Burghley

Beautiful Burghley

/ ponydreamer / 2 Comments

Last week I went up to Burghley Horse Trials.  I have only been once before but I absolutely loved it and I was so excited to go again.  It just has such a great atmosphere and of course the competition is exciting too.

We made sure to get there in time for the first trot-up on Wednesday and were back bright and early for the dressage next day.  We even had time to stop off at our favourite place for breakfast – the Country Living vintage tea room.  It was just a shame that they have had to stop using teapots as so many of them got stolen.

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The two days of dressage were excellent – it was great to see first timer Eliza Stoddart take the early lead, although all the changes on Friday afternoon made it very exciting.  I loved the cross country course which was a proper five star test and I had a great day walking round the course on Saturday.  We finished at the leaf pit and once the final few riders had been past us we listened with bated breath to the loudspeakers as they made their way round the rest of the course.

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Of course, the Sunday show jumping could not have been closer – at least for the final three riders.  I was actually trembling as I watched Oliver Townend, Piggy French and Pippa Funnell go round.  It did not help me at all that they each had a pole down!  I would have been happy if any of them had won but I was so, so pleased to see Pippa come out on top.  She has long been a hero of mine.

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I am also clearly a lucky charm for British riders.  When I went two years ago there was a British 1-2-3-4 and it was the same again this year.

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Naturally I did a little shopping while I was there too.  Burghley seems to be a place for me to buy slogans – last time I got my ‘Living the dream’ gilet.  This time, I found this excellent polo shirt on the BHS stand.

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I also treated myself to these riding tights.  I have never had any before but I have enjoyed wearing them this week.  Plus, my phone actually fits in the pocket properly!  I also loved looking at all of the horse feed stands.  When I was little I used to wish I had a pony and could get samples to take home for it.  Now I can and it felt so good.

Once again I had the best time at Burghley.  I will definitely be back in the future.

Brilliant Burghley

/ ponydreamer / 2 Comments

I am just back from Burghley Horse Trials and I had such a wonderful time!  We didn’t book early enough to stay in Stamford itself but the railway makes it easy to get in every day.

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We arrived on Wednesday for the trot up and thanks to a miscommunication with our taxi driver we had all our luggage with us and were very nearly too late.

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I still enjoyed it though and it was good to get our bearings a little bit before the event proper started.  We  found a lovely little gate which saved us a lot of time!

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The two days of dressage were excellent.  I find it very encouraging to see that the professionals don’t always score eights and nines – there were even a few ones!  The leader board was changing right up until the end of Friday which always makes things more interesting!   I was surprised though at the number of people who thought it was okay to move about during the tests.  I have always been taught to stay still and be quiet until the test is over.

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There was also some great lunchtime entertainment.  On Thursday we got to watch a gundog display which taught me that my dog will get madder as she grows up.  Very encouraging.

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Friday had two masterclasses with Chris Bartle and Richard Waygood.  Ros Canter and Alex Postolowsky were the riders and I found it so interesting to watch.  Hopefully I learnt something too.

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Saturday had blazing sunshine all day long but since there were only sixty cross country starters we had to hurry a bit to make sure we got round the course.  It was so hot!  Several times I had to stop from a rest in the shade.

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It was a fantastic course and I had a brilliant day.  I’m sure we could get closer to the fences than at Badminton which was a great treat.

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The only downside was that we could only hear the loudspeakers when we were somewhere near the main arena so we didn’t really have much idea of what was going on.  I only knew something (I didn’t know what) had happened to Michael Jung when I heard that Izzy Taylor had gone into second behind Gemma Tattersall.  I never realised Andrew Nicholson had fallen until I got back to the hotel!

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It was a great day and apart from the jumping I was very pleased to find a vintage tea shop for breakfast!

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Sunday was another good day, with exciting moments right up until the end.  It was fantastic to have a British 1-2-3-4.

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Again,  the lunchtime entertainment was great.  I always enjoy watching the military band but the racehorse to riding horse class was really interesting and I loved all of the donkeys from the Donkey Breed Society.  They were so cute!

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Part of the fun of a big event like Burghley is just wandering around the grounds absorbing the atmosphere and looking at the tradestands.   I was very restrained when it came to shopping but I saw this gilet and given the tag line of this blog I just had to have it!

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I had a wonderful week and I will definitely be going to Burghley again.