Lucy Latta produced the stuff of dreams in the Mars Badminton Horse Trials 2024 showjumping phase, as the one-horse amateur rider finished runner-up to Caroline Powell. The 27-year-old Irish rider enjoyed an extraordinary debut at the CCI5* level, finishing with the fastest cross-country clear aboard RCA Patron Saint on Saturday to go into the showjumping phase in third place. The Grafenstolz-sired gelding knocked two down, but as Tim Price and William Fox-Pitt above her fared much worse, she moved up a place to take the second prize.
“I’d have bitten your hand off if you told me this would have happened at the start of the week,” said Lucy. “It was total rider error at fence three so I’m kicking myself about that. I sat up when I should not have, but that’s for me to learn from my mistake, and I won’t do that the next time.”
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from him. He’s the best cross-country horse there is, and I had a good round [today]. He really jumped for me, considering that was his first time over 11min 19 [the cross-country course length] and how big the fences were yesterday.”
Lucy, who works full-time as brand manager for an alcoholic canned drinks company, has shot into Ireland’s Olympic team reckoning with this result. She also has the form of finishing fourth at Blair CCI4*-L last summer.
Badminton final scores
“I can dream about the Olympics, I would love to think I could go,” she said. “He was phenomenal this week, and there’s still loads to improve on with him, in the dressage and things to clean up in the showjumping.”
Lucy showed remarkable poise to head into the pressure cooker of the Badminton main arena for her showjumping round. She admitted she did notice the atmosphere but it didn’t seem to affect this cool customer.
“It’s something else – the crowds when you’re warming up and the cheers,” she said. “It does get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.”
Horse & Hound Newsletter
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
How to watch Badminton Horse Trials
If you are interested in watching the live action from Badminton Horse Trials from the comfort of your home, wherever you are in the world, you will need to subscribe to Badminton TV. To sign up, visit watch.badminton-horse.tv – click the “Sign Up” link in the top right corner of your screen, then follow the instructions. An annual subscription to Badminton TV costs £19.99 via the website and gives you 365 days of access to all of the content in the Badminton TV library, the ability to watch the action live, and the option to replay all of this year’s action later. Find out more…
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 22-page magazine report on Badminton, including in-depth analysis and exclusive comments from top names, in the issue of Horse & Hound dated 16 May.
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
Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
