This year’s field at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials is, by any metric, about as good as it gets: there’s former champions, almost too many five-star winners to shake a stick at, flags upon flags upon flags (national ones, not the mean 15-penalty ones that make us do too much math), and a colossal entry list — even after this afternoon’s first horse inspection played its part.
Tom Rowland and Dreamliner. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
85 horses were presented to the ground jury helmed by President Xavier le Sauce (FRA) and completed by Nick Burton (GBR) and Robert Stevenson (USA), and for a little while, it looked as though perhaps it would all be a rather sunny walk (and rear, and spin, and piss off in the other direction) in the park. Until, of course, it wasn’t.
One competitor was asked to trot a second time, and then accepted — that was Great Britain’s Tom Rowland, whose partner Dreamliner was one of several very fresh horses to take to the trot strip this afternoon. Though he mostly kept it together while trotting away from the ground jury, his return didn’t feature much trot at all — but the four or so steps of the gait that he offered up in his next speedy journey towards them was enough to get the nod.
Ben Hobday and Shadow Man. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
After that, though, things got a bit less straightforward. Four horses were sent to the holding box for further examination by the veterinarian, and only one of them would go on to be accepted into the competition. The first to the hold was Shadow Man, the ride of Great Britain’s Ben Hobday, whose return to this event was hotly anticipated after the gelding’s silver medal at the Paris Olympics under interim rider Chris Burton. Ben ultimately opted to withdraw from the holding box without re-presenting.
Luc Château and Viens du Mont. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
France’s Luc Château and Viens du Mont, Great Britain’s Georgia Bartlett and Spano de Nazca, and US representatives Grace Taylor and Gamechanger were also sent to the holding box, and while all three did opt to re-present after examination, only Grace and Gamechanger were successful in gaining admission to the competition proper.
Grace Taylor and Game Changer. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Georgia Bartlett and Spano de Nazca. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
As always, jewellery stalwart HiHo Silver was in charge of handing out the Best Dressed Awards (though not the Golden Chinch Awards, which will be coming your way soon). The recipient of the ladies’ prize was 2023 Badminton champion Ros Canter, who wore a bedazzled denim jacket belonging to Caroline Moore, her longtime trainer, co-owner, and great friend. Caroline sadly passed away following a long battle with cancer on the 7th of March, and the sweet gesture from Ros gave her a chance to bring her closest supporter with her on her Badminton journey with Lordships Graffalo this year.
Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The other prize recipient was Japan’s Ryuzo Kitajima, who sported a traditional Hakama while presenting his Tokyo Olympic mount, Feroza Nieuwmoed.
Ryuzo Kitajima and Feroza Nieuwmoed. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Now, we head into the first phase with a slightly diminished field of 82 horse-and-rider combinations, and we’ll see the first batch of 41 get underway from 9.00 a.m. tomorrow (4.00 a.m. EST), with Kirsty Chabert and Classic VI getting us underway. From the off, this’ll be a packed session: Classic and Kirsty, in their own right, have twice finished in the top ten at this level, and second to go will be the reigning Badminton champions, New Zealand’s Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier (9.07 BST/4.07 a.m. EST). Third up to bat is Oliver Townend with his four-time five-star champion, Ballaghmor Class (9.14 BST/4.14 a.m. EST), who’s a hot contender to add Badminton to that illustrious resume. Later on in the first morning group is Gemma Stevens and her 2021 pop-up five-star winner Chilli Knight (9.35 BST/4.35 a.m. EST), while the highlights of the post-tea-break session include China’s Alex Hua Tian and Chicko (10.37 BST/5.37 a.m. EST), who placed at Pau last season, and comeback queen Bubby Upton and Cola, who were tenth here last year (10.58 BST/5.58 a.m. EST).
Before the lunch break, we could see a very competitive test from Germany’s Jérôme Robiné and Black Ice (12.17 BST/7.17 a.m. EST), who posted a 22.8 in the CCI4*-L at Blenheim last season, and after it, we’ll see the Badminton debut of Luhmühlen champion Hooney d’Arville, ridden by Belgian Olympian Lara de Liedekerke-Meier (14.22 BST/9.22 a.m. EST). Tom McEwen and JL Dublin make their first moves in the final session of the day (15.45 BST/10.45 a.m. EST), followed by Badminton debutante and World Champion Yasmin Ingham, who rides the experienced Rehy DJ (15.52 BST/10.52 a.m. EST). Emily King and Valmy Biats will look to better their fourth-place finish of last year, starting with their dressage test at 16.13 BST/11.13 a.m. EST. You can check out the rest of the times in full here.
As always, we’ll be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage all day long, with two jam-packed reports, live blogs from Cheg, and plenty of additional stories and content from Catherine Austen, who we’re delighted to welcome to Team EN this week. If you want to watch along, the competition will be live-streamed in its entirety via ClipMyHorse.TV, with a subscription package at £21.99 — or, if listening along while you pretend to focus on your job is more your speed, Radio Badminton offers excellent colour commentary and programming all day long.
Until then: Go Eventing!
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