Michele and Archie Saul’s 12-year-old becomes the 15th horse to win both Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley – and the second to win both British five-stars and an Olympic gold medal, after Michael Jung’s ride La Biosthetique-Sam FBW.
Ros said: “I’ve just had a text message from my two best friends from Pony Club days saying, ‘I can’t believe you just won the event that we came to every year together as children.’
“That sums it up, really, it is something that we’ve worked on for years, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever tick the Burghley box. The last few performances have been all right, but we’ve not quite made it. It just turns out you just need a horse like ‘Walter’, don’t you? He’s absolutely unreal. What a machine.”
Lordships Graffalo will have a well-deserved holiday now.
“I think we’ve all had enough of him as well,” laughed Ros. “He’s a bit of a handful on the floor sometimes, a bit of a pain, quite an attention seeker. So it’ll be a bit of time in the field for Walter, a bit of a rest for us, and we’ll come back together over Christmas, maybe.”
Immediately after her win, Ros said in a television interview: “It means everything. I’ve achieved a lot – I’ve been lucky – so I came into this year and the Olympics was that one big box to tick, so in some ways it made me a bit flat afterwards. I came into this week and I didn’t need it, but I really wanted it.
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“I’ve had a good feeling all week, although I’ve not told anybody. I’ve felt confident, felt brave to go out there and be myself. I’ve stuck to my system and not asked everyone else questions. I said to myself, ‘Believe in yourself’ and it’s paid off.
“‘Walter’ is a legend in his own right already at the age of 12 – what other horse in recent years has achieved what he has? I’m so lucky to pilot a horse like him who thrives in this atmosphere. I’ve been lucky to have great horses these past few years, but it can be stressful for them to come in here or buzz them up in wrong way but he relishes it.”
How the showjumping played out
British star Ros was the overnight leader and had a fence in hand by the time she entered the arena, but she didn’t need it. Walter lightly tapped the middle part of the treble at fence eight, an upright, but it was a very assured round. Ros knew she could afford to take her time and she finished four seconds over the target.
The runners-up from 2022, Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift, landed fifth with a clear, a three-place rise from eighth overnight. France’s Gaspard Maksud was the best first-timer, finishing sixth on Zaragoza, who just lowered the first today and lost two ranks in doing so.
His compatriot and fellow debutant Nicolas Touzaint was seventh with Absolut Gold HDC, who moved up two spots with a fault-free round.
Max Warburton was the best British first-timer, jumping clear today just one second over the time to finish 18th on Bramham CCI4*-L runner-up Deerpairc Revelry.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
