Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials 2013
by Gary Malkin, LincsMag Writer.
Date: 10 November 2013
The 52nd running of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials saw a slightly smaller entry due to running a week after the European Championship in Sweden but the field definitely didn’t lack quality.
Also forming the final round of the HSBC Classics Championship Burghley had attracted another strong field with a strong challenge coming from New Zealand. Current Burghley Champion Andrew Nicholson would be competing three horses including his 2012 winner Avebury, he would be joined by his popular compatriot Jonathan Paget, the current Badminton Champion, who would have two rides and the ever popular Sir Mark Todd with two rides.
Leading the British challenge was six times Burghley winner William Fox-Pitt, fresh from winning European bronze, with two rides along with Team GB team-mates Kristina Cook, Pippa Funnell, Nicola Wilson and Oliver Townend, each with a single ride.
Joining them amongst the favourites were Germany’s European silver medallist Ingrid Klimke and former World number one Bettina Hoy while the Australian challenge would come from Sam Griffiths and Paul Tapner.
One of the riders making their Burghley debut was Lincolnshire rider Alex Postolowsky, the Market Rasen rider competing Paul Newbert’s Islanmore Ginger.
The competition started with two days of dressage, the first of the three phases that combine to make up the horse trials.
Three judges observed the test and scored each rider on each movement, their scores are averaged and converted into a penalty point’s score, the lower the score the better. Unlike the dressage you may have watch at last year’s Olympics the event riders do not perform to music and each rider performs the same test so there is no freestyle element.
Following the two days it was New Zealand’s Jonathan Paget who held the lead with a score of 36.7 riding Clifton Promise. Behind him it was German rider Ingrid Klimke riding FRH Butts Abraxxas with 39 with Andrew Nicholson third with Nereo on 41.3. William Fox-Pitt with Parklane Hawk was in fourth with Paget also fifth with Clifton Lush.
The top ten was rounded out by Cook riding De Novo News, Nicola Wilson with Opposition Buzz and Oliver Townend with Armada in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. Debutant Alex Postolowsky was in a respectable 48th place with a score of 57. The biggest disappointment came with Bettina Hoy who was forced to retire a wound-up and rearing Lanfranco TSF.
Cross Country
Day three of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials was the showpiece day, the cross country, a favourite with competitors and spectators all round. This year the course was again designed by Captain Mark Phillips CVO and following their course walks the majority of riders were describing it as the toughest they had seen at Burghley.
Following a quick walk around early Saturday morning I opted to position myself at the Discovery Valley, a section the horses would tackle twice and was promising to ask questions and possibly cause some upsets. First out on course was Louisa Milne Home with King Eider jumping clear but incurring thirty time penalties. Andrew Nicholson was fourth out on course with his first ride Calico Joe, they jumped clear and finished inside the time so stayed on their dressage score.
“It didn’t feel easy at all, Joe has his own way of doing things but he knows what he is doing and I admire him for it. He is a very fast horse and I don’t expect there will be many on course like him today”
Following Nicolson on course was William Fox-Pitt with his first ride Neuf Des Coeurs, they became the day’s first major retirement when having lost a shoe earlier on the course Fox-Pitt pulled Neuf Des Coeurs up just ahead of fence 21, Cottesmore Leap.
The first rider to fall victim of the Discovery Valley was Team GB rider Piggy French with Westwood Mariner. Having been through the first section problem fee on her way back through it was the ditch that caught the pair out. Having jumped the first element approaching the second Westwood Mariner landed with a back foot in the ditch causing French to fall. Though both horse and rider were uninjured under FEI rules they were unfortunately eliminated.
Out on course with his first ride, fifth placed Clifton Lush, Jonathan Paget was having an eventful run with a couple of stumbles. The run had further incident when the ground jury pulled Paget up after fence 19, Land Rover Dairy Farm, having seen bleeding from Lush’s nose. An inspection from the vet cleared Lush to continue and the pair resumed their run coming home two seconds under time.
Commenting on being stopped on course Paget said “Lush had bumped his nose with his knee and a small blood vessel had burst, but he is fine. The hold on course was actually perfect timing as it gave him a little break.”
Also on course at the time debut rider Alex Postolowsky was unfortunately stopped having been mistaken for Paget and Lush. Once underway again she rode Islanmore Ginger round to jump clear, the only British debut rider to do so. Back at the Discovery Valley and another rider was about to fall victim, this time going through for the first time. Having cleared the first element Tom McEwen with Dry Old Party was jumping the second, the planet, when Party caught his leg causing McEwen to lose his balance.
As Dry Old Party carried on McEwen was doing his best to hang on and as he disappeared from my view was doing a convincing impression of a Cossack rider as he gradually slipped further down the horse. Inevitably gravity got the better of him and he fell, again both horse and rider uninjured but an instant elimination for the pair.
Second placed Ingrid Klimke riding FRH Butts Abraxxas jumped a clear round and incurred limited time penalties to keep themselves in the running overall. Out for the second run, this time riding Avebury, Nicholson again went round with a double clear to move the pair into second overall.
Riding Redesigned Pippa Funnell was hoping to gain back some points she had lost with her self-confessed poor dressage. The pair jumped clear and finished with 11.2 time penalty points to move them up the overall order.
Tenth placed Oliver Townend was not so fortunate, riding Armada he picked up 20 jumping penalties along with 10 time to drop them down the order. Australian Sam Griffiths on his second ride Happy Times escaped a scare at the Discovery Valley just making the second element inside the posts. This however was disputed and is where I unknowingly became involved.
Sam and Happy Times
A short time after Sam and Happy Times had been through an official came over and asked if I had taken photos of them through that section, I said that I had and he asked if he could view them. I scrolled back through and found them and after viewing them the official called another over to see them. After careful viewing they both agreed that Happy Times had indeed jumped between the poles and made the jump. They then explained that the fence judge and a photographer, both on the other side of the jump, had said he jumped outside the pole on my side and had missed the fence. Had this been the case then the pair would have been eliminated, as my photos proved otherwise then they would be allowed to stay in the competition. This being my seventh year at Burghley and covering other horse trials it was the first time I have had anything like that happen and it was good to know that if possible the official’s will look into any discrepancy.
Getting towards the end of the cross country there were still a number of big contenders to come, the first of which was William Fox-Pitt on his second ride Parklane Hawk. A clear jumping round and just 0.8 time penalty put them right into the mix at the top of the leader board in third. Kiwi eventing legend Sir Mark Todd with Oloa was another to have a good round elevating them into the top ten while Kristina Cook jumped clear but incurred 15.2 time penalties to drop them down. One of the last to go was Jonathan Paget with overnight leader Clifton Promise.
Their round was going well but then, for a second time, Paget was stopped as blood could be seen coming from Promise’s mouth. Again a check from the vet gave them the all clear to continue and they went on to jump clear and collect just 0.4 time penalty, enough for them to retain an overnight lead.
Last to go was Andrew Nicolson on his third and final ride Nereo, again he jumped clear but gained two time penalties to put the pair fifth. Following the cross country phase the leader board made good reading for Team New Zealand. Holding first and second was Jonathan Page while Andrew Nicholson was in third, fifth and eighth.
Another Kiwi, Jonelle Richards with The Deputy held sixth while Sir Mark Todd was in tenth. Upholding British honour in fourth was William Fox-Pitt with Parklane Hawk while Nicola Wilson held ninth with Opposition Buzz. Completing the top ten was German Ingrid Klimke who was in seventh.
In a credible 40th overall was Alex Postolowsky who was impressing on her Burghley debut. In the end the cross country saw 62 starters with 39 clear rounds, just 3 inside the time. Following the conclusion of the cross country William Fox-Pitt said “It was a brilliant course, long may it stay like this.”
Final Day
The fourth and final day started with the final horse inspection in front of the ground jury. Before the inspection started however there was the news that Jonathan Paget had withdrawn second placed Clifton Lush who was sore following the previous days cross country. Also withdrawn was Oliver Townend’s ride Armada.
Liberal, the ride of Tom Crisp was held and eliminated on re-inspection while Bluestone Luke and Quirinal De La Bastide, the rides of Kerry Varley and Stanislas De Zuchowicz, were both withdrawn ahead of the show jumping. Before the show jumping got underway I went on the Rolex course walk with designer Richard Jeffery, renowned for designing challenging courses for the big events as well as Grand Prix Show jumping.
As we walked the course Richard explained why he had positioned certain jumps in their specific places to create a challenge for both horse and rider. Some were not immediately apparent as challenges to a non-rider like myself, things like sending the horse in the direction of the exit gate mid-way through, crossing the track caused by the dressage tests and positions of fences in relation to the undulations of the jumping arena.
With the horses jumping in reverse order those placed 42nd up to 24th would jump in the morning session while the top 23 jumped in the afternoon enabling the deciding rounds to be shown live on the BBC.
On A High
Among those going in the early session were Alex Postolowski with Islanmore Ginger the pair looking to end their first Burghley on a high. The pair didn’t disappoint with just one pole down and two time penalties that would see them finish in 36th place overall.
At the end of the early session nine of the nineteen combinations to go had jumped clear and it almost looked as if Richard Jeffery’s course was not going to ask the questions expected. As the combinations went in the final session it was soon time for the top runners to go, and so far in this session there had been no clear rounds.
The biggest casualty so far had been Nicola Wilson who having had three poles down dropped out of the top ten, leading British rider William Fox-Pitt had two down but held his fourth place as Nicholson eased the pressure on leader Paget by having a pole down on both his top placed rides.
As leader Jonathan Paget entered the area he knew he could have two poles down and still win so the question was could he and Clifton Promise complete their great ride with the only clear round of the afternoon. Going into the final jump clear and knowing the pressure was off Promise just touched the top rail to take it down but it didn’t matter, Jonathan Paget and Clifton Lush were the new Land Rover Burghley Horse Trail Champions and a popular win it was too as the crowd cheered and stood as they completed a lap of the arena.
This also meant that having won Badminton in May Paget was now in line to win the £225,000 Rolex Grand Slam, should he go on to win the Rolex Kentucky four star in May next year, a feat only achieved once by British rider Pippa Funnell. Not only this but having won both on Clifton Promise it was the first time since Master Craftsman with Virginia Leng in 1989 that the same horse and rider had won both in the same year.
Taking second and third, and completing the perfect Burghley for Team New Zealand, was Andrew Nicholson riding Avebury and Nereo respectively. Though missing out on winning the event the result was enough for Nicholson to take the HSBC Eventing Classics Championship with William Fox-Pitt in second.
Following the event when asked about his historic achievement a relaxed Paget responded: “It’s all happened a bit quickly, I will probably be able to tell you more in a couple of months, Badminton is only just sinking in now, I dunno, it’s good.”
When Paget first came over to compete in 2009 he went to Nicholson’s yard to learn his trade, when asked about this Nicholson smiled and commented: “He rode like a monkey up a pole and took some knocking into shape.”
Then went on to say “He had a lot of natural ability and he wants to watch and learn. The first event he came to with me he kept running off to watch Pippa Funnell and William Fox-Pitt, I just said what do you want to do that for? Just watch me! He always wanted to learn.”
Making Lincolnshire Proud
Debut rider Alex Postolowsky (28) not only completed her first Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials but was also successful after the competition. Having ridden up from 48th after dressage to finish 36th she collected the Land Rover Perpetual Challenge Trophy for the highest placed British rider who has completed Burghley for the first time.
Also Alex was awarded the HSBC Classics training bursary worth £640 for the highest placed rider never to have completed a four-star event. Following her success Alex said: “It’s been a long time since I’ve had horses at the top level because I had to sell a lot of my good ones. I did have my doubts about whether I’d ever compete at this level. To complete yesterday was a huge relief, I was euphoric straight after my round but then of course you always worry about the trot-up as you don’t want things to end. He came out brilliantly this morning thought and show jumped really well, I don’t think he realised he was jumping anywhere special! He is the horse of a lifetime and I owe him so much, he has hopefully paved the way for more success.”
There was also more success when Islanmore Ginger’s groom, David Burton, was awarded the Mountain Horse ‘Horse Care’ prize for the best cared for horse at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.
Next year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials will take place on the 4th-7th September, further information may be found by visiting burghley-horse.co.uk.
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