Burghley Young Event Horse Final 2008
To put you in the picture, for those of you who don’t know what this is all about, the Young Event Horse class is designed to show off the potential of young horses and is based on their age. Several qualifiers are held around the country leading up to the final at Burghley.
First the rider does a dressage test. The judge gives one mark out of 35 for the overall test. Individual movements are not marked separately as in a normal dressage test. The rider then goes straight on to the jumping phase, so can wear boots for jumping in the dressage. This is marked out of 40 and includes some Show Jumps and some Cross Country fences. Straight after that the saddle is removed and the horse is taken to the conformation judge. He looks at the static conformation and then sees it trot up. This is marked out of 15. So a maximum of 90 good marks can be achieved. After all the horses have been judged the top 10 are called in for the final, where they are judged under saddle again on the flat, and are expected to show a gallop. Further marks are awarded for 'star quality' and final placings, which when totalled with the first round give the winners. A cross country course is not jumped.
I travelled up to Burghley with Dani Evans, who is an up and coming young rider, who also had a horse in the 5 year old class. We went with the attitude that it would be good experience, but also felt that our horses had the ability to come in the top 10 if they went well. We arrived at Burghley in good time so we could walk the show jumping course before the competition started. It was quite big, and included a one stride double of narrow cross country fences, and a bullfinch. We knew there would be some cross country jumps included and felt it was a fair test.
Dani went first and after showing off their paces well in the dressage went on to jump a good clear round. Billy was up for the party and was feeling very well. Once he stopped bucking exuberantly he worked nicely. He did a steady relaxed dressage test and then show jumped fantastically. He touched one fence, but then gave everything else at least a foot and had a clear round.
Billy's jumping mark was good, but his dressage and conformation marks were disappointing. With hindsight I probably should have pushed for a bit more in the dressage, but I decided it was better to keep him relaxed and with all 4 feet on the ground! The conformation part is very subjective and depends on the judge’s preferences on the day. Billy had scored much higher marks in the qualifiers, but he is still growing and changing. I was really pleased with him at this his first really big event as the atmosphere was much more exciting than he has ever experienced before. Dani just missed getting into the final by 1 point, which was a shame, but she was pleased with her horse.
Pippa Funnell won on a smart bay mare which looked very flashy. To top it off she came 1st and 2nd in the 4 year old class as well. I’m sure these will be horses to beat in the future!
After the class had finished we walked round the cross country course for the 4* event. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the rain started and very soon we were soaked. When Dani’s fingers went blue we decided to head for home! The jumps we saw certainly looked big and bold, and the rain would add to the test. Considering the rainfall over the last few weeks the ground looked brilliant and showed all the hard work that had been put in. Walking round made me more determined to ride there in the future, and not just in the Young Event Horse class!
