpful. Can’t think of another word for something? Let’s crowdsource a solution! I went to my room last night as I needed to work quickly and at maximum concentration, but writing on cross-country night in the bar will always be a favourite Paris memory.

And so, Olympic eventing is over for another four years. Versailles is flooded with dressage riders and I’m letting my fellow reporter Martha Terry take the lead for a couple of days while I play a supporting role. Onwards and upwards.

• To stay up-to-date with all the breaking news throughout the Olympic Games, Royal International Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Laura Collett won her first individual senior championship medal with an exceptional performance in this afternoon’s Olympic final to secure bronze just hours after helping Britain to historic eventing team gold.

Germany’s Michael Jung was crowned individual champion for a third time, winning Olympic eventing gold with Chipmunk FRH, while Australia’s Chris Burton took individual silver with relatively new ride Shadow Man.

“My friends and family are here so we are planning to have a big party – many parties – these things doesn’t happen often and I plan to celebrate!” said Laura.

“It was perfect weather, picturesque background and the perfect result.”

She added: “The best man won, [Michael] is a genius, who has made everyone of us ride so much better. We still haven’t learned how to beat him but maybe one day we will.”

Laura and London 52 – the sole combination from the gold medal-winning British team in Tokyo – had unfinished business coming into these Games.

Their CV is awash with major wins, records, championship appearances. Laura’s own medal haul includes youth and young horse individual gongs. But there remained a gap, in the shape of an individual senior championship medal – a spot now filled by virtue of her superb horsemanship across all three phases in Paris, with this very special gelding.

The pair set a new Olympic record dressage score of 17.5 on the opening day, followed by a cross-country jumping clear – crossing the line two seconds over the optimum time, which Laura attributed to taking extra care on the turns after London 52 lost a shoe. Their first showjumping round – where they had one rail and 0.8 of a time-penalty – clinched gold for the team, while their clear in the second earned Laura a place on the individual podium.

London 52, who Laura owns with Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett, was flawless in the showjumping round to decide the individual medals. In doing so, Laura becomes the first British woman to reach an individual Olympic eventing podium since Tina Cook in 2008.

Laura’s path to this moment has been tough. Past championships have not always gone fully to plan. She lost the sight in one of her eyes in a fall that almost claimed her life in 2013.

London 52, while always quality, has had to learn how to go across country. It’s been a lifetime’s work for both – together – to reach this moment.

“I just want every child out there to realise that you can never dream too big,” said Laura, 34, after helping Britain to the team title this morning.

In the backdrop of the palace of the Sun King, the sky is the limit…

More to follow…

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Laura Collett and London 52 have helped the British team to secure gold in the Paris Olympics eventing medals, winning Team GB’s first gold medal of the Paris Games. Laura and the 15-year-old she co-owns with Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett put in a near faultless round on the final day of the Olympic eventing competition.

For Laura and her teammates Tom McEwen (JL Dublin) and Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo), this marks a record-breaking fifth Olympic title for the British eventing team, making them the most successful team in eventing history.

“I’m on top of the world. Riding into that stadium was an experience that I don’t think I’ll ever have again. It was spine tingling, and then I just had to focus on trying to get the job done,” explained Laura. “I’ve said it a million times, but I can’t say it enough, I owe everything to him – he’ is my horse of a lifetime and I’m so, so proud of him. I think he knew what was at stake and I wouldn’t have wanted to be sat on anything else.”

Laura and London 52, who also helped Britain bring home team gold at the Tokyo Olympics, jumped a beautiful showjumping round in the final of the team competition, but agonisingly picked up four faults when knocking the white plank from the top of the last fence. They also finished one second over the time allowed, therefore picking up .4 of a time-fault.

“He felt like he was level down to it [the last fence] and I think the crowd maybe erupted slightly too early,” she explained. “But it was one of those fences honestly, when you walked the course, you couldn’t see it – it blended in and it was a bit pot luck whether it stayed up or not. But I couldn’t fault him, he jumped amazing, and it was good enough to win a team gold. We’ll see what happens later.”

As Laura went into jump Britain had four fences in hand over the French team, who picked up team silver. However, faults incurred in the team round contribute to riders’ individual final scores and Laura will now go into that final round for the top 25 individuals this afternoon in bronze medal position, dropping behind Australia’s Chris Burton (Shadow Man) and remaining behind Germany’s Michael Jung, who maintains his overnight gold medal position with Chipmunk FRH.

Speaking of the slimmed down lead Britain had over France following the officials’ decision to uphold the 15 missed flag penalties Ros incurred during her cross-country round, Laura said it was “not what they had hoped for”.

“We managed to just think right, regroup, it’s another day, another challenge and I guess it turns out we’re all quite good under pressure, which is quite good,” she laughed. “We’ve grouped together as a team and all week we’ve just been here to do a job and at least we were still in the gold medal position. Yes, we would have wanted more in hand, but it turns out we didn’t need it.”

Laura says defending the British Olympic team eventing title is “unreal”.

“We knew coming here we had a good chance. The horsepower that the British team has at the moment is second to none. We could have fielded another whole team with the reserves and could have won a gold medal so the pressure is on [for us to perform] but luckily, we all managed to deliver.”

When asked what she would say to aspiring eventing Olympians, Laura’s answer is simple.

“I just want every child out there to realise that you can never dream too big. I definitely never really dreamt realistically that I could go to an Olympic Games, let alone go to two and come back the two team gold medals, so keep dreaming.”

Tom McEwen jumped a beautiful clear round with JL Dublin and will head into the individual final in fourth, exactly four penalties behind Michael, while Ros Canter picked up four faults in her team showjumping round but has still qualified for this afternoon’s showjumping in 23rd.

In Tokyo the British eventing team set a record finishing score to take their first Olympic gold in 49 years. Today, they move ahead of Australia and Germany, who have claimed four Olympic team gold eventing medals apiece.

Olympic eventing team medals

Gold: Great Britain – 91.3

Silver: France – 103.6

Bronze: Japan – 115.8

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Great Britain remains in gold medal position following an action-packed day of Olympic eventing cross-country – while Germany holds the individual top spot at the Paris Games.

Thanks to superb rounds from Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, Laura Collett and London 52, and Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo, the Brits have maintained their lead and sit on 82.5pen ahead of tomorrow’s showjumping (28 July). Tom jumped clear inside the time, Laura accrued 0.8 of a time-penalty, and Ros was given 15 penalties for a flag – but this is under review.

One of the biggest surprises of the day was Germany dropping out of the team medal standings, following Christoph Wahler’s elimination when he fell from Carjatan S. This paved the way for France to move into the silver team position on 87.2pen. Karim Laghouag and Triton Fontaine remained on their dressage score, while Stephane Landois and Chaman Dumontceau had 2.8 time-penalties, and Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe picked up 3.2 time-penalties.

Nicolas said the French team had been “expecting something extraordinary, but not as much as this”.

“It’s quite incredible,” he said, adding that they need to stay concentrated on the task. “There’s not many points between us and Great Britain, or Japan either, so we need to keep focused.”

Diabolo Menthe is only 11, and Nicolas said he felt a little “agitated” to begin with across country, but once he settled he was “with him all the way”.

“It was he who helped me out, he was really my friend today. The ground was perhaps a little stickier than we expected, which explains the time-faults a bit,” he said.

“There’s a lot of pressure on these three days. We’ve been talking about nothing else for so long. It’s the most pressure I’ve felt in my career, definitely, but that’s a positive thing.”

Japan rise into medal position

Japan has risen from fifth to the bronze medal position after the Olympic cross-country, on a team score of 93.80. Ryuzo Kitajima and Cekatinka added 6.4 time-penalties to their 34.5 dressage, while Yoshi Oiwa and MGH Grafton Street and Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci De La Vigne both jumped clear inside the time.

Kazuma was “really pleased and proud” of 15-year-old Vinci De La Vigne, who is owned by the Japanese Equestrian Federation.

“He knows everything; what he needs to do, what I want him to do. He’s an absolute professional horse, especially in the big events. At home, he’s like a lazy boy but in a big atmosphere he’s like, ‘Come on it’s my time’, so he was fantastic today,” said Kazuma.

“I tried to enjoy it, but concentrate on my job. I saw a few Japanese flags on the course so that was really good.”

Kazuma added that the feeling in the Japanese camp is positive, with all three riders being “very good” showjumpers. Kazuma has competed to 1.55m level in showjumping, and had hoped to compete at Paris in showjumping as well as eventing, but missed out on qualification.

“We are really hungry to get a medal and bring it back home,” said Kazuma. “Tokyo was our home ground, we felt very big pressure, but this time we’re more relaxed. I believe we can do it.”

Individual medal standings after Olympic cross-country

While Germany’s hopes of a team medal have slipped away, Michael Jung tops the individual leader board with Chipmunk FRH, still on their 17.8 dressage. Laura and London 52 are just behind them in silver on 18.3, and Australia’s Chris Burton and Shadow Man have moved into bronze – also on their dressage score, 22.

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Laura Collett and London 52 were simply sensational during their Paris Olympics cross-country round. As second team member for Great Britain, Laura and the 15-year-old she co-owns with Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett put in an almost faultless round on day two of the Olympic eventing competition.

Laura and London finished two seconds over the 9min 2sec optimum time, picking up .8 of a time-fault to now sit on 18.3. This means that should Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH jump clear inside the time later this afternoon, Laura will be demoted from her dressage lead into second as Michael currently has a score of 17.8 after the first phase.

“That was amazing and London is just my horse of a lifetime,” said an emotional Laura. “He’s just incredible. I can’t really believe we’ve just done that, to be honest. I’m just relieved that it’s over and I haven’t let anyone down.”

Laura said that the crowds were “unbelievable” and that it was a “buzz from start to finish”.

The 34-year-old rider, who won team gold on London 52 at the Tokyo Olympics has produced this gelding since he was a young horse.

“I think for me, knowing what he was like as a young horse and knowing how much he’s had to trust me and believe in me – he’s not a natural cross-country horse and then he goes around a course like that on railway tracks, so it just shows what a partnership you can build up and you can make them believe in you,” she explained. “I have full faith in him now, which means I can go and enjoy myself out there.”

Laura said that the optimum tight is “tight” but that London 52 losing a front shoe early on course didn’t help her to finish inside the time.

“There are a couple of places where you can really let them gallop, but there are an awful lot of twists and turns and after he lost a shoe, he was slipping all over the place. That meant I had to be quite careful on those turns and really kill the speed to get around the trees without doing anything stupid like slipping over.”

Speaking of London’s lost shoe, Laura stated: “Fingers crossed the team will get him sorted tonight and yes, it’s not not ideal, but it just shows what a good horse he is.”

On the Pierre Le Goupil-designed Olympic cross-country track, Laura said it had provoked a lot of “head scratching”.

“To be honest, up until this morning I was planning to jump the right hand corner coming out of the second water [at fence 10 – The Vauban Citadel], but I watched a few jump it and it looked like the striding to the left corner was just a bit easier and more obvious for the horses so I changed my mind.”

Laura also said her plan as always to go off the left-hand side drop at the influential fence 16abcd, The Viewpoint over the Grand Canal.

“I was always very much wanting to jump left off the drop – I just felt like the ditch was a bit of a nothing ditch and there were too many unknown circumstances there for how horses would read it and jump it with only two strides to the triple brush out. I just thought that was an unnecessary risk, so for me that was always plan A and stuck to it and it rode really nicely.”

Laura’s phenomenal two-phase score, paired with British pathfinder Tom McEwen’s clear round inside the time with JL Dublin means that after the second rotation of team riders, the British team has a commanding lead over the rest of the field with France in second and Japan in third.

End of day update: Laura Collett and London 52 now sit in second after Michael Jung and Chipmunk jumped clear inside the time, which promoted the German to top spot.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Olympic Games, Royal International Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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It’s been a packed schedule of Olympic eventing dressage in Paris, with every single competitor crammed into nine hours of quick-fire tests, so here’s a round-up of all the top stories. The day may have been soggy and cold in France, but there were some fabulous, record-breaking highlights to brighten the gloom and warm the cockles before the sun returns tomorrow for cross-country day.

Laura Collett produced a scintillating test to smash the Olympic eventing dressage test record and take the lead.

• Find out how Laura learned from mistakes in Tokyo

Britain hold a 7.4pen lead over Germany, thanks to three tests in the top 11.

• Which records were smashed and by whom?

Michael Jung was just a fraction behind on Chipmunk FRH to boost Germany’s bid for gold.

• What did Michael say about “galloping into the stadium”

Alex Hua Tian impressed as the only individual rider to feature in the top 20, taking third spot for China.

• Read Alex’s thoughts on his horse’s view of the majestic venue

The reigning European champion and Britain’s anchorman Ros Canter is currently in sixth, cementing Britain’s place at the top of the teams.

• Find out what caused Lordships Graffalo’s only blunder

Tom McEwen was the British pathfinder, and produced a solid test for 11th at the end of the day.

• Read Tom’s analysis of JL Dublin’s “awesome” test

Frenchman Stéphane Landois was best of the home side in seventh with Chaman Dumontceau

• Learn about his emotional experience of riding in Versailles.

Seven-time Olympian Karin Donckers delivered a personal best for Belgium, lying 13th.

• Find out why this stallion thrived on the electric atmosphere

German’s Julia Krajewski was first into the ring on Nickel 21, and 15th in the final dressage reckoning.

• Do you remember what was special about Julia’s last time in the Olympic arena?

Liz Halliday was a late call-up to the US team, but performed best of the trio with a top-20 score.

• How did Liz cope with the emotions of the past 24 hours?

It wasn’t just the stars in the limelight. One of the youngest riders in the field, 25-year-old Robin Godel, posted a sub-30 mark.

• Read how his performance confirmed the Swiss team in seventh of the 16 nations

Unfortunately, one horse bit his tongue, causing the rider to be eliminated, although the horse was not seriously injured when checked by a vet.

• Find out how this affects the Italian team 

The stories behind the Olympic eventing dressage results

An Ecuadorian horse and his rider with a combined age of 78 had their turn in the Versailles arena.

• Find out why this veteran horse is still full of energy despite two attempts to retire him

A student rider managing to combine top-level eventing with an engineering degree made her Olympic debut.

• What made her so emotional at the end of her test?

Shane Rose franked his remarkable return to top sport after a career-threatening injury in March.

• What does Shane have to say about his comeback journey?

A mare with a fear of horses was full of confidence in the atmospheric arena.

• Find out how her Italian rider manages her talented partner’s quirks 

And the joint-youngest horse in the competition is making his rider very excited for the future.

• Is this horse one to watch for the World Championships in 2026?

Olympic eventing: after dressage results, thoughts turn to cross-country

Riders are unanimous that Pierre Le Goupil’s cross-country track is beautifully crafted, but their opinions vary.

• Read what the likes of Tom McEwen, Austin O’Connor and Jonelle Price think of Sunday’s challenge

The course is not only stunning, but is inspired by many historic and cultural French themes.

• Find out more about Pierre Le Goupil’s Versailles track

Sunday’s action kicks off at 10.30am local time (9.30 British time).

• What time do the Brits and your favourite runners start?

And finally, to help you to prepare, we’ve rounded up the five things you won’t want to miss during Sunday’s action.

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Olympic Games, Royal International Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You might also be interested in:

How to watch eventing at the Paris Olympics live from around the world

Horse & Hound’s ones to watch for Olympic eventing individual medals in Paris

Who will top the Olympic eventing team podium in Paris? H&H’s eventing editor reveals all…

Top riders given flag bearer honours for Paris Olympic opening ceremony

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Competitors have been sharing their reactions after walking the 2024 Paris Olympics cross-country course, which is designed by French course-designer Pierre Le Goupil. So here is the lowdown on the fences on the Paris Olympics eventing cross-country course that the riders think are likely to determine who wins the Olympic eventing medals.

British pathfinder Tom McEwen echoes many rider’s sentiments in saying it is a “well-designed” and “beautiful” track.

“I think it’s a fantastic course. If I compare it to Tokyo, it’s slightly different with the ideas and questions, but I think it very cleverly opens you out,” he explains. “There’s galloping areas – it’s not just twisty – but I think at the end is when you’re going to slightly get caught out as there’s lots of twists and turns, not just fences.

“I see the optimum time being quite tight, and I think it will be intense to ride – I’d compare it to a nine-minute version of Luhmühlen.”

One fence that sticks out in Tom’s mind is the second water complex at fence 10 – The Vauban Citadel (pictured top).

“For me, I think it’s a big question. It’s a big jump in over the direct route and it’s at the highest point of the course,” he explains. “Then I think there’s a few different questions elsewhere and I think it will be an accumulation of effort for horses and riders. You could build the easiest course in the world, but it is the Olympics, and people will make some mistakes.”

Tom’s teammate and dressage leader Laura Collett says that there has been “a lot of head scratching” due to the number of combinations and options available.

“There’s a lot of options at fence 10 and we haven’t seen a shape of fence like the jump into the water before, plus it’s at the top of a long uphill pull,” she continues. “To be honest, I think it’s like any other cross-country course in that you’ve got to be on your A game from start to finish and you’re not home until you’ve gone through the finish flags.”

Ros Canter, who is anchor rider for the British team agrees with Laura in that “there’s plenty to jump”.

“The time is going to be a big factor and that’s where mistakes creep in. I’ve got a plan – I’m open to that plan changing, but I’m going to try and stay in my bubble,” she states.

Germany’s Michael Jung thinks the continued rain that the area has experienced over the past 24 hours will be “good for the ground”.

“When I first looked at the course a couple of days ago, I thought that the ground was maybe a bit hard in places,” he continues. “We have not much experience here, but my feeling is that cross-country will be amazing.”

Paris Olympics cross-country course: “It’s very clever”

Michael’s compatriot and reigning individual Olympic champion Julia Krajewski says that the course “shouldn’t be underestimated”.

“It’s very clever. I think if you ride forward and bravely and have an honest horse, you probably will do well,” she concludes.

Switzerland’s Felix Vogg was another to comment on the beautifully presented track, but with an interesting word of caution.

“It’s the prettiest course I have ever seen – I think it’s maybe a little bit too pretty and everyone feels comfortable. If a rider is on their line, maybe they’ll be lulled into forgetting how to ride a little bit,” he explains. “If you are not really focused and riding like it’s a cross-country, I think it will be tough.”

Ireland’s Austin O’Connor said to keep an eye out on ground conditions, owing to the heavy rain.

“The ground is getting soft and it’s certainly going to change the complexion of the competition – hopefully the blood horses will come to the fore,” he says. “Pierre Le Goupil is a very, very clever course designer – fair, but clever.

“It’s quite intense and it’s going to be quick, but you will need to have enough petrol. I think from seven minutes onwards it will be interesting with the riders that are having a real go. ”

Austin pinpoints fences 5abc and 7ab – The Ménagerie Pond and The Ulysees’ Companions – as jumps to look out for.

“The water at five will sort people out early on the course and fence seven, which is a step up to a rail, will either fill horses with confidence or suddenly have them thinking early on. I think from the word go, it’s all got to be respected,” he states.

Switzerland’s Robin Godel suggests that the time will be “difficult” to achieve and that people should keep an eye on the final water, The Etoile Royale Waters, at fence 23abcd.

“The angle is not so easy to ride at this fence and it comes after the eighth minute. We have to pay attention to the end and be on a good line and also, when the horse is a bit tired and long, we have to react and be ready.”

Jonelle Price, who is riding in her fourth Olympics for New Zealand, says that Pierre’s job as course designer for this Olympics is “not an easy brief”.

“Where you’ve got the world’s best combinations, but also some of the lesser nations as well – that can be tricky, but I think he’s done a really good job. There are some things we haven’t really seen before and Pierre has been creative. The dimensions are fair and you can make up some time in the third minute, but that’s about the only place you can on this course – during the second minute, I think there’s seven jumping efforts and it will be about minimising the damage to your time in those busy patches.”

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Olympic Games, Royal International Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

You might also be interested in:

Chic, charming and fabulously French: the inside story on the Paris Olympic cross-country

‘A track for brave riders and fast, reactive horses’: Paris Olympics cross-country course-designer on the challenge ahead

It’s time! First look at every fence on Paris Olympic cross-country course in Versailles

Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now