Emily King riding VALMY BIATS during the dressage phase of the Defender Burghley Horse Trials, in the park land surrounding Burghley House near Stamford in Lincolnshire in the UK between 3rd - 7th September 2025
Apart from a slight stutter through their final flying change, Emily looked to have Valmy Biats in a lovely frame and balance and was mostly awarded marks between seven and eight.
“I’m very pleased with how he coped because he’s a very sensitive horse and there was quite a lot of extra atmosphere following Mr Townend, who is a competitor and he was revving up the crowd,” said Emily, who has been dealing with the disappointment of not being selected for the forthcoming European Eventing Championships at Blenheim.
“Valmy was definitely a lot more on edge today but he was a lot more rideable – I don’t wear spurs on him any more and I hold his hand as much as possible.
“Our preparation has all gone to plan and he’s feeling super. It’s great to have got off to a good start today but it’s all about tomorrow.
“We will all have to ride the undulations in the correct way and be aware of allowing our horses to travel how they want. I’m just hoping I can do Valmy justice.”
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Burghley first-timer slots into sixth place
Germany’s Christoph Wahler went into sixth when following Emily into the arena. Although he is a regular at five-star level and on German national teams, this marks a first Burghley for 31-year-old Christoph, and he scored 27.2 with D’Accord FRH, owned by Hendrik von Paepcke and Stefan Haupt. This was a personal best for the 13-year-old gelding at this level, who finished seventh at Badminton this spring.
“It’s our best test so far, so I’m very pleased,” said Christoph. “There were no real mistakes – he’s a pretty horse but he’s not the strongest in the movement and finds dressage hard, but today he really focused on me, was good in the warm-up and great in the arena.
“All the time warming up, I thought, ‘can I please just manage to get this in the arena today?’ He’s been progressing throughout the year and he’s usually better towards the end of the season. For example, at Badminton he felt terrible 10 minutes before I was going into the dressage arena, because he was getting a little bit excited. But he felt so within himself today, waiting for me and comfortable in his body.”
Asked about his thoughts on seeing Burghley’s cross-country course for the first time, Christoph said: “It’s more technical than I thought it would be. I was expecting many big fences and a stamina test, but I didn’t expect so many right-hand turns to so many corners, but it is what it is.
“I’ve been hoping to get a Burghley horse since I started eventing. Now we’re here, and we’ll just try to do our best tomorrow.”
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Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
