It is an emotional return for Phoebe Buckley, who is back at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials after 12 years away. She is riding Tiger Mail, the son of her former top horse Little Tiger. Back in 2008, the 15hh grey finished 16th and best mare, the prize for which was an embryo transfer at Twemlows. The result was Tiger Mail, now a 12-year-old, by Jaguar Mail.

“It sounds corny, but having Tiger Mail is beyond my wildest dreams,” says Phoebe. “It hardly happens that any horse gets to Burghley, but having had his mum and ridden her here, it just doesn’t happen. She last came here in 2010, the year he was born – he was pretty much conceived here!”

They scored 38.9, which put them in the lower echelons of the leader board, but Phoebe was “absolutely delighted”.

“He isn’t bad at dressage, but he finds the atmosphere really daunting,” she says. “As a young person, he would have been a choirboy, not up for a party or a rave, so it’s more been teaching him to take a breath and realise he’s OK. He made a tiny little mistake at the beginning, but then he settled in.

“He loves the crowd on cross-country day because they give him adrenaline, but he doesn’t need that for the dressage. He’s just starting to realise they’re here to watch him, not hinder him.

“So for him, that was good – he’s not a big-moving horse, more of a pony, he’s only 15.2hh.”

Phoebe Buckley: ‘He’s a needy bloke’

Phoebe describes her ride as the polar opposite to his dam.

“She was quite cool and calm, a proper strong independent woman, whereas he’s more of a needy bloke,” she says. “He’d tell you he loved you on the first date, then need his mum there for the second one. I feel sorry for him, everyone says, ‘if he’s half as good as his mum…’ – I say, ‘shhh, stop comparing them!’

“He was never naturally brave as a young horse, even at BE100, but he always had his ears pricked and would be reassured by a pat. As we’ve gone up the levels, he’s gained the self-belief to realise it isn’t that hard. He’s now a fantastic cross-country horse, so honest and genuine.”

Phoebe voiced her appreciation for the patience of Val Gingell, who owned Little Tiger and now owns her son, and “allows us both to make mistakes and learn from them”.

“It’s been all about giving him time,” she says. “She said, ‘do 15 novices if you need to. I don’t need him winning a novice, I want him at Burghley when he’s 12’. And here he is at Burghley when he’s 12. And now she’s saying, ‘We’ve made it here, so you don’t need to wear a watch, just go as fast as you can and come home safe.’”

Phoebe “can’t wait to get stuck in” to Derek di Grazia’s Burghley cross-country track.

“The course is really clever, big but not ridiculous. I think you’re going to need a really genuine horse, you can’t swing out or take an easy round route. I think it’s a brilliant Burghley.”

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Find out the fascinating story of the dynasty of horses started by Little Tiger, the 14.3hh mare who successfully competed at Badminton and Burghley

Do you remember Little Tiger, the tiny grey mare who won so many hearts when she flew round Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials with Phoebe Buckley? The mare was put down in 2013 when she was 18 – after a retirement that included finishing third in the Melton Hunt Club ride – but her dynasty lives on down through two generations of Little Tiger offspring. Her two sons are competing in the CCI4*-L at Bicton Horse Trials, supported by Chedington, this week.

The Little Tiger story starts with Val Gingell, who bred the feisty grey.

“Years ago, I had a really brilliant mare called Minuet who was by Hopton Lane, who stood locally as a thoroughbred teaser,” says Val. ”I loved her and I bought another mare by Hopton Lane because of her. She a small chestnut mare who was very careful jumping and a lovely mover, but not quite brave enough, so I bred from her.”

The result was Little Tiger (“Frosty”), by Java Tiger.

“She was always high behind and low in front – she made about 14.3hh in the withers and about 15.2hh in the bottom,” says Val.

Val sold Little Tiger to her longstanding friend Dr Polly Taylor, a vet.

Polly takes up the story: “I bought her for me to have fun on, with no thoughts of anything more than some low level eventing. She did everything with me and whenever I was away, my horse would go to Val’s. On this occasion, Frosty went to Val when Phoebe was working with Val and she sort of took over.

“We kept on asking the question, thinking she seemed to be doing this all right, so let’s go to the next level, until there came a day when I was driving to Badminton and thinking, ‘Are we crazy? Is this happening?’

“She ate up the cross-country – there’s a picture of her over fence four, the houses in the Little Badminton area, and I remember Phoebe saying afterwards, ‘This is the point I knew that she was a five-star horse’. Sometimes you couldn’t see her coming to jump because she was so small.

“Dressage was never her forte – she was built low in front, but she tried very hard. She wasn’t the most careful showjumping either, but cross-country she was just stunning and so many people remember her.”

Little Tiger offspring: embryo transfer success

In 2007, Polly and a veterinary friend, Karen Froud, did an embryo transfer with Frosty, with the help of Twink Allen, who died last week. In 2008, Frosty finished 16th at Burghley and her prize as best mare was embryo transfer at Twemlows, which produced Tiger Mail (Tigger, by Jaguar Mail) and Mr Fahrenheit (Freddie, by Catherston Liberator), who are both now 11.

Polly still owns Freddie, who is ridden by Simon Grieve, and she sold Tiger Mail – who is ridden by Phoebe Buckley – to Val as a two-year-old.

Phoebe says Tigger and Frosty have similarities: “They both always sneeze when they are excited or stressed! But the main similarity between them is the gallop – you just feel like you could gallop all day, forever, for the rest of your life. That back end, the absolute massive engine – which doesn’t always help in the dressage because it’s slightly overriding the front end, but I’d rather have it for cross-country.”

Simon says he has a similar experience with Freddie: “He’s amazing, especially towards the end of a proper three-day track, you can rest assured that if you need a bit of speed, he’s got it and he can keep on. At Bramham [where he finished 13th in 2019], the vets were really impressed with him – they said his heart rate was basically back to normal by the time we pulled up.

“I used to groom for Phoebe at all the five-stars she did with Frosty and when you take any of them out grazing, they graze for about five minutes, quite happily, and then they just march you back to their stable.”

Phoebe adds: “Unless they’re working, they have the attention span of a gnat – like, ‘This was nice, now let’s move on.’”

Frosty’s first embryo transfer offspring was a grey filly called Don’t Stop Me Now, known as “Dosh”. Phoebe broke her in and Simon evented her up to BE100 level.

“She was a live wire – a really, really good cross-country horse, braver than brave. But she very tricky,” he says.

Still owned by Polly and Karen, Dosh is now a broodmare and has had four foals. The first, belonging to Polly, is by the Connemara Fenrose Bonny Blue. Val then loaned her and bred a filly foal by the advanced eventer Tenareze – “we’ve got her for life because she’s a world-class crib biter”. Polly then put her to the Connemara eventing stallion Glencarrig Dolphin and has sold the resulting offspring. Her latest foal is by the dressage stallion Timolin.

“He evented up to nearly advanced, so he’s got a good temperament and he’s obviously fairly sound. I thought, bright bay with a grey should be fine – and it’s ginger and white one with one blue eye so we’ve got him for life too!” laughs Val.

Both Tigger and Freddie were kept entire until they were two and Polly also continues the line using frozen semen from Freddie with a Connemara-thoroughbred mare, Pie, whose origins are also tied up with the Little Tiger story.

Polly explains: “She was bred at the same time as Dosh, because we had two recipient mares ready, and there was only one embryo. The other mare needed a job so we covered her with the local Connemara stallion – Castle Comet – and Pie became my ‘do everything pony’.

“Pie’s a nice pony so we decided we’d have a go with Freddie’s semen and I’ve now got the four-year-old, who is backed and he’s jolly good fun. We have just covered Pie again with Freddie’s semen and she was scanned in foal about a week ago, so fingers crossed that goes well. So the dynasty goes on.”

Little Tiger offspring at Bicton

Meanwhile Tigger and Freddie scored just 0.4 of a penalty different in their dressage tests at Bicton in the CCI4*-L this week.

Phoebe says of her test with Tigger, which received a mark of 39.2: “I’m really pleased with him – he’s just a horse that tries too hard the entire time. In places he was a little bit tense, but the quality of the work was much better than previously.

“And it’s not a bad thing having a horse that tries too hard. He’s a horse that needs to be in an atmosphere and get used to it and obviously the past two years because he’s barely seen a grass field. He’s definitely one that would benefit from more outings, but he’s done his best and I’m chuffed.”

Simon scored 39.6 with Freddie and says he also tried his absolute best: “He has taken on Frosty’s being quite downhill, and, and he’s a little bit apologetic for being in the arena – he doesn’t really properly show off. But he did everything he was asked where he was asked. And he’s a cross-country machine – he needs a really proper track to get him back up the leaderboard.”

Both riders are looking forward to tackling Bicton’s challenging track tomorrow – and continuing the legacy of Little Tiger, who was best known as a fantastic cross-country horse.

More from Bicton:

Palomino event horse tackles her first four-star: ‘She absolutely adores the jumping’ *H&H Plus*

The palomino mare The Dumb Blonde attracts plenty of curious glances, but this unusual looking advanced event horse loves her

Nicola Wilson, Laura Collett and Yasmin Ingham lead at the end of Bicton dressage

Pippa Funnell best of the afternoon so far in Bicton CCI4*-S on 2019 Burghley winner MGH Grafton Street *H&H Plus*

William Fox-Pitt in the placings in Bicton CCI4*-L dressage as fellow British Olympian withdraws from top 10 *H&H Plus*

The horse with the ‘look at me’ factor shoots to top of under-25 leaderboard at Bicton *H&H Plus*

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

When the curtain falls on the eventing season, riders inevitably turn their focus to dressage and jump training — but it appears a handful of top eventers have also taken to the team chasing turf recently to satisfy their need for speed.

Phoebe Buckley is the most familiar eventing face to grace the team chasing scene. A regular out on the hunting field and having also ridden in point-to-points, Phoebe set the trend by campaigning her popular former international eventer, Little Tiger, when the diminutive mare retired aged 16.

Phoebe has since helped many a team to chasing glory including the Cunning Stunts and has qualified for the 2015 national championships with the Dapper Dobbins aboard her team chasing partner Colin.

Debuting their all-eventing team called Saddled and Addled, Rodney Powell, Tom McEwen and Megan Heath were out in force at the Cotswold team chase in October. Flying over the natural obstacles in style, they finished a commendable fourth in the intermediate bogey time class.

Spectators at November’s Bicester with Whaddon team chase were treated to an international feel to proceedings — Swedish Olympic rider Ludwig Svennerstal (pictured above) joined the Saddled and Addled line-up for his first team chasing taster over the beefy Bicester hedges.

Some eventing royalty have also caught the team chasing bug — Lucinda Green has been spotted having a spin. Meanwhile her daughter Lissa was part of the winning intermediate team, Roger That, at this year’s Berks and Bucks team chase.

But it doesn’t stop there — others to follow suit include Ruth Edge. The Derbyshire-based rider won the intermediate pairs class riding her ex-racehorse Bouquetot Destiny at last year’s Meynell & South Staffs team chase alongside her groom and fellow eventer Jodie Stokes — who is a regular member on the Dapper Dobbins team.

Piggy French has been spotted at the Fernie team chase while eventer Dee Kennedy has previously chased with the Hair Raisers.

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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

Phoebe Buckley’s popular mare Little Tiger has been put down aged 18.

Frosty, as she was known at home, was put down at 8am this morning (Wednesday 29 May) due to joint issues in her off-fore.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Phoebe told H&H. “I will miss her so much. But we had to make a decision sooner rather than later and we didn’t want her to suffer.”

The diminutive mare — she stood just 14.3hh — gained a huge following eventing at four-star level with Phoebe.

She was retired from the sport in July 2011 aged 16 and has been hunting and team chasing since. (Photo below by Nico Morgan of Pheobe and Frosty out with the Cottesmore.)

“She’d been hunting and had loved it,” said Phoebe. “Her joints would be a bit creaky the next day but she was fine.

“But the past six weeks she’d looked more uncomfortable. We had her X-rayed and weren’t happy with it. There was a lot more going on there than she’d been telling us. Her tough mentality had kept her going.”

Phoebe added that she had cross-country schooled her just three weeks ago. “She gave the young horses a lead and was amazing,” she said.

The gutsy mare was also notoriously difficult to catch.

“I went to say a sentimental goodbye on Monday, and spent 45min chasing her around the field,” added Phoebe. “She was so happy.”

By Java Tiger, Frosty started eventing with her owner, Dr Polly Taylor, with Phoebe taking over in 2003.

The pair went on to complete six four-star three-day events: Badminton four times in a row (2007-2010), Burghley in 2008 — where she gained her best placing, 16th — and Luhmühlen in 2010.

“Two memories really stick out,” said Phoebe. “Her last run round Burghley, she fell but had been going so well. I just remember thinking ‘this is easy! Going round Burghley shouldn’t be easy…’.

“And the other was when she came third in the Melton Hunt Ride. Everyone said I was barking mad to take her round as she’s so small but she loved it! By the end she wanted to go again.”

• Look back at Little Tiger’s career in pictures

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Following the sad news that Little Tiger has been put down at the age of 18, Horse & Hound looks back through the archives at the diminutive mare’s impressive career.

About Little Tiger

By Java Tiger, Little Tiger (aka Frosty) started eventing in 2001 with her owner, Dr Polly Taylor, with Phoebe taking over in 2003.

The pair went on to complete six four-star three-day events: Badminton four times in a row (2007-2010), Burghley in 2008 — where she gained her best placing, 16th — and Luhmühlen in 2010.

Little Tiger’s British Eventing record

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Rider Phoebe Buckley tells H&H about the diminutive mare who gallops and jumps for fun.

Fact file

Stable name: Frosty

Age: 17

Height: 14.3hh without shoes, 15hh on tiptoes

Breeding: 7⁄8 thoroughbred by Java Tiger out of Hopper VII

Rider: Phoebe Buckley

Owner: Polly Taylor, who has gifted her to Phoebe

Groom: at three-day events it was Simon Grieve, but usually Phoebe

Discipline: formerly eventing now team chasing and hunting

Best result: 16th at Burghley in 2008

Four things you didn’t know…

1 It had been the ambition of Val Gingell, Little Tiger’s breeder and one of Phoebe’s mentors and supporters, to own a four-star horse.

“The irony is the only one she’s had – Little Tiger – she sold because she thought she was too small,” says Phoebe.

2 Little Tiger is allergic to many things, including dandelions, dust mites and washing powder. She has to wear a fly sheet for most of the year to stop her nibbling herself.

3 While she was eventing, Little Tiger would never let Phoebe catch her. “I suspect she associated me with dressage, which she hated. These days, she thinks there’s a chance we might be going hunting, so I’ve become more acceptable and it is worth a gamble for her.”

4 During her eventing career, she always went best jumping out of deep ground – “the wetter the better“, says Phoebe.

To read the full interview with Phoebe Buckley about Little Tiger read the 17 May issue of H&H

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Little Tiger, the diminutive mare who gained a huge following through her success eventing at four-star with Phoebe Buckley, has been retired from the sport, aged 16.

“This year she has just been a bit ‘feely’ with her front joints and is beginning to feel her age,” said Phoebe.

“She’s been so fantastic that we don’t want to push her, so we have made the decision to retire her to the hunting field and to hunt rides — we’ll try and win the Melton, the Golden Button and the Harborough!

“She tries her heart out and we would hate her to fail the trot-up at Burghley, for instance — we owe her so much and she owes us so little.”

By Java Tiger, the 15hh grey known as “Frosty” started eventing with her owner, Dr Polly Taylor, with Phoebe taking over in 2003.

The pair went on to complete six four-star three-day events: Badminton four times in a row (2007-2010), Burghley in 2008 — where she gained her best placing, 16th — and Luhmühlen in 2010.

Little Tiger’s bravery and gutsy cross-country performances despite her tiny stature won her many fans.

She has had three foals by embryo transfer, a four-year-old and a yearling by Catherston Liberator and another yearling by Jaguar Mail.

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