Our young riders tackle Burghley
Photos by Kit Houghton
After all the rain and the cancelled events this season, everyone was so pleased to be out-and-about at this year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials held from 30th August to 2nd September. So, it came as no surprise to hear that attendance levels were at an all- time high. Once again Frances McKim was present to report for Equestrian Life.
It was not only spectators who arrived in record numbers, but also the equine competitors too. With so many events cancelled, the organisers extended the list of accepted entries to 90 competitors, rather than the usual 80. Riders from the East Midlands were, as always, well represented. Noteworthy was the number of local up-and-coming young riders making not only their Burghley debut, but also their first attempt at this top level of international eventing – as Burghley is one of only six worldwide events at four-star level. But what is more remarkable still is the fact they are all so young.
Young they might be, but our local competitors are certainly not lacking in international experience. Emily Parker from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire is only 21 years of age, but she has already represented GB at Young Rider level, clocking-up two team gold medals as well as an individual gold medal on Treefers, her own 12-year-old dark bay
gelding. Her story is one of Pony Club dreams, as she acquired Treefers as a six-year-old and the pair has risen through the ranks from Pony Club to four-star level.
After the first day of dressage, Emily must have been well pleased as she found herself lying in the top 20 with a very presentable score of 48.2. But on cross-country day Treefers failed to live up to expectations when he ran-out at the skinny at the bottom of the Leaf Pit Classic and then followed this with a second run-out at the final brush fence of the Discovery Valley complex (fence 7). At this point Emily retired.
Willa Newton, aged 22, from Stonesby near Melton Mowbray, was also having her first attempt at Burghley. She too is another previous GB team member at British Young Rider level when in 2011 she won team gold and an individual silver medal riding Neelix, a 12-year-old bay gelding owned by her father and former Master of the Belvoir Hunt, Joey Newton.
Although placed in the middle ranks after the dressage and having a refusal at the tricky Rolex combination, Willa had an otherwise trouble-free cross-country round and must have begun to think she would complete the course. But only a handful of fences from home disaster struck. At the relatively
Setting-off in determined fashion. Richard Jones with Highland Ford
Rebecca Crosbie-Starling in the water at the Trout Hatchery just before their first refusal
Cottesmore Leap which claimed the scalp of Richard Jones and Highland Ford
A yawning chasm. The bottom of the
straightforward Olympic fences in the arena, Willa and Neelix parted company.
From showing to eventing
In full-flight. Willa Newton and Neelix 72
www.equestrianlifemagazine.co.uk
Also 22 years old, Rebecca (Becky) Crosbie-Starling from South Clifton, north of Newark, is no stranger to the winner’s rostrum. Having started riding at four years of age, Becky has already had an extremely successful career
in the world of showing and working hunters with numerous wins at the Horse of the Year Show and the Royal International Horse Show. Having turned her attention to eventing in 2008 and worked her way up the levels, this too was her and her mount’s first attempt at four-star level. Her bay gelding, Paddys Gold, tackled virtually all of the fences without a backward look, except for those involving water! At the first element of the Land Rover Trout
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