British-based New Zealand rider Samantha Lissington has slotted into fourth place in today’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials dressage on Lord Seekönig (5 September).
Samantha and this 12-year-old gelding, owned by Sharon Honiss, Annabelle and Robin Greville Williams, Neil Robert and Samantha’s husband Brayden, scored 24 with a polished and accomplished, accurate test.
Their highlights were the flying changes, two of which scored eights across the board from the judges.
“That was amazing – I came here with a bit of a different plan,” said 33-year-old Samantha, who has been based in the UK since 2019. “This horse can get strong and I ride in a double bridle usually, but I got slammed in Aachen for having his frame too low. So I went away and worked on my IPP – individual performance plan – and have been trying him in a snaffle bridle.”
Samantha explained that until she was just entering Burghley’s main arena today, she still wasn’t sure whether she should ride Lord Seekönig in a double bridle.
“Even in the warm-up, I wasn’t sure, and was uhmming and ahhing util the last minute. In the end, I opted for the snaffle bridle and I was delighted with how it went,” she said.
“Basically, it’s actually not the be-all and end-all here this week – the goal is the World Championships next year and then the LA Olympics beyond that. So actually, if I wasn’t going to test out riding him in a snaffle this week, when was I going to do it? I thought I would actually sacrifice a test for knowing which one way or another.”
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Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and the much-loved grey Colorado Blue performed a super test for a mark of 27.8 – the first time this pair have scored in the 20s at five-star level. They are in eighth following the 2025 Burghley Horse Trials dressage.
Austin had a change in tactics during his warm-up; he got off “Salty” for 10 minutes, then remounted a few minutes before they entered the main arena.
“I had a very good feeling in the warm-up and he’s a bit like me in that we lose concentration pretty quickly,” explained Austin. “So I thought I’d try something different and get off his back for 10 minutes and hopefully I would get back on and pick up where I left off, and it worked very well.”
“We’ve produced our best test ever – Tracie Robinson has been a great help with our training and she probably deserves this result more than me,” he said. “And the horse deserves it too. He’s known as a good cross-country horse, but he’s never done a bad test. I think going in there on the Friday afternoon, the atmosphere lifted him as he likes to show off to the public.”
The cross-country gets under way at 11.30am 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.
