Willa Newton riding CHANCE REMARK in Adv Section D during the Little Downham (1) Horse Trials at the Ely Eventing Centre in the village of Little Downham near Ely in Cambridgeshire in UK on 1st June 2018
Young British four-star rider Willa Newton broke her collarbone in a fall last weekend, but is hoping to be back in the saddle in time to ride at Burghley.
Willa, 28, was riding her own six-year-old Cock A Doodle Doo in a novice section at Buckminster Park (7-8 July) when he made “a very unusual mistake”.
“I think he tripped coming off the step,” Willa told H&H. “He’s an amazing horse and it was just one of those things.”
Cock A Doodle Doo, who had never had a jumping fault across country before and had been in the top 10 in his previous four novice runs, was not injured.
Willa had her collarbone operated on on Wednesday (11 July), but does not yet have a detailed plan of when she will return to action. She hopes to ride at Burghley (30 August-2 September) on Chance Remark, which whom she finished fifth at Luhmühlen CCI4* in Germany in June.
“I need to see physios and so on to make a plan, but I’ll definitely be doing everything I can to get back quickly,” she said.
Willa finished 35th at Burghley last year on Chance Remark, who belongs to Peter Thomas and Feena Machin.
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The Melton Mowbray-based rider experienced the highs and lows of eventing at Buckminster as she won BE100 section C on Jesmond Rainbow and finished seventh in the five-year-old class on Cipriani before the fall.
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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.
