Burghley 2019: Cross Country Chaos or a Five Star Masterclass?

So Burghley is over for another year. The final day of show jumping saw Pippa Funnell claim the title in a nail-biting finish that could have seen any of the top three take it. You couldn’t have asked for a more dramatic end: less than four faults between British big names Pippa Funnell, Piggy French and Oliver Townend. They all piled the pressure on each other by all having a fence down, but Pippa kept her cool and finished 0.1 penalties in front of Piggy. You could see how much it meant to her to win, 16 years after she last won the event, and it was so moving to see the obvious friendship and support between Pippa and Piggy, who are both such positive female role models for the sport.

But despite the final day’s incredible finish, it was the drama on the cross country course that seems to have got people talking the most.

I have seen a barrage of comments online criticising the course. Only 33 combinations out of 64 starters made it round – that’s a completion rate of almost 52%. Compare that to the 72% cross country completion rate at this year’s Badminton, and it does feel low. 20 of those who didn’t make it round the Burghley course were eliminated, and 11 made the decision to retire.

But it’s easy to be a William Fox-Pitt or a Tina Cook when you’re sitting at home watching from the comfort of your sofa. I do agree that there were some rounds that made for slightly more uncomfortable watching and where as a viewer, you couldn’t help but anticipate a fall. But I don’t think that justifies some of the vitriol online against some of the riders, who are all clearly experienced enough to qualify for Burghley and therefore deserve nothing but admiration for giving it a go. Of course you could see the difference between some of the power combinations who have been on the five star circuit for a while and the less experienced in the field. But ALL of those riders who came out of the start box on Saturday will have had full faith in their horses to be able to compete at that standard. Maybe they weren’t quite ready to complete, but they were ready to compete.

And for me personally, I don’t think the criticism of the course is quite justified, either. I think the absence of many of the top names (think the German contingent of Michael Jung, Ingrid Klimke etc. along with seasoned five star Brits like Nicola Wilson and Tina Cook) probably skewed the completion rate. It would have been fascinating to see what they would all have made of the course. And actually, if you look at the cross country completion rate of the Burghley first timers, it was 58% – so not wildly different to the rate of those who had been round before.

That being said, the course was undeniably tough, and it saw even some of the more experienced riders get unstuck. Joules at the Maltings was a particularly tricky combination, and I was gutted to see Ludwig Svennerstal, one of my favourite cross country riders, fall at the corner with his second ride after doing it foot perfectly earlier on in the day with Stinger. And poor Gemma Tattersall had one of the most heart-breaking falls of the day from Arctic Soul at the same corner, and they were arguably one of the most experienced partnerships of the whole field. I was so happy to see her give it another bash with second ride Santiago Bay, which must have required some serious brave pants, and delighted to see her finish 7^th – so well deserved.

And I don’t think anyone would dispute that the unluckiest round of the day has to go to Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy. The defending champions were storming round until an unfortunate stumble in the water resulted in them both taking a dunking and a soggy walk home. Hopefully Tim’s 5^th place finish on Bango will have cheered him up a little.

But we also saw absolutely beautiful rounds from people like Imogen Murray on Ivar Gooden, one of my absolute favourite combinations, who came from 60^th after dressage to finish 6^th on a double clear – just the most incredible achievement and proof that at five star, it’s not all about the dressage! And another of my rounds of the day was Alicia Hawker, who at only 24 showed that she’s definitely one to watch for the future after a clear and beautifully ridden cross country round. Positive riding, full of praise for her wonderfully scopey horse – she was a total pleasure to watch. Ben Hobday and Harelaw Wizard, who just cruised round the whole thing looking effortlessly cool. I love the photo I managed to get of them at fence two (above)!

In my opinion, Eventing at this level cannot be a dressage competition – each phase has to be as influential as the next, and I think that’s exactly what Captain Mark Phillips achieved at Burghley this year. Yes, it was a full on course with virtually no let up at all, with incredibly technical lines requiring pinpoint accuracy, but some of the riders still managed to make it look like a Novice course and it was a masterclass in five star riding.

I think those riders who came unstuck will have still had a great experience and learnt an awful lot, and it will be so exciting to see how they grow from here.

Just please don’t ever make me jump that double of gates.

The future of Eventing?

Although I was lucky to be able to go along on Saturday and watch the event live, an experience for which I think there is no substitute for, I’d probably have had more chance of following the action on the TV at home! We had lengthy periods of time at some of the later fences without seeing any riders, and just when you thought the next one was going to come along, you’d hear over the tannoy that they’d sadly retired or been eliminated at an earlier obstacle.

So my friend and I had an (admittedly self-proclaimed) ingenious idea of introducing digital information screens at each fence on the cross country course, not dissimilar to the ones you see at bus stops to let you know how many minutes you’ve got until the next bus comes along. How cool would that be? So the riders could be tracked around the course, and their ETAs could be shown on the screen at each fence so you knew who was coming next and how long you had to wait!

You never know – it could come to an event near you soon.