Unfortunately my Badminton Horse Trials 2010 diary finishes here.

After visiting the doctor last Tuesday, he decided it would be in my best interests to leave three stitches in across my kneecap. With these left in, I still have limited movement and I made myself an aim after the fall that if I were to compete at Badminton then Bobby (Lazy Acres Skip On) and I must have a run round Belton.

Realistically, I knew even that would be mentally tough for me, to head to our first Badminton on the back of one advanced run. That was the marker which I set to make my decision of yay or nay.

Although it was absolutely gutting to send the withdrawal email, I knew deep down that I was doing the right thing for both myself and Bobby and I wanted to go knowing I had a good shot at doing well and doing us both justice.

This also eased the pressure on the yard. Naomi (my aunt) has been working very hard to try to keep Bobby up to four-star fitness which is obviously double the amount of work any usual horse would have, so with the decision made she can now ease off and let him join the others’ work regime.

Badminton final scores

I’m hoping to run him at Aston-le-Walls open intermediate to get us back into the swing of things and then Brigstock advanced intermediate with my sights set firmly on Bramham’s under-25 championships. The rest of my stitches come out on Thursday so with a lot of physio and willpower I’ll get there.

When I am back in the saddle I shall just be concentrating on Bobby until I am 100% so Owen Moore will still be competing the others. The last thing I need is to aggravate or injure it even more especially on the horses that are not as well trained or established as Bobby.

As for the rest of the season, Bobby will be heading to Burghley and I’ll definitely be aiming for a much better result there (Sarah and Bobby are pictured above finishing 37th at Burghley last year) and I’ll just have to wait for Badminton 2011 instead.

Sarah

Find all Sarah Stretton’s diaries here

Don’t forget Alex Hua Tian is still planning to make his Badminton debut and has a weekly diary on H&H online — find his diaries here

Find all H&H’s Badminton coverage here

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Georgie Spence (pictured) has withdrawn her final horse from the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials after injuring herself at Weston Park last weekend.

The 21-year-old suffered a fall with Skylight, which left her with torn muscles in her right arm.

“The mare left a leg at the corner, landed on me and then kicked me as she got up,” said Georgie. “I hope to be riding again in a week, but I will take it day by day.”

Georgie went for X-rays after the fall, but hadn’t broken anything.

“I thought that was great news, but I’ve been told muscle can be harder to heal than bone,” she said. “The doctor at the hospital told me to get it out of the sling and start moving it. At least the World Class support means I have physio regularly.”

Badminton final scores

Georgie had three horses entered for Badminton — Running Brook II, who had been accepted from second place on the waiting list, Birthday Night and Skylight.

The two geldings were withdrawn due to issues with their own fitness, Georgie reported on her website: “Birthday Night missed some time in March and although he is back in work now we do not feel he will be fit enough to compete. Running Brook has knocked his splint bone and will also be unable to compete.”

Georgie completed her first Badminton in 2008 with Running Brook II, when she won the best first-timer and under-25 prizes, and finished with both that horse and Birthday Night last year, after two clear rounds inside the time across country.

H&H’s online diarist Sarah Stretton, who had 15 stitches in her knee after a fall at Swalcliffe last month, has also withdrawn her ride, Lazy Acres Skip On.

Other withdrawals from Badminton so far are: Harry (Bruno Bouvier), Liberal (Tom Crisp), Poilu (Zara Phillips), Master Banks (Nicola Wilson) and Vortex (Tim Price).

Horses down to 11th on the waiting list have now been accepted to run at Badminton. Runners who withdraw will continue to be replaced by those on the waiting list up to 6pm on Tuesday, 27 April.

Full report of Weston Park in H&H on Thursday (15 April).

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As you can imagine, this week has been very slow and boring as I’m still laid up after my accident a few weeks ago at Swalcliffe. The only good thing is I’m missing out on all this lovely wet weather.

If I don’t manage to get up the yard to say hi to everyone, Naomi (my aunt, whose yard I’m based at) rings me up to give me a progress report on what they have all done and any exciting things that have happened on the yard.

Fortunately, Naomi’s bad back has recovered after a good session at the osteopath, but care still has to be taken in the amount she does in one day so my mate Ben has very kindly been popping up to gallop the horses, which has been great. He’s a point-to-point jockey so I certainly know they’re in good hands.

My younger horses — Gero (Lazy Acres Hurricane), Lilly (Lazy Acres Tiger Lilly) and Derek (Arturo) — had a trip to Crown Farm where Owen Moore bases himself for him to have a school over some cross-country fences, so while they were away, myself, Mum and Craig (Barr, my boyfriend) sorted out the yard.

While Craig was working the guys that were left behind, Mum and I went down the line of stables. I can now hobble around very slowly without crutches so I did the mucking out while Mum emptied barrows and did the hay and waters. This seemed a good idea at the time, however, after completion I didn’t feel quite the same. So that afternoon was spent collapsed on the sofa with little movement.

Badminton final scores

Goring’s off

My cousin Amber Franklin was meant to be taking her two ponies to Goring Heath this week but that, along with almost every other event, was unfortunately cancelled due to the endless rainfall. So instead they went showjumping to Moreton Morrell.

As usual, there was a lorry load from the yard — Amber with her two ponies, Olivia with Mouse, Charlotte with Summer and Louise took Charlotte’s other pony Bobby. That was only the riders! Obviously there was also Naomi and myself, then Olivia’s mum Sally, Dawn and Sam in our lorry. They were there all day doing various classes, but I could only stick half a day so I had to retire back to the sofa and will be popping over today (Tuesday) to watch Owen give the horses a quick whirl.

As for the big boys, Johnny (Highbury) is out for a number of weeks with an injury that he sustained at Gatcombe so he’ll hopefully be better when I’m fully fit again. Bobby (Lazy Acres Skip On) and Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) are just working at home, with the aim of going to Belton next weekend. Amber is off to Weston Park pony trials on Saturday, so we have plenty to look forward to this week as long as the weather doesn’t ruin things.

As for myself, I have my stitches out today (Tuesday) so fingers crossed it’s healed enough to start physio.

Sarah

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This week my routine has dramatically changed, after my injury at Swalcliffe. Usually I’m on the yard buzzing around trying to get everything done as quick as possible, but this week my life has revolved round Jeremy Kyle, Trisha and Come Dine With Me.

Limited to what I can do in a day, the TV is my new friend, however, there is only a certain amount I can take after a while. Although I have been rendered useless on the yard, I have gone up every day just to catch up on what everyone has been doing and see the horses, but I do find it very frustrating when I can see jobs need doing and all I can do is sit there.

I’ve tried to keep myself active as much as I can, but I seem to only be able to last a maximum of 2 hours before I feel very tired and my leg starts to ache and swell. My outings haven’t all been horsey, a trip to Sainsbury’s was a highlight of one day that certainly got my heart pumping, dragging myself up and down aisles.

Gatcombe spectator

As I said last week, everybody at the yard has been amazing so I’ve got no worries there. Owen Moore (pictured), who has taken over a few of my rides, popped over to ride Bobby (my Badminton ride Lazy Acres Skip On), Johnny (Highbury) and Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) ready for Gatcombe.

Badminton final scores

He had a play on the flat and then popped over some showjumps and skinny fences. Fortunately they all went really well for him so that was a relief for me and, I suppose, for Owen as well.

There were ifs and buts on whether Gatcombe was going to run or not due to the weather, but luckily it was all systems go.

It was a real test for me, you don’t realise how far away things are and it was a very long day. Owen did a fantastic job, all three pulled off very respectable tests and double clears in the intermediate or open intermediate. We weren’t too bothered about the time-faults, we focused more on the long term plans and achievements.

Also Jo Aston had a really good result — seventh in an intermediate — on Weston (a horse I ride for Jane Starkey) so there were smiles all round.

We have decided not to run Bobby again until I’m better. Owen said the last thing he wanted was to change the partnership that Bobby and I have, so I’ve withdrawn him from Weston Park advanced and I’m praying I’m better for Belton.

All the gadgets

My knee is getting better slowly. Gail Williams very kindly came over and brought her assortment of machines to treat me. First she used an ultra sound on the sore and swollen areas of my knee to help reduce swelling and bring the bruising out faster.

Then she used a blue low intensity laser over my stitches; this kills bacteria cells ready for the red low intensity laser. The red laser delivers large amounts of energy to the tissue therefore quickening the healing process. She then sent me home with an electro magnetic pad to put under my knee for 10 minutes every couple of hours, which also helps the healing process. So hopefully in a week’s time she’ll see the difference and give me more gadgets to use.

The next event to look forward to is Goring Heath. I obviously had to withdraw my guys, but my cousin Amber Franklin is going with Jacko and Barry (Lazy Acres Buccanner and Lazy Acres Snow Patrol) so I think I’ll go along for the outing and see if I can hitch a lift with someone to help me up the massive hill to the cross-country. That’s probably as exciting as my forthcoming week gets.

Sarah

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I’ll start with the good news. My entry for Badminton has been accepted. So all of us on the yard are absolutely chuffed to bits. My mate Dawn was the first person to find out so I received a very excited text from her. The next stage was to check out the dressage test — I refused to look or practise it until I knew I was officially entered.

Bobby (Lazy Acres Skip On) has been working really well this week — and his behaviour’s been good too, fortunately no bucking broncos. He’s been swimming again and is now on 12 lengths, which is great news, and on top of that, his regular laps around our fields keep him used to the ever changing ground conditions.

Dressage wise, I’ve been practising the movements that are featured in the test just to see which ones he may struggle with or need improving. Bobby is very clever at learning the test if I repeat it too many times, so I occasionally have to change movements so it keeps him guessing.

This week we were at Swalcliffe. I had the luxury of just taking one horse Arturo, Amber took her two ponies and my cousin Emma took her young horse Zyacint and, of course, not forgetting the usual entourage of helpers and supporters.

The weather was not so great — unfortunately the rain just kept pouring but it didn’t dampen our spirits. It was so disappointing the sun wasn’t shining because the Swalcliffe team had made such a big effort with everything, the presentation of the cross-country course was beautiful and the layout was easily accessible from the lorry park. Amber came eighth in the BE90 with Jacko (Lazy Acres Snow Patrol) and Emma won her BE100 section, so smiles all round. However that was before I went!

Badminton final scores

And now the bad news

Unfortunately I have managed to sustain a very nasty injury to my knee after my horse decided he didn’t want to play anymore on the cross-country. This meant I had a trip in an ambulance (see picture above) and just over 5 hours in hospital having my knee poked and prodded. Fortunately, there was no tendon damage, but they did have to put 15 stitches across my knee.

This has obviously come at a very bad time with Badminton looming closer by the minute, however, I am still hoping to make it. Owen Moore has very kindly stepped into my shoes and will be competing Johnny (Highbury), Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) and Bobby at Gatcombe, while I’m a spectator on my crutches.

Meanwhile at home, my aunt Naomi is doing a fab job of working them and keeping them in tip top condition as well as lots of help from the ladies on the yard including Bev, Dawn and my aunt Angie who are doing various jobs to relieve some of the workload.

Of course I can’t forget to mention Sammy Boy, my wingman. He’s been a great help doing the everyday jobs at weekends and after school.

As for me, I can do nothing apart from watch, and for someone who is usually so busy, it’s incredibly hard and boring missing out. As I can’t drive, my mum is now my chauffeur so she’s been a diamond running me backwards and forwards, trying to keep me entertained and doing her stint on the yard.

So to all those people who are helping me in this very disappointing and annoying situation, I would just like to say a massive thank you and I certainly wouldn’t be able to do it without you.

Sarah

Read Sarah’s other diaries

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Badminton entered, fingers crossed we have been accepted otherwise this diary will end suddenly!

Although entering Badminton Horse Trials is a massive thing, it didn’t feel different to any normal event, apart from more forms to fill in. I think it’ll really kick in when I can see my name in the line-up. So far all the website says is “entries closed” so I’ll just have to sit and wait.

This week Gail Williams, my horses’ physiotherapist, came out to give all the horses their post competition MOT (pictured left).

Gail has played, and still plays, a massive part in the Lazy Acres Team, especially with Bobby (my Badminton ride, Lazy Acres Skip On). If it wasn’t for Gail’s dedication and expertise I know Bobby wouldn’t be the horse he is today. He came to me in 2004 as a problem horse to school and be educated. His owner at the time could not cope with him; he kept bolting and bucking for no apparent reason and had thrown her many times, finally breaking her ankle seriously.

Of course, he also didn’t fail to show me this side of his nature as there have been many a time Bobby and myself have gone from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds, the outcome — me always covered in sand!

Badminton final scores

Gail stepped in, and after plenty of examination, found out he was suffering from a sciatic nerve irritation. Basically, one minute he’d be fine and the next he would have a sharp sensation a bit like an electric shock that then caused him to totally flip. After plenty of visits the sciatica went but we always keep regular check-ups to make sure it never comes back.

However, Bobby still has his moments— at Gatcombe last year in the British open championships, I was warming up for the showjumping, landed over an oxer about 3ft high and Bobby’s head had disappeared between his legs. Next thing I knew we were in full-on bronco mode (pictured right). Somehow I managed to stay on but there have been many times I haven’t.

Mixed fortunes

Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) went very well at Tweseldown, finishing fourth in his intermediate section (pictured top) so we were very pleased with his performance, especially as I was suffering from an infection in my calf which is a very inconvenient place to have one. Unfortunately the pain got a little too much when it was Johnny’s (Highbury) turn cross-country so I retired him.

I only had one horse to go to Stafford because the other two disappointingly got balloted, so I thought I’d take Bobby to work there. Bobby is on top of the world (in his head anyway) at the mo.

Let’s just say my day started well but went downhill fast. Lilly (Lazy Acres Tiger Lilly) performed a beautiful test, scoring 23.5, so I was chuffed, but that’s where the good bit ends!

I hopped onto Bobby to exercise him and must have been working him for probably 5 minutes before my backside was placed on the floor. The culprit of the bronco session that followed was a Twix wrapper floating by in the wind.

Then very unusually disappointing showjumping and cross-country rounds from Lilly just topped the day off.

However, there was a bright side to Stafford. My boyfriend, Craig Barr, has recently taken over his sister Kim’s horse, Supermac, and managed to pull off a win in his section, so I’m very pleased for him.

Hopefully, Gail will be able to come and run her hands over Lilly to see if there is anything making her feel uncomfortable and try to find a reason for her strange behaviour. Apart from that it’s a week at home and then Swalcliffe at the weekend. Let’s hope the sun keeps shining.

Sarah

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The event season has officially started!

This week has been all about final preparations before our first outings. At the start of this week we loaded five horses on the lorry for a big road trip to Boomerang Stables over in Hungerford for a cross-country school. Although it is a fair way for us to travel, we always make an effort to go as the range of fences is perfect for any level of horse or rider.

We decided to take Bobby (my Badminton ride Lazy Acres Skip On), Johnny (Highbury) and Spider (Lazy Acres Crusader) for myself to ride and my cousin Amber took her ponies Lazy Acres Buccaneer (“Barry”) and Lazy Acres Snow Patrol (“Jacko”). They all sloshed through the mud and popped every fence with ease and confidence so it was well worth the journey.

The next journey to be made in the lorry was a trip to Weston Lawns with the youngsters. I call them the youngsters out of habit but technically they aren’t. These guys include Lazy Acres Tiger Lily (“Lily”, six-year-old owned by myself), Lazy Acres Hurricane (“Gero”, six-year-old owned by myself) and Arturo (“Derek”, eight-year-old joint owned by myself and and my aunt Naomi Franklin).

We hired the main arena, which has a set of showjumps and simulated cross-country fences including a small water complex, steps and a ditch. This was perfect to just pop them over some different fillers and to get their feet wet. Although we could have done this at home, the ground was far too wet and it was good for them to think they were at a show and get the silly spooks out of the way. Again they showed they hadn’t forgotten their jobs and were really happy to be out and about. Bring on the first event!

Badminton final scores

As promised I managed to get an action shot of Bobby swimming (left). We’ve been taking them once a week to Town Crier Cottage Equine Pool, only a 30-minute drive away. We’ve found this a great help to keep our horses fit while the snow was playing havoc on us all, so decided to carry on as we could definitely notice a difference in their way of going and enthusiasm.

Off to the first events

Luckily, the rain held off so the ground for both events last weekend was fantastic. I had a great day at Aston-le-Walls unaffiliated with Lily, Gero and Derek. All three performed lovely relaxed tests and double clears round the BE100 track. I couldn’t have asked for them to go any better, all showing they were very happy to be galloping round the beautiful countryside in the sun again.

First stop on the way to Isleham was McDonalds for breakfast and of course fuel. Nothing like a bacon and egg McMuffin to start the day off. We had more people than horses, hence the reason for the big lorry, with Bobby, Johnny and Spider in the back extremely excited plus the usual supporters, Nanna and my mum, and not forgetting the work force, Olivia (12 years old) and Charlotte (20 years old). Olivia came to quite a few events last year and although like Amber, she is small, she certainly works hard. It was Charlotte’s first ever trip to a British Eventing event and hopefully not her last! It always helps to have lots of hands on deck when the day is jam packed as it eases the pressure on Naomi.

In my eyes, it was another good day. Johnny did a good test and a double clear but unfortunately he had to be HC in the intermediate novice so no points.

Spider was a very cheeky boy in the same class. He thought it would be funny to do some handstands in the arena, which slightly marred his dressage marks. He then carried that on to the showjumping, where his slight lack of concentration meant 16 faults, which is very unlike him but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for this event. A good spin round the course got his brain focused on me again.

As for Bobby, he had electricity running through his veins. He decided walking wasn’t for him so the dressage wasn’t great, however, he made up for it in the other phases. A slight touch on a pole meant four faults and clear cross-country. He felt as fit as a fiddle and it was so nice to spin round on a horse that makes everything feel easy.

With the cobwebs blown away I’m really looking forward to the next events — Tweseldown with Spider and Johnny, and Stafford with Derek, Gero and Lily, so here’s hoping it all goes as smoothly as last weekend.

Sarah

Read Sarah’s first diary here

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It’s my turn this year to give you the lowdown on how my 9 weeks are panning out to my debut at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. Hopefully along the way I’ll keep you entertained with the many trials and tribulations that occur with event horses, the majority of which we like to see the funny side of.

I’ll start by telling you a bit about myself, the horses and my set-up. My name is Sarah Stretton, known to the majority of my friends as Stret. I’m 22 and am based and trained full-time at my aunt’s yard (Naomi Franklin) in Warwickshire. It’s called Lazy Acres, hence the Lazy Acres prefix on my event horses’ names. We have a fantastic set-up with over 30 stables, 100 acres of land including cross-country schooling facilities, a 60x20m dressage arena and 50x40m McCardle showjumping arena.

So far we have 11 eventers based at Lazy Acres, including my cousin Amber Franklin’s two event ponies. I also have a couple of horses I ride for Jane Starkey, which I work from her yard in Radway. The rest of our yard consists of liveries, who are fab. We have a great time on the yard and they always come to the events to support me and of course share the odd bottle of vino along the way!

Anyway, enough about me, I’d better tell you about the super star that got me where I am today, Lazy Acres Skip On or “Bobby” to his friends. He is 11 and is owned by my very loving Nanna, Billie Childs (my biggest supporter ever) who never misses an event. Together as “Team Lazy Acres” (including Naomi, Amber, Nanna and my mum Paula) we have so far accomplished some of my childhood dreams. Just got to complete Badders and that’ll be another tick in the box.

Bobby and I have gone up through the levels together so we were both unaware what was waiting round the corner at each new level. We were both members of the young rider squad who travelled to Germany in 2008 and from then on we really came into our own. In 2009 we were 3rd at Bramham under-25 CCI***, the only pair to finish on our dressage score, best under-25 at Gatcombe British open championships and then of course, to finish the year, completed our first Burghley. Although we had a run-out coming out of the water (for which I blame myself, I over rode a tad) I couldn’t fault his performance. He is only 15.3hh, so for such a small chap he made those fences seem surprisingly small.

Badminton final scores

So far all my horses are on track for their first event of the season. That’s Isleham on Sunday for the big boys, that’s Highbury (“Johnny”, 12 years old, owned by my mum) and Lazy Acres Crusader (“Spider”, nine years old, home-bred and owned by Naomi) who will both compete in the intermediate novice and Bobby in the open intermediate. The youngsters will be going to Aston-le-Walls unaffiliated on Saturday (fingers crossed it’s not cancelled by all the wet weather).

Fortunately the snow earlier in the year didn’t stop us much so all are feeling very fit and well. The fun part is they all started regular swimming lessons at an equine swimming pool near us to help keep them working during the snowy days. We found this really beneficial so we’ll be carrying it on through the event season. Bobby and the others will be swimming again this week so I’ll take a photo to upload ready for next week’s blog.

See you then,

Sarah

More pictures of Sarah Stretton

Read Dee Kennedy’s Badminton build-up diaries last year

Listen to Dee’s audio diaries during Badminton last year — or read the transcripts

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