“25 Years of Work, And I’ve Finally Won a Big B”: Gemma Stevens Claims Burghley Victory with Chilli Knight

How do you measure a Burghley win?

You can do it in starts: 539 internationally over the course of a career.

You can do it in career years: 24 and a month, give or take, since an FEI debut in the CCI1* at Hartpury in 2002.

You can do it in dreaming years, too, mind you: 40, since the first time a tiny toddler was first hoisted onto a pony at her mother’s riding school, and the seed that would germinate into a fierce, unshakeable goal was first sown.

You can do it in the first phase: a 29.6, the second-best in the field by a tenth of a penalty.

You can do it in the sum total of points added to that over a long weekend: a big goose-egg zero.

You could do it in triumphs: the Olympic call-up at Rio in 2026; the World Championships team gold in 2018; the two top-ten finishes at European Championships in 2015 and 2017; the Bicton pop-up five-star victory in 2021; the fearsome early championships as a junior and young rider, where grit became something of a benchmark.

Or you could do it in disasters: most recently, most potently and most painfully a shock early end to the day as pathfinder for the British team at the World Championships, where a potential bid for an individual medal became a long walk home and the strange brutality of having to rally as a grounded support system for the rest of the team while fighting heartbreak the whole time.

But if you can, to paraphrase Kipling, meet with those triumphs and those disasters and treat the two imposters just the same – keep getting out of bed before the sun, keep putting a foot in the stirrup despite the aches, both physical and mental, keep pushing for something bigger and better without being cowed by hard times or sent completely out of one’s own head by the victories, then yours is the Burghley trophy and everything that’s in it, and – which is more! – you’ll be a champion, Gemma Stevens.

“I think I might be having an out-of-body experience,” admitted a beaming Gemma, moments after the first flood of tears and air-punches and screams of joy and relief; moments after a faultless showjumping round with the sixteen-year-old Chilli Knight that didn’t even need to happen, because there was a truly deranged three-fence margin at that point between them and their nearest competitors.

But when you win, you want to do it without leaving anything on the table, right?

Already, they’d carved themselves out a safe gap before showjumping even began: they’d begun their week in a very close second place, just a tenth of a penalty behind Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and Toblerone on 29.6 after being deservedly rewarded for a very correct, not at all flashy bit of “shuffling” between the boards. On yesterday’s cross-country, Nadja’s smattering of time penalties was their gain, and they were the second of just two clears inside the time to finish the day with a rail and change in hand.

Today, after a very short morning session where the track rode, actually, pretty well – a couple of clears, a couple of one-railers and just the one surprise fall in seven rounds – it all rather unravelled in the first part of the afternoon session. Round after round, rails on rails on rails; rails that didn’t stop falling vociferously until Jesse Campbell and Cooley Lafitte delivered the first classy clear of the afternoon and then everyone suddenly realised it was jumpable and started to follow suit.

Okay, not everyone: for overnight third-placed Holly Richardson and Ballyneety Silver Service it was a tough five-rail round and a drop to 15^th; for overnight runner-up Tim Price and Global Quest it was three and a shift down to 11^th.

That’s what ultimately gave Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight the breathing room to have three rails down, if they fancied it. They did not. Instead, they opted to win by closing the book on their dressage score, as the only pair to FOD all weekend in the world’s toughest five-star.

“I cannot believe it – 25 years of work, and I’ve finally won a Big B,” says Gemma. “It’s always a dream, and I knew he had it in him – he’d so nearly won Badminton a couple of years ago [the pair had a contentious flag penalty on that occasion], and I’ve just known in my heart of heart that there’s a big win in this horse. But we just needed our stars to align, and it’s all aligned this week.”

Chilli Knight – Alfie, at home – “means the whole world to me, literally. He hasn’t got a clue he’s won; he’s the most unarrogant horse – he’s just amazing. That’s what makes him so rideable.”

Though Gemma also competes in top-level showjumping, and can be seen sprinting from ring to ring at her local venue, West Sussex’s All-England Jumping Ground at Hickstead, on any given week, jumping on the final day of a five-star is “a completely different sport – they’ve galloped up and down all those hills and jumping Alfie is very different to riding the big jumping stallions I compete. This is all about horsemanship on the final day – about just keeping your cool and helping them as much as you can, staying in balance, being square on every turn, and leaving no stone unturned. That’s what I tried to do.”

One of her tactics? Disassociation, kind of.

“I said to Dicky [Waygood] and [husband] Gary before I went in, ‘I’m just at Hickstead, aren’t I?’ and Dicky said, ‘yep, you’re just at Hickstead, and you’re going to go in and do what you do and jump clear.’ I tried to really put it all out of my mind and remember that he’s a great jumper.”

Every step of the way, Gemma has leant on her partnership with Alfie – a partnership that began when he was just an embryo some seventeen years ago.

“His mother, King’s Gem, was my second-ever five-star horse – I won the under-25 National Championships on her, and when [owners] the Stones bought her, the plan was always to take embryos and breed from her with [Badminton winner] Chilli Morning,” says Gemma. “She actually produced eight full brothers and sisters, and I’m competing four of them at the moment. It’s an amazing dynasty she’s created, and it really means the world.”

The Stones aren’t just peripheral observers in their role as owners – they also provide Gemma’s base, and have become more like family than business associates.

“They’re unbelievable, honestly,” says Gemma. “I’ve been based with them for nearly 20 years, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful place. I’m grateful every day when I drive down the drive. They’ve been so supportive of me – Chris sent me the most amazing message on the Saturday night of Aachen and he basically said, ‘this is a really shit day, and now we’re going to go and win Burghley.’”

Instructions clear; mission accomplished.

As a journalist battling through the age of ChatGPT-generated content, I’ve had to make peace with saying goodbye to the word ‘quietly’, one of generative AI’s hallmarks. But it’s nearly impossible to write about Katie Magee without using it, because her career trajectory has been nothing but an example of an athlete quietly getting on with things, with no pomp and circumstance but just a dogged, resilient, and ineffably humble dedication to improving herself and her horses.

Over the last couple of seasons, though, the quiet part is being said out loud – if not by Katie herself, who remains almost unfathomably down-to-earth, but by the results she’s been delivering with the exceptional Treworra. So far, she and the twelve-year-old British-bred gelding – a son of Jaguar Mail, bred by the Preci Spark stud – have been top fifteen at a Pau and a Badminton, top twenty at a Burghley, fifth at this year’s Badminton, have become British Open Champions and now, wholly deservedly, are runners-up at Burghley on their second attempt.

It is, as commentator John Kyle puts it, “an overnight success story, thirty years in the making.” Like Gemma’s, Katie’s FEI record goes all the way back to 2002; along the way, she trained as a physiotherapist and had a son, Peter; she’s also had some excellent horses, including the stalwart Enceladus, who retired in 2024. But getting to the top level only came once Treworra entered the picture; that life-long goal was achieved in 2024 and the pair have been on an incredible roll ever since.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” says Katie. “It’s, let’s say, taken me a long time to get to this point, so I am absolutely over the moon to have managed to do our best for our team and everyone who has helped us get here.”

Treworra was perhaps the most eye-catching horse in the showjumping warm-up today, looking so fit and well that he might have just trucked in from home after an easy lead-up week just to jump a round today. Though the pair did have a rail down, it cost them nothing on the leaderboard, and they completed their week-long climb from 19^th place in fine style.

“Somebody very wisely once said to me, when you get to the top level, if you can keep them sound, they just mentally and physically get better and better,” she says. “So it’s just managing them and keeping them healthy and happy, really. And it’s a privilege to have a horse like that to do that with.”

Like Gemma, Caroline Pamukcu came to Burghley this week – her first, somehow – still raw from an Aachen that had slipped through her fingers. Like Gemma, too, she dug her heels in and let it fuel a week that ultimately spelled redemption.

“In a way, Burghley was always a Plan A for me, because Leslie Law and Karyn Schuter thought it was a really good idea for me to come here with at least one horse – and that was always going to be HSH Tolan King,” she says. “As soon as I fell off [HSH Blake] at the Worlds on the Saturday, obviously I was gutted – particularly for my team, becaue I put a lot of pressure on them – but I knew I could reroute here.”

It was, she admits, “a hard few weeks leading up to it – I went to Pippa Funnell’s, where I’ve been based before, and just tried to regroup myself.”

As she headed into Saturday, she was 14^th with HSH Tolan King – the pathfinder of the competition – and fifth with HSH Blake, who she had “Aachen fit – which isn’t the same thing as Burghley fit.” But Tolan King was Burghley fit, and she discovered in the midst of it all that perhaps she’d prepared him a little too well: he began to gallop through the bridle, ultimately neatly popping out over the course roping, after which she sensibly opted to put her hand up.

HSH Blake, though, rose to the occasion, adding just 8 time penalties on a day when the time was seldom even flirted with.

“I was a little bit slow – I was 20 seconds down by my third minute because I didn’t want him to get away from me like my first horse did. I didn’t want to be that American, where everyone’s like, ‘oh, she was a little too wild!’,” she laughs. “So I was a little conservative, and then at the double of gates after Winners’ Avenue I was like, ‘ah, fuck it, I’ll just go faster.’ Then I was like, ‘okay, right, let’s do five here or Karyn’s going to be fucking mad at me right now!’ She was like, ‘Caroline, do not fucking go in six!’ So I was like, ‘oh, shit, alright, let’s go!’”

Pardon you, Caroline.

At three-and-a-half minutes, then, “I was like, ‘alright, I’ll put the gas on.’ Then I made the time up as much as I could.”

Today, she was frustrated to have a beautiful rest-of-the-round clear after tipping the first fence “like a bit of a rookie, so there’s some things this weekend that I’m kicking myself over, but at the end of the day I had to mentally overcome quite a bit [to get here], and it’s been a lot of pressure coming into here – but I quite enjoy that.”

Their efforts this weekend earn Caroline and Blake third place overall, and the best Burghley rookie title – a return to form that was cheered on every step of the way by husband Denisz and daughter Blake.

Tom Jackson had started the week double-handed, and as one of the favourites for victory with the ten-year-old wunderkind United 36. By Sunday, though, he was down to just one horse, the slightly more under-the-radar Hawk Eye, who he’d inherited from Nicola Wilson.

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, and my squidgy boots today are a reminder of that,” he laughs, referring to his uninjurious but enormously surprising tumble in the Trout Hatchery water complex with United 36 yesterday. “But that’s sport, isn’t it: you can have a good day, and I’d had an amazing morning with Hawk Eye, and then I ended up rather soggy.”

Today, though, as Ice Cube so famously said, was a good day. As one of the first horses out on cross-country yesterday, Hawk Eye had added 12 time penalties in his clear, tidy round, propelling the pair from 13^th place into 9^th. This afternoon, they delivered one of the scant six clears inside the time to climb again, this time to a final fourth.

“It’s brilliant – I’ve said for a while that he’s got a big result in him,” says Tom.

Though she was no longer sitting in the lead – a position she held after the first phase and relinquished when adding 13.2 time penalties yesterday, which dropped her to sixth – Switzerland’s Nadja Minder and her nineteen-year-old Toblerone brought the media mixed zone to a rare near-silence as they tackled their showjumping round.

It has not, historically, been the friendliest phase for the evergreen gelding: across his four prior five-star runs, he has amassed nine total rails. But hope springs eternal, and his solitary clear at the level had come at Burghley two years ago, en route to a top twenty finish – and from where we stood at the sidelines, one sentiment reigned supreme. Would this be the last time we’d ever see the 26-year-old rider and her heart horse tackle a course together?

“I mean, twenty is a big number, but I don’t want to say it was his last one because I think the decision would be made because of the number of his age, and not because of what the horse would like to do, so I don’t know,” says Nadja, moments after a stats-defying classy round that saw the pair just lower the back rail of the final fence to claim fifth place.

“Having the last down is always the rider’s fault, but it’s amazing, really,” she beams. “I was quite relaxed, I think, regarding the circumstances – I knew whatever happened today wouldn’t take away from what he’s achieved and done. Of course I wanted the best for him to shine in this arena, and I think we did.”

In sixth place, we go from one end of the career spectrum to the other: Yasmin Ingham’s ten-year-old Goliath du Loir hadn’t even done a five-star before this week, but what might have begun as something of a fact-finding mission – particularly as Yas herself has never previously ridden at Burghley – ended up being a very competitive week.

The pair hasn’t been outside the top ten in any phase: the first, where they earned a 32.7, put them in seventh place; yesterday’s cross-country dropped them marginally to tenth with their 14 time faults; today’s faultless round propelled them back up to sixth.

“It just feels so surreal to come here and drive to a clear at my first Burghley, the horse’s first five-star, and he’s just such a young horse still, and just shown that he’s just a real trier,” says the former World Champion. “He’s got a heart of gold and just wants to do his best, so it makes me feel very proud.

“I was excited about her before I came here, but I’m very excited now,” grins Will Coleman, who finished his excellent week with the five-star debutant Very Dignified by delivering a foot-perfect clear round for seventh place. “She’s given me a great spin all weekend. She’s kind of risen to the occasion. I don’t know if I really had a whole lot of expectations: I had some inklings of maybe what I know what she’s capable of, but the first time coming across the pond, it’s a lot of variables. You can’t always know for sure how they’re going to perform under all those circumstances. But I think she likes it — that’s the thing you need in a good horse, and I think she’s a really good one.”

France’s Ben Massie is yet another rider who came to Burghley hoping for a redemption arc after Aachen, where he, too, suffered an elimination while in a pathfinder role for his time. With Filao de Perle this week he began in 22^nd place, climbed to 14^th after adding 10.4 time penalties across the country, and then was one of those six faultless jumpers today to take a final eighth place, ahead of Jonelle Price and the twelve-year-old Chilli’s Midnight Star – the second Chilli Morning son in the field – who took ninth place after climbing from first-phase 21^st.

“He’s been pretty consistent on the last day for the last twelve months or so, but in some ways that sort of starts mounting the pressure,” says Jonelle of the gelding, who was ninth at Maryland on his five-star debut a year ago.

Harry Meade – another rider touted as a potential and long-awaited winner here this week – finishes Burghley with just one of his two horses left in the hunt: the exceptional Cavalier Crystal, with whom he rallied for a smart tenth-place finish after a topsy-turvy day in the office yesterday. They began the week in 31^st place on a 38.4, added just 6 time penalties across the country to move into seventh – a welcome climb after a retirement after a smattering of problems for first ride Et Hop du Matz – and then tipped just one fence, the sixth, today to settle on tenth.

“We had the one rub, and I think that’s the first fence she’s had down in a three-day event in six years,” says Harry. “Every time I get on her I think, ‘don’t think about protecting a record, just ride a nice positive up-on-the-clock round and put the pressures on the others. She jumped beautifully and I’m very happy.”

US-based Aussie Ema Klugman closed out her first Burghley with two very early fences – the first and the second – to secure a completion on her debut with the exciting thirteen-year-old Chiraz, taking 26^th place in the process.

And so we come to the close of another Defender Burghley, with all its associated surprises and excitements. For us, for now, that’s all she wrote – but as always, Go Eventing.

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