A League of Their Own: Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo Take Historic Third Badminton Title

From the onset of this morning’s jumping session at MARS Badminton, which comprised places 21-40 on the provisional leaderboard, it was clear that the tightly-packed scoreboard would be put through its paces. Rather than the straightforward Badminton showjumping courses of old, this year’s track continued the trend towards much more jumper-y, testing questions that we’ve seen over the last couple of years, with rollback turns into water trays – a particularly tricksy question for horses who’ve jumped so many ditches the previous day – and three doubles on the course, as well as the optical illusion of a white top rail against the background of the white members’ tent, all of which tempted a loose hoof and the fates along with it.

Of those twenty horses this morning, just one would make the time and leave all the poles in the cups: that was the diminutive, catlike Luthien NRW, ridden by Germany’s Arne Bergendahl, whose extraordinary jump had contributed to a couple of mistakes over Eric Winter’s course yesterday, but which stood her in phenomenal stead today.

Another couple of combinations would manage the clear, though not the clock – but otherwise, a two-rail benchmark was set, with ordinarily strong final-phase performers knocking surprise rails.

When the top twenty came forward, that two-rail average didn’t lessen its grip on the competition. By the time two-phase leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo entered the ring to lay out the final round of the day, their overnight lead of a rail and time had become a comfortable buffer of 10.2 penalties – two rails, comfortably, with time aplenty to set up sensible turns and cruise on home.

It was a generosity of penalties that they didn’t come close to using up. There aren’t many horses and riders – nor many top-level competitions – that produce a dominant feeling of relaxation in a bystander, but that’s where Ros and fourteen-year-old ‘Walter’ raise the bar: each step is measured, each moment considered, every movement decisive and every breath taken in fully. They never hurry; they never panic – and so, even when the pressure reaches its zenith, it’s possible to watch, learn, and enjoy.

We talk so much about what the modern era of eventing is, and what it should look like, and how, indeed, we should promote a less rough-and-tumble iteration of a sport that’s always been all about grit and guts. Ros and Walter prove you can have both in spades sans the thrills and spills of old, and in so many ways, they have become the paragon of what forward-facing, modern, and social-license-friendly equestrian sport can look like.

And then, of course, there’s the whole matter of a woman doing it all: riding at the top, winning at the top, prioritising her work while also having a family and doing her utmost to make it all work for her. There’s no doubt it takes a colossal amount of juggling, and plenty of help, but here she is – a three-month-old baby in her arms, six-year-old Ziggy at her side; husband Chris and mum Heather on the periphery; another Badminton trophy on the mantlepiece.

The pair’s clear showjumping round today, which saw them add 2 time penalties to their otherwise faultless score card, doesn’t just earn Ros and Walter their third Badminton victory; it also makes Walter the first horse ever to take this title three times, and secures him his well-earned places in the annals of eventing lore and legend. There’s a very compelling argument to say he’s the greatest event horse of all time – he was second here on his debut as a ten-year-old in 2022, fourth at the World Championships later that year, a winner in the impossibly swampy Badminton of 2023, a member of the gold medal-winning British team at the Paris Olympics in 2024, victorious at Burghley that autumn, top of the leaderboard at Badminton and Burghley alike in 2025, and now, once again, our champion. It’s a crying shame, really, that the Rolex Grand Slam couldn’t have stuck around one more year, because no horse and rider pair has ever seemed so assured of victory in triplicate, and neither rider who had previously won that rarefied title had done so on one horse.

It’s unlikely that the enormously pragmatic Ros is even thinking in those terms, though.

“One day it won’t happen for us – I’m certainly not perfect and I made mistakes even last weekend at a competition, but for now I’m just so lucky,” she says.

“I’m just absolutely stunned, really – it probably won’t sink in for a bit. I try not to let myself get involved in all the things people have been saying about him being the first horse to do it three times, and all the things like that, so I think that will all sink in a bit later. But gosh, I’m just absolutely in awe of how he jumped today. I thought it was probably one of the best rounds he’s ever jumped, and probably one of the best rounds I’ve ridden as well. I’m just delighted we were able to pull it off at the right time, really.”

Once Walter had popped over the influential water tray at fence five, Ros laughs, “I could see him clocking the next fence, and he started doing these little grunts like, ‘I’m gearing up for this, mum, I’m gearing up!’ He just loves his job.”

“I can’t put into words how lucky I am to ride a horse like him,” she continues. “People say, ‘oh, but you’ve trained him well,’ but he really makes my job so easy. He loves it, and he’ll be so content tonight. He’s a truly special personality, not just in the way he performs, but the person he is, too. We’re lucky to have him in our lives. He’d be here [at the press conference] slurping everybody’s drinks if he could – he just loves it all.”

Though she came into the competition as the firm favourite from the outset, for Ros, the path to victory didn’t necessarily look quite so clear.

“Coming into this week I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – whether my emotions would cope with it, whether my body would cope with it. But I just love these top-level competitions; they’re the reason I do it,” she says. “It’s incredibly special.”

Has anyone so abnormally capable ever been so, well, normal? One moment she’s jumping five-star fences as though they’re sticks in the back garden; the next she’s back on the floor, either holding her new baby or being pulled from interview to interview, rocking back and forth as she answers questions, her body innately looking to lull a tiny person, her instincts as both sportswoman and mother both working overtime all at once. Even, as the case was today, when she’s operating on bugger-all sleep, and any of the rest of us would be falling over ourselves with fatigue.

“Seneh’s normally a very good sleeper, but last night, she was up between 1 and 4 a.m., so I’m pretty exhausted!” laughs Ros. “Chris will drive us home, so hopefully I’ll sleep on the way home, and hopefully she’ll sleep on the way home – and then we’ll celebrate at some point, but it definitely won’t be tonight!”

“You can look at it [as a particular challenge],” she continues, “or you can look at it that we’re extremely fortunate to be able to do this sport as a true family sport – they can all be very much included. Ziggy was in the main arena for the prizegiving; Seneh’s been with me all week. We’re incredibly lucky. Harry’s had three horses to ride all week, which is a massive achievement in itself; Tim’s got a broken shoulder – there’s always something that makes it a challenge to be here.”

Perhaps the bigger hurdle overcome, to Ros’s mind, is the extraordinary journey she’s been on as a rider. She’s the first person to acknowledge, time and time again, that she’s neither naturally brave nor naturally quick, and that those – plus the ability to deal with pressure – are skills she’s had to develop.

“For all the young people out there, I just want to say that when I was just starting out eventing I had a go at doing Juniors and things like that, and I really wasn’t very good,” she says. “I’d been told to improve my dressage and I did, and then I went to the Junior National Championships and ended up 2^nd going into showjumping. I was so nervous and couldn’t cope with the pressure at all, so I got a terrible shot to the treble combination, took out the first two parts and had a stop at the last part. I went from second place to about second from last in that round. And so I suppose what I mean is that anyone can learn to deal with pressure. It’s not just about learning to ride well, it’s all the other bits that go with it. So for anyone who does get nervous, if they still have the dream, it’s absolutely possible to do it.”

 After Arne Bergendahl’s clear round inside the time this morning, just one more horse and rider pair would accomplish the feat in this afternoon’s session. That was Tim Price with his 2021 Pau champion, the seventeen-year-old Falco, who Tim described earlier in the week as “a fake event horse”: one who has always been a freak of a jumper, but has had to learn how to be a cross-country performer.

Yesterday, he proved that he’s absolutely learned that lesson, dispensing with the occasional silly 20s – misdemeanours, but never felonies – of his younger years and delivering a fast clear round with just 4 time penalties, which saw him climb from 10^th to 5^th place. And today? Tim could sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride – a ride that boosted the pair up to second place.

“I’ve always said he’s the horse for the final day, and when he was making mistakes at two- and three-star level, this was the thing I was really desperate to get to – the Sunday at a long, and a significant one,” he says. “I’ve had a few now [with him] and he’s just so much fun. We take all the horses for all their qualities; every horse has their issues, but showjumping isn’t one of his.”

He is, he continues, “a fantastic little horse. He’s a small package and I’m a little bit big for him, but his brain is in his feet – he knows exactly where he can take off and he gives me everything he’s got to give. It’s the first time I’ve been at Badminton on a horse I can relax on in this phase and just put my leg on. I really wanted to get to today on him, which made yesterday such a special thing.”

Though Tim is slightly more healed up than he was at Kentucky, where he competed with a freshly operated-on shoulder, he credits his partnership with the elder statesman of his string with helping him make this week work while still not 100% himself.

“He’s my old friend – I’ve had him ten years. If it was another horse it might not have been such a doable proposition,” he says.

Harry Meade notched up another five-star podium finish, taking third place aboard the classy but complicated Annaghmore Valoner after knocking a single rail to drop down a spot on the leaderboard.

“I’m delighted; I thought she jumped beautifully, and she went in there and handled the cheers, the atmosphere, and the crowd really well,” he says. “She went in a beautiful, soft way, jumped out of her skin – and she had a rail, which was very, very minor, and I couldn’t be happier with her.”

Harry has been knocking on the door of a five-star win for a long time, but something that’s always been very clear is that as much as he’s a fiercely focused competitor, he’s also a bone-deep fan and student of the sport. That meant that although his time didn’t come this week, his admiration for Ros’s victory – and what it means for the broader story of eventing – was nearly as sweet a feeling.

“People who study the sport might think, ‘oh, well that horse is the most likely one to win,’ but it is so difficult to get a horse to the start line. If, in December, you looked at all the horses who were being aimed at Badminton, [by the time the event comes around], probably 30 to 50% of them don’t get it to the start, either because their form hasn’t been good enough, or they picked up a minor injury… so to get to the start, and then to get to point where you can deliver – and not just deliver, but do it in the style that Ros has done it every single time – is enough for the pundit to be able to say she’s the favourite. But the horsemen, they know that it doesn’t just happen. Ros has already credited Walter, but her technical ability, and her coolness under pressure, means that their achievement of winning three Badmintons will stand the test of time as a legacy, not just for Walter, but for her as an extraordinary competitor.”

Fourth place went to Tom Jackson and the exceptional ten-year-old United 36, who looks the part in all three phases, and with whom he climbed from first-phase 20^th place after adding just 3.2 time penalties yesterday and 0.4 time penalties today.

“I mean, what a horse,” grins Tom. “He’s just answered every question, everything we’ve asked of him, for the whole time we’ve had him – and yet again, he’s put himself in a brilliant position. I couldn’t be more pleased with him.”

“He’s always been a good jumper, but in the past two four-longs we’ve done with him he’s had a rail, and so we thought maybe he was just a bit on the weak side. So we’ve worked really hard over the winter to get him as strong as possible, and he felt really good out there; it was a tough enough track for him, with the twists and the turns and keeping him balanced, but he really, really delivered.”

British Open Champions Katie Magee and Treworra tipped one rail to drop a single place to fifth, completing a climb from 26^th after dressage.

“He jumped brilliantly,” says Katie. “I was a little nervous, and he really looked after me – he’s an absolute superstar. It’s been a brilliant week. I absolutely love it here – it’s horsey paradise.”

The climbers of the week were New Zealand’s Tayla Mason and Centennial, who had begun the competition in equal 40^th place on a 36.5 and leapt upwards to 14^th after a cross-country round that saw them dig deep with an agricultural jump into the MARS Lake, after which they grew in confidence and boldness, weathered a hold on course, and finished looking a picture. Today, Centennial – or Chase, as he’s known at home – was on flying form, very nearly jumping Tayla clean out of the tack over the final fence and securing a clear round with 1.6 time penalties, boosting them up to sixth place.

It was a remarkable round not just for that climb, but for the about-face in form it represents for the gelding in this final phase: he’s jumped clear at the level once before, at Maryland, but has also tipped three or four fences in previous efforts, which Tayla has worked hard to combat.

“We’ve been working hard on the showjumping, and it’s taken a while,” says Tayla. “It takes a long time to get a five-star horse, and then it takes a long time to get the correct system – after all these years, I have a solid one now, and it’s really exciting.”

“His biggest thing is he just doesn’t get high enough, so we’ve been working on gymnastic stuff – we trot to fences in the cross-country training to develop that fifth leg, but actually, it helps in the showjumping as well. Every horse is different, so it’s trial and error in all the exercises you can do, and then whatever works for that horse works. I think that’s why it takes so long. What I do with Chase is not what I do with my other horse; what works with one might not work with the other one, and so it’s taken some time, but I’m really excited that I’ve managed to create a solid system with him.”

British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud added another five-star placing to his record with the excellent Zaragoza, knocking one rail but moving up from 12^th overnight to seventh place.

“She jumps very well – she had a cracking round yesterday on the cross-country, and then she jumped well today,” says Gaspard. “We just came a bit close to that double and had one down, but I think that’s more me than her – she really tried for me.”

Switzerland’s Felix Vogg was relieved to find his Maryland winner Cartania considerably more rideable today than she had been yesterday, partly thanks to an occasional and tactical tack change: today, he went bitless.

He rides her in the hackamore “three times a year – otherwise she gets used to it! That’s the key at the moment, that she’s rideable and quite nice to ride.”

They, too, had a single rail, but stepped up nonetheless from 11^th to eighth.

France’s Ben Massie and Filao de Perle added one rail and 0.8 time penalties to finish their climb from 25^thto ninth, while overnight third-placed Sarah Bullimore and her ten-year-old homebred Corimiro slipped to tenth place with two rails, but demonstrated enormous class in the ring, further cementing the rangy gelding’s status as one of the most exciting young horses at this level.

“I’m chuffed to bits with him,” says Sarah. “I mean, obviously I’m disappointed, because he’s normally an amazing jumper. We’ve changed to a different bit, and maybe that wasn’t the right decision, I don’t know. It’s still a learning curve: he’s just ten, and he’s new to the level, and if you don’t try these things, you don’t know. Maybe we’ll rethink on the bit for next time, but there is always a next time, and he’s got phenomenal future ahead of him.”

Two rails knocked top ten challengers Aaron Millar and Friendship VDL one spot down to eleventh, while three apiece shifted Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint and Lara de Liedekerke-Meier and Hooney d’Arville from 5^th and 8^th to 17^th and 19^th, respectively.

Best of the bunch for the US was Cosby Green and Jos Ufo de Quidam, who took 22^nd place after a neat and tidy clear just one second over the time allowed, while Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl tipped two rails but added another Badminton completion to their record for 40^th.

And that’s all she wrote – for now, anyway – from MARS Badminton 2026. It’s been a week that’s surprised us in so many ways, but all of us at EN feel so lucky to be reporting through an era in which that great big non-surprise at the top became another chapter in the story of a woman and a horse that the sport will talk about for decades to come. May their reign continue; may the foundations of their success influence us all. Go Ros, Go Walter, and Go Eventing.

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