A thrilling finale is guaranteed at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials tomorrow as the top New Zealand horseman Tim Price holds only a miniscule lead over the legendary British rider William Fox-Pitt after a gripping day’s cross-country sport. Tim, 45, has ridden at all the world’s seven five-star events but has never won Badminton; William, 55, has won five of the northern hemisphere three-day events including Badminton twice, in 2004 and 2015, has come back from a serious head injury eight-and-a-half years ago and has inferred that Badminton’s 75th anniversary will be his last competitive appearance here 25 years after his first. In contrast in current third place is 27-year-old Badminton first-timer Lucy Latta from Ireland, a one-horse rider who holds down a full-time job in a drinks marketing company; she rose from 46th place on RCA Patron Saint after dressage with the fastest round of the day, finishing just one second over the optimum time of 11 minutes 19 seconds. Tim, who added four time penalties to his dressage score on Vitali, does not have a show jumping rail in hand over William tomorrow. The final phase has thus far been Vitali’s weakest, but Tim said: ‘He is the all-round event horse who hasn’t showed it in all three phases yet, but he will. ‘He gave everything he had today – he was just class. His show jumping has been good recently and I think I’ve got a bit of a plan in place. He’s buzzing with fitness and wellness so hopefully that will help tomorrow, but I’m just going to enjoy it for today.’ William, who has won Badminton on a gelding and a stallion, is now riding a mare, Grafennacht, for the first time at this level: ‘She’s a cracking mare – anyone could ride her; she always says “yes”. She’s not put a foot wrong and is a great old man’s conveyance. ‘I was optimistic about today because she has never had a cross-country fault. I did take a long route and circle at the Dew Pond (between 17b and 18) and Tim didn’t, so that serves me right!’ ‘I set out at a good pace because I knew he’d stay the distance,’ said Lucy, whose cousins are the event rider and Grand National-winning jockey Elizabeth and Robbie Power respectively. ‘My horse “Paddy” was phenomenal out there and gave me a great feeling over the Vicarage Vee. He’s a good show jumper, but he’s never done such a long, big course so we’ll have to see what happens tomorrow.’ There was a 48% strike rate of clear rounds over course-designer Eric Winter’s track and horses finished well in front of the cheering crowds enjoying the sunshine. Forty-one of the 62 cross-country starters completed, but the dressage leader Ros Canter with Izilot DHI retired after hitting a frangible pin at the Lake. Emily King, daughter of dual winner Mary King, achieved her first cross-country completion at Badminton and is in fourth place on Valmy Biats. In a good day for the Emerald Isle, regular team member Sarah Ennis is in fifth on Grantstown Jackson, just ahead of Kiwi Caroline Powell, sixth on Greenacres Special Cavalier, and Swiss rider Felix Vogg (Cartania, seventh). British riders Tom Jackson (Capels Hollow Drift), Pippa Funnell (MCS Maverick) and Alexander Bragg (Quindiva) complete the top 10. The final horse inspection takes place at 8.30am tomorrow, followed by the start of show jumping (first part) at 11.30am. The afternoon session, which will be attended by HM The Queen, starts at 2.55pm.

This month, we've been diving into stories of where both patience and play mindset pay off big in the end. On that note, let us bring you the story of Equestrian Masterclass instructor Chelsea Canedy and her amazing mustang mare, Luna. Luna came to Chelsea as an unbroke and wild 6 year old who only knew the very rudimentary basics of how to be haltered, led, and sent onto a trailer down a chute. Up until that point, she had lived her life on BLM property in a wild herd in California, and needed not only to be taught the basics of being eventually ridden, but also the basics of simply being around humans. The path hasn't been easy, but through taking things slow and never going faster than Luna was ready to handle, they're now well on their way to a solid partnership. Canedy and Luna will be participating in September's Mustang Classic, a competition meant to showcase this amazing breed's versatility and capability. We will definitely check back in on them during the event. For now, read about her amazing journey with Luna, and what it can teach us all about horses and horsemanship! Sophie Coffey: How did you acquire Luna? What were the circumstances that brought her into your life?  Chelsea Canedy: It all started with Tik (Maynard)! We were chatting late summer of 2023 and we just found out that he was going to Road to the Horse, and we were talking about his prep for that, and he said, “You know, if I wasn’t doing Road to the Horse I would be doing the Mustang Classic,” to which I replied, “I have no idea what that is.” So he forwarded me the email from the Mustang Heritage Foundation and said, “You should do it, you would do a great job. It would be such a cool experience to do something with a mustang.”  The more I read about it, the more I decided that it was really something I wanted to participate in, both because it would be an amazing learning experience and because it fit really well with my expertise. The former because while I’ve handled green horses and I’ve started some horses, I’ve never worked with a horse that was completely untouched. The latter because of the eventing format of the competition, and then there’s an added bonus of if you get into the Top 10 of the competition, you get to do a freestyle of liberty work. So it married all of the things that I really enjoy doing plus the fact that I would need to also learn a lot to rise to the occasion for it.  Sophie Coffey: What are the criteria for the Mustang Classic? Is it similar to the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover event in that the horse has to be a certain age/can’t have more than X number of rides, etc? Chelsea Canedy: First off, the horse needs to be adopted from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after a set date in September of 2023, and it needs to be a wild horse. I believe that you can get an approved BLM horse from a second party in that time frame as long as they’re still relatively untouched, but I personally wanted to start from scratch.  The one thing that I figured out pretty quickly though was that most of the mustangs are out West, and I’m about as far East as you can get since I live in Maine, and there are just not a lot of easy ways to get a hold of a mustang out here. There was also some weird timing in that the BLM and the Mustang Heritage Foundation parted ways for their programming right when it was time to acquire a horse, and so it became that much harder to find one. I wound up turning to some mustang Facebook groups asking if anyone could help me, and this wonderful woman named Meg in Ohio who had been part of the BLM’s Tip Trainer program, where someone will take a mustang and get the very basic handling on them. They can get loaded onto a trailer, haltered, brushed, and comfortable with their feet getting picked. So she had been doing that in partnership with the Mustang Heritage Foundation for years, and she saw one of my posts and told me that she was going to a pen in just a few days and said she would look for me.  She looked at a lot of mustangs and sent me videos and pictures and called me while she was there, and we wound up both picking Luna together. First off, Luna was very curious, she didn’t come right to the edge of the pen, but she really watched Meg and tracked her. Second, she had a cute build to her, she had a more athletic look to her as well that I thought would serve us well in our journey. Third and finally, she was 6, so a little bit older than the 5 I was aiming for, but since I knew I would need to start jumping relatively soon I didn’t want to pick one that was 3 or 4.  One thing I want to say is that I really couldn’t have found Luna without the help of the online Mustang community. These people love mustangs, and they put their heart and soul into the work they do with them and really believe in the mission of getting them out of BLM holding pens and into good homes where they’re going to learn how to be good citizens so they can have a happy life.  So Meg brought Luna to her place and the timing worked out that she was with her for 2-3 weeks, and she put in those basics I mentioned earlier so that when she brought Luna down to Kentucky, where I happened to be teaching, I could load her up easily and take her back to Maine. Sophie Coffey: What were the first goals that you had with Luna, and how long did it take to accomplish them? Chelsea Canedy: I knew right away that I was not in a hurry, that if I really took my time in the beginning, that things would go quicker in the long run. I made it my mission to just earn her trust and open a very clear line of communication. It’s so interesting with mustangs, and Luna is my first one, they are very wary of people and human touch, but not so much with objects in their world. So getting them to touch a human’s hand or take food from a human can be tricky, but getting them to take food out of a bucket that you’re holding is much easier.  Right away, I used a clicker and got her into positive reinforcement training. Immediately, that gave me AND her absolute clarity when she did something that I wanted her to do, and she really thrived with that type of mindset. And oh my God are mustangs smart  - I cannot overstate how intelligent Luna is. It blows my mind. I just today taught her how to do the Spanish Walk, and it took her three minutes to figure it out, whereas other horses it’s taken three days and they barely have it. It’s because they grow up in the wild where literally everything is a problem for them to solve their whole life, and they always have to be extremely “street smart.”  That also, from what I understand anecdotally and from what I’ve experienced, those street smarts also make them extremely wary of people. It’s not true of ALL mustangs, but it was definitely true with Luna. It took me weeks and weeks for me to just be able to put a rope around her neck and run my hands over her body. Once she understood that I was her person, though, she was game to try anything, she just tries so hard. I think that not rushing her or forcing her into anything really created that strong foundation for us, one that was built on trust and choice.  Sophie Coffey: What has the journey been like overall? What were some setbacks, and how did you move through them? When do you feel like things really turned the corner from them? When I had just started to ride Luna, I had a pretty bad fall where she blind bolted away from me and I couldn’t stay on. It was a very humbling experience, and also one that really shook me because I thought I had checked all of the boxes you needed to check when starting a horse from scratch, and Luna had been amazing. She trusted me and was willing to try anything, so there were no signs that I had missed anything along the way because she was so relaxed and so happy.  What happened is that when I got on her that particular day, she started to put a little of her own energy into the work. Then, she felt me moving above her, which was only a sensation that she had felt before to a small degree. Then, she also felt me saying “wait, don’t do that,” which was a very new pressure for her, something pulling on her face. Ultimately, she genuinely didn’t understand what it all meant when she experienced it altogether, and became genuinely terrified as a result, and she just ran.  So I clearly knew that I had missed something in her training, some box I hadn’t checked, but in the moment I didn’t know what that something was. I took her down to Florida with me, and Tik was there prepping for Road to the Horse, and it was the perfect circumstance because he needed to be working with pretty unbroke horses, and Luna knew a ton of stuff on the ground but she wasn’t broke to ride. So her level of riding was about where Tik’s mount would be at Road to the Horse.  Tik had been doing a ton of prep work for his own journey, and had learned that you had to up the pressure and the amount of energy that you put out around the horse. It wasn’t enough to keep things quiet all the time, you had to do more, touch them ALL over, make more noise, do things above, around, behind, and help them learn how to be OK when things got to be “too much.”  I watched him go through that process with her, and I would go back home and work on it, and I would take her back and she would be further along and then Tik would take the next step. So when he finally did get on her, she also had the same bolting behavior with him, but he was smart and was in a round pen in a western saddle, the first of which I hadn’t done myself because my round pen was buried under snow and ice. Tik was set up to basically ride it out, and I was not.  It took her about a minute of “I don’t know what’s happening!” before she settled down in that ride, and it took her only about 2-3 rides where she was squirrelly like that to start until she said, “Oh, ok, this is just another thing to learn and accept.” I would say that it took about a month of riding sessions like that to get her to the point where she was really solid, where I felt like I could take her out of the round pen and start walking, trotting, and cantering.  What that entire process with Tik helped me realize is that I had done a really good job helping her to understand how to solve the problems I was asking her, but I hadn’t done as good a job teaching her how to manage her own emotions when the answer wasn’t easy to find and the energy of a situation became overwhelming for her. So she was super relaxed when I had been training her, but I never pressed her into a situation where she might not be, because I was trying really hard to keep everything quiet, calm, and relaxed.  Sophie Coffey: What are you working on with Luna today, and how would you describe where she is in her training?Chelsea Canedy: Now Luna just feels like a green horse. Wait, let me revise that, because I just found out that Luna is actually a pony. We had her measured and she is 14.2 hands tall, which is a lot smaller than what they said on her BLM papers. Right now she’s working on understanding contact. I would also say that she is 100% a boss mare, so she can set her jaw and have some, “I’d rather not,” types of moments, so it can take some coaxing to tell her it’s OK to let go. I think it’s still really hard for her to let go completely and just be willing to have a conversation with me under saddle, because she just has a little part of herself that’s on guard.  The jumping, though, she’s a beast. I point her at something and she just says, “Ok, I’m going!” But I started her at liberty with jumping, and I used the clicker and clicked every time she jumped, so she’s just never been afraid of it. And now she’s just a little bit of a machine, I point her and I soften the reins and she goes. So right now, we’re just working on being able to keep a steady rhythm with her over the jumps and cruise around the course.  Sophie Coffey: When is the competition, how much more time do you have?  Chelsea Canedy: I feel really good right now, the competition isn’t until September, so I feel like I have time now to really put polish on everything. I feel like I could go right now, but it wouldn’t be as pretty as I would like to make it, so now I have time to make it beautiful. We take lots of field trips together, and we’re entered to do Beginner Novice at a competition in July (which I think we’ll just do the Dressage and then decide if we’re jumping or not day of, because the Mustang competition is run at the Starter level). So we’ll go and have the experience of going to a new place, stabling off property, working in large groups with other horses, you know just getting the Horse Show experience. And then I have about 5-6 other local outings planned before the competition, and we’re just going to plug away at it all summer and hopefully be in a really good place come fall.  Sophie Coffey: Do you know what your long term plan with Luna might be past the competition?Chelsea Canedy: Well she measures as a pony and she really does clock around a course, and I think she’s only going to get better, but right now it's really hard to say. At this point, we definitely have a bond. I took her to a local show about a week ago, and I would leave her with a student when I had to go coach, and when she saw me as I was walking back she started to whinny at me, and she did it 5 or 6 times, so it was definitely an “I see my person!” reaction, and it’s very hard to have a horse like that and then say, “Ok, I’m going to sell them now.” I really don’t know what the future holds. I would like to think in the long run I’ve set her up well to be someone’s perfect pony, but I’m not at the point where I know how any of that is going to unfold. We have a lot of fun with the liberty work and I could see putting together some acts with her in the future… It's just hard because I love to do so many things and it's difficult to put enough attention into every aspect of the horse world that I enjoy! But I could see Luna being a wonderful low level eventing partner for someone, or children's hunter or jumper, or somebody's liberty horse who is also fun to ride. We just started our bridleless work And that's only going to make her a cooler horse in the long run. If you would like to learn from Chelsea, you may be interested in the following Equestrian Masterclass courses:Chelsea Canedy Teaches Groundwork 101The New Horse Starter Pack

Triple Badminton winner Ian Stark, who was victorious on the occasion of Badminton’s 50th anniversary in 1999, looks back on his best memories of the event Ian’s cross-country round on the powerful grey Murphy Himself, second in 1991, is remembered as one of the all-time great performances: ‘Murphy could flip from being quite normal to being a nutcase; he was always on that spectrum and if he was human I think would have been a nutty professor. But I thoroughly enjoyed my ride on him in 1991. ‘We were a bit behind on the clock as we came to the Centre Walk double of hedges, which most horses took on four strides, so I put my leg on. Afterwards I realised: “Oh my god, he took it in two”, yet it felt normal because he had such scope and power. ‘I didn’t carry a whip on him on the cross-country, but for some reason I had one in the show jumping that time. I threw it away, but it was too late because he shot forward and caught a fence and it cost us the win.’ Sir Wattie was the great horse that won back-to-back Badmintons in 1986 and 1988 (1987 was cancelled) as well as championship medals galore and double Olympic silver in 1988: ‘In 1986 it poured with rain and we were last to go across country. It was so bad that as I was on Phase C [roads and tracks] in torrential rain, I could see loads of people driving away and thought: “Hang on – I haven’t been yet!” ‘My wife Jenny had hunted Wattie that winter and hacked him in 18in of snow and it must have been good preparation as he produced the only clear cross-country round within the time. ‘The one-two (pictured) in 1988 [Glenburnie was second] was such a special thing and I must admit that I am pleased no one has ever matched it. I was being interviewed by Hugh Thomas for the BBC down in the stables and realised I hadn’t walked the course, so Dick Stillwell [trainer] had to talk me through it. When Hugh heard, he said: “Typical Stark!”‘ ‘Wattie was a quarter Welsh Cob and when he got excited, his knees would come up in typical native action. When he retired I gave him to Henrietta Knight as a trainer’s hack; she had him for another 13 years and he was the yard mascot.’ In 1999, Ian won Badminton’s golden jubilee event on the Duchess of Devonshire’s New Zealand-bred Jaybee in the presence of Queen Elizabeth ll: ‘This was the most unexpected win. Not only was the horse technically an eight-year-old in New Zealand terms, but we were drawn number one to go. ‘The weather was absolutely terrible; myself and Mark Todd, who was second to go on another NZ thoroughbred, Word For Word, both incurred 25 time penalties [there was a new scoring system that year with one penalty per second] and we both thought we had better chances on our second horses. In the end, neither of us completed on our second horses and we ended up first and second. ‘The then Duke of Beaufort, David Somerset, brought the Queen to the stables and said: “Her Majesty would like to speak to you.” She asked me what I thought of the course and, because it was twisty, I said it would suit a cross between a show jumper and a polo pony. She asked: “Does your horse fit in?” ‘She was just lovely. What was special was that when I first rode at Badminton in 1984, that was her last visit until she returned in 1999.’ Ian, who became a course-designer, of international events such as Chatsworth, Bramham and Maryland, is still competing on the Duchess of Devonshire’s advanced horse Chatsworth Diamond and his own new five-year-old, a grey Connemara type that closely resembles Stanwick Ghost, the horse on whom he twice led the cross-country at Badminton.

Thirty-seven combinations will go forward to showjump after this morning’s final horse inspection at MARS Badminton Horse Trials, including all of the overnight top 10. Tom Jackson’s first ride, yesterday’s pathfinder Farndon, was withdrawn overnight as was Helen Martin’s Andreas. Unfortunately two horses did not go through; MGH Bingo Boy was withdrawn from the holding box and HD Bronze was not accepted. Emily Gibson, groom to Pippa Funnell, won the Treehouse Sporting Colours Groom’s Prize. She has chosen to share the prize with Pippa’s other groom, Lily Wilson. The first group of horses will showjump from 11.30am, with the top 20 jumping in the afternoon from 2.55pm. Her Majesty The Queen, who is Patron of British Equestrian, will join the celebrations today to watch the final show jumping phase before presenting prizes to the winners.

Lucy Latta’s grandfather William Powell Harris rode at Badminton in 1971 and her cousin Robbie Power won the Grand National; she is a one-horse rider and works full time as a brand manager for canned drinks company White Claw. Tom Crisp is a retained firefighter and enjoys track days on his motorbike. David Doel runs the Lacock Dairy ice cream company in partnership with his father. Joseph Murphy has an identical twin brother and has four other brothers; he is a keen golfer. Kylie Roddy owns Aqua Equestrian equine therapy centre; she enjoys boxing. Emma Thomas plays the piano. Both Grace Taylor’s parents, Nigel and Ann, competed at Badminton and Burghley. Harry Mutch’s great uncle Eric Thompson was a regular competitor in the 1970s; Harry enjoys riding his motorbike. Gubby Leech, Tom Jackson and Jesse Campbell are keen golfers. Emily King completed the 2023 London Marathon with her boyfriend Sam Ecroyd. Daragh Byrne plays Gaelic football. Selina Milnes’s brother Greig Elliott is a farrier for Team GB and won the farrier prize at Badminton for shoeing Sammi Birch’s horse Finduss PFB. Lauren Innes is a full-time chartered accountant with a degree in biological sciences from Oxford and a Masters in Investment Banking. Gemma Stevens was proposed to during the press conference after winning Bicton 5* in 2021. Libby Seed is a full time account manager for Boston Scientific. Alex Bragg is a qualified, but not practising, farrier. Laura Collett schools racehorses. Harry Meade has has a degree in history of art. He proposed to Rosie during a Badminton course walk. Tom Rowland is a self-confessed eventing geek and can list every winner of Badminton. Wills Oakden is a keen pickleball player. His father James and aunt Frances Hay-Smith have both completed Badminton. Boyd Martin has started at all seven 5* in the world. Just Badminton to complete. Pippa Funnell first competed here in 1988. She has had published 22 books as part of Pippa’s Pony Tales, plus an autobiography and a training book. She is the only rider to have won the Rolex Grand Slam of Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky in traditional format. Sam Watson’s father John competed at Badminton in the 1970s; Sam is co-founder of EquiRatings and enjoys breeding and producing racehorses. Florian Ganneval is a full time farrier. Tiana Coudray was an international Irish Dancer up until age of 15; she finished eighth in the dancing world championships. Bubby Upton broke her back in a schooling accident last year and was told she might never walk again. Alice Casburn enjoys year-round beach swims and scuba diving. Rosie Bradley-Hole enjoys hunting and National Hunt racing (her brother, Harry Fry, is a trainer) as well as cross country skiing in Norway. Sarah Ennis is a keen sailor and diver and qualified to Dive Master level. William Fox-Pitt’s parents Oliver and Marietta competed at Badminton; he first rode here 35 years ago and has 24 completions to date. In 2015 he sustained a serious head injury and spent a week in an induced coma, but recovered in order to be picked for the 2016 Olympic Games. William has won the most 5* events, 14 so far. Arthur Marx works every morning in a stationary shop and is keen on racing. This year’s winner takes home £117,600

Andrew Nicholson has been presented with the most Armada dishes (given for completing Badminton five times) – he has seven and has completed the event 38 times. In 2017, after competing here for 33 years and breaking his neck in 2015, Andrew Nicholson finally bagged his Badminton title riding the 17-year-old Nereo. Sir Mark Todd has six Armada Dishes and this year William Fox-Pitt will be presented with his fifth for 25 completions. Last year’s champion, Ros Canter, will receive her first. Frank Weldon and Kilbarry were the first back-to-back winners (1955-56) before leading GB to Olympic eventing team gold in Stockholm. Sheila Willcox holds the record for winning three times on the trot, 1957-1959, twice on High and Mighty, and then Airs and Graces. Richard Walker remains the youngest ever winner at 18 years old in 1969, riding Pasha. Pippa Funnell is a three time winner and took the last long-format Badminton, in 2005 on Primmore’s Pride. William Fox-Pitt is the longest-standing Badminton competitor in 2024, having first competed here 35 years ago Chris Bartle, now the British team trainer, won in 1998 on Word Perfect II Nicolas Touzaint is the only Frenchman to win, in 2008 on Hildago de L’Ile. Michael Jung is the only German to win, in 2016 on his prolific gold medal winner La Biosthetique Sam FBW. He also became the second Rolex Grand Slam winner that year. Swiss rider Capt Hans Schwarzenbach won the third event back in 1951, riding Vae Victus. Jonelle Price first competed here 20 years ago, winning in 2018 on the little mare Classic Moet. Caroline Powell has 15 completions. Harry Meade has 12 completions. Tim Price has nine completions to date, but ahead of today’s showjumping, has yet to win. Four horses have completed seven times; Ballycotton (Andrew Harris and Sarah Longshaw), Comanche (James Robinson), Lenamore (Caroline Powell), and Over To You (Jeanette Brakewell). There were 22 competitors the first year Badminton hosted the first ever European Championship in 1953, won by Britain and Major Laurence Rook on Starlight XV. The late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed her only win as an owner when son-in-law Capt Mark Phillips rode Columbus to victory. In 1994, Mark Todd won Badminton on Horton Point, a catch ride he had never sat on, leading from the front as the pathfinder.

The Challenge Badminton Horse Trials Trophy ~ to the winning owner: Chris & Michelle Mann and rider Mars Equestrian Yeti Cool Box ~ to the winning rider: Caroline Powell Mars Equestrian and Spillers prize ~ £1,000 to the Groom of winner: Tristan Hudson Replica of the Trophy ~ to the top three riders and the winning owner: Chris & Michelle Mann, Caroline Powell, Lucy Latta, Alexander Bragg Mark Holliday Memorial Trophy ~ Groom of winner: Tristan Hudson Butler Challenge Bowl, with replica ~ for the highest placed British rider: Alexander Bragg Worshipful Company of Saddlers saddle ~ Rider with the best score who is under 25 on 1/1/25 and who has not previously won a Company saddle in the calendar year: Georgia Bartlett Silver Jubilee Plate ~ to the most successful rider, the horse to be owned by the rider alone, or in conjunction with immediate family: Lauren Innes for Global Fision M Laurence Rook Trophy ~ best British rider not previously completed Badminton: Emily King Glentrool Trophy ~ Horse & Rider who have made greatest improvement on their dressage placing: Wills Oakden & Arklow Puissance Frank Weldon Memorial Trophy ~ Rider of the youngest British owned and ridden horse in top 12: Alexander Bragg for Quindiva Cotswold Life Trophy ~ To the best British rider who is not entitled to wear the adult Union Jack Badge and whose permanent address is in the county of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire or Somerset: Alexander Bragg The William Miflin Memorial Trophy ~ To the rider of the horse with no cross-country jumping penalties and closest to optimum time: Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint Sport Horse Breeding of Great Britain ~ Owner of best horse sired by a SHB(GB) Graded Stallion or Premium Stallion, provided it is in the top 12: Leslie Crampton for RCA Patron Saint The British Horse Foundation £1000 ~ The Breeder of the highest placed British bred horse, provided it finished in the top 20: Richard Ames for RCA Patron Saint LeMieux rug ~ To the winner: Caroline Powell Farriers Prize ~ plaque to the owner and farrier of the best shod horse: 1st Sammi Birch Finduss PFB shod by Greig Elliott 2nd Monbeg Exclusive shod by Lyle Evans 3rd Valmy Biats shod by Nick O’Sullivan Stud Voucher £500 ~ owner of the highest placed British owned mare: Alexander Bragg and The Roe Family for Quindiva David Beaufort Memorial Trophy ~ to the person who has contributed to the running of the Horse Trials over many years: Harry Verney Treehouse Sporting Colours Grooms Award ~ Pippa Funnell’s grooms Emma Gibson and Lily Wilson (MCS Maverick) Embryo Transfer or OPU session ~ to the highest placed British bred or domiciled mare, courtesy of Tomlinson Equine: Greenacres Special Cavalier Breeder of the winner ~ Michael Callery Armada Dishes: William Fox-Pitt & Ros Canter

The superb New Zealand horsewoman Caroline Powell jumped her way to a historic victory at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershire on the occasion of the event’s 75th anniversary. Caroline, 51, and Chris and Michelle Mann’s Greenacres Special Cavalier crept steadily up the leaderboard from sixth place after cross-country with one of only four clear rounds. ‘I wasn’t ready for that,’ gasped Caroline ‘I thought third place would be great, but to win – wow. It’s awesome and it means so much – I’m not in my youth and just to get a horse to this stage is difficult enough, but to win – I can’t believe it.’ Ireland’s Lucy Latta made a dream Badminton debut to finish second on Leslie Crampton’s RCA Patron Saint and former farrier and rugby player Alex Bragg from Somerset climbed stratospherically from an original 60th place after dressage to finish third and best British rider on the Roe family’s mare Quindiva. ‘What a week,’ said Lucy. A one-horse rider with a full-time job as marketing manager for a drinks company, she is now the highest-placed Irish rider since Eddie Boylan won in 1965. ‘I made a total rider error at the third fence [which they had down], but my horse was phenomenal this week and I feel there’s loads more to come for him.’ Alex Bragg’s previous best result at Badminton was 36th. ‘This is a local event for me [he is based in Somerset], but I have had some bad luck here,’ he explained. ‘To be in the top ten was my dream, so I am speechless – for the first time ever. For me, Badminton and Burghley are jumping events and sometimes it can be anybody’s game.’ The top two after cross-country, Tim Price and William Fox-Pitt, both had nightmare show jumping rounds, dropping to eighth and 13th places respectively amid a clatter of poles – five for Tim, whose horse Vitali is a notoriously poor showjumper, and six for William on Grafennacht. It was not the career ending William, winner of 14 five-star events and a former number one, would have wished for. ‘At least I did it properly,’ he joked graciously. ‘I should have pulled the plug yesterday, but I have lived with a few moments in my career and it will all be fine tomorrow. I’m 55, I’m in one piece and I’ve been lucky.’ Emily King, whose mother Mary is a dual Badminton winner, achieved her first Badminton completion in style, finishing fourth on Valmy Biats, and Tom Jackson was fifth on the consistent Capels Hollow Drift. Jonelle Price, the first New Zealand woman to win Badminton, in 2018, was sixth on Grappa Nera, Tom Rowland had his best Badminton result in seventh place on Dreamliner, Pippa Funnell was masterful throughout on the inexperienced MCS Maverick to finish ninth and Bubby Upton, who only returned to the saddle in January after a serious injury, jumped clear on Cola to round off the top 10. Caroline Powell first came to Britain as a groom for triple Badminton winner Ian Stark. She won Burghley in 2010 on Lenamore and has won two team bronze medals for New Zealand, in 2010 and at the 2012 Olympic Games. Greenacres Special Cavalier is an Irish-bred, 11-year-old mare by Cavalier Royale, bred in Ireland by Michael Callery. Caroline first sat on her as a youngster. ‘You can have a good horse [Lenamore] and then you can disappear. “Cav” has had her tricky moments, but to be here, winning Badminton, is a dream come true.’

Delighted for Finduss PFB at Badminton. Finduss finished 22nd with Sammie Birch , owned by Parkfield Breeding and supplied by us as a 2yo. This is his second Badminton completion in a tough field he was clear X Country and jumped an amazing showjumping round in a class that caused so many problems amongst the leaders of the field .We are once again very proud of Finduss 🏆