Burghley Review: Day Four

All too soon, Sunday morning had crept around, and the weather matched our mood at having to go home later that day - overcast and a little drizzly. It seemed hard to believe that it was already show jumping day, and that in just a few short hours, we'd be attempting to cram all of our new belongings into my less-than-generous three-door Corsa and fall out with the sat nav halfway back across Lincolnshire.

Checking out from the hotel (and for reference, we stayed at the Ferry Meadows Premier Inn, which I would definitely recommend), we opted to pack up the car in the car park which was probably a bad idea, as by the time we got to Burghley - no queues once again - we'd decided that all of the room in the back seat had to be filled, and found ourselves drawn irresistibly towards the trade stands - just for a change!

Show jumping, however, was the real reason we were there, and as we'd had the foresight to book grandstand tickets, we were determined not to miss out on any of the action from the final day. We deposited the last of our purchases back in the car, and made it in to the main arena after only a handful of competitors had done their rounds for the day. The weather continued to rain lightly on and off, but it wasn't particularly cold, or wet enough to dampen anybody's spirits, and so we enjoyed the morning's session of show jumping, my mum especially vocal, much to everybody's amusement around us!

At around quarter past twelve, the first half of the competitors had done their rounds, and we had a break during which it was time to go and find some lunch, or stay and watch the ex-racehorse demonstration. I would have liked to have seen the demo, but decided that lunch was the more pressing need, and so we went back to the car to eat some lunch - no picnic blankets in the sunshine outside the car today, as the heavens decided to open just as we made it back, so we instead had a slightly cramped and undignified lunch surrounded by the last of our shopping and a steering wheel!

We came back into the main arena at about ten to two, as there was to be a parade of the Olympic silver medal-winning team, and having been glued to the Olympics from start to finish, I was determined not to miss this. Minus Tina Cook, the four other silver medallists of Mary King, Zara Phillips, Nicola Wilson and William Fox-Pitt came into the arena and did two laps around, and although it sounds like there is barely any noise on the video, it was a different story in person!

 

 

After the parade, it was back to business - the top 25 placed competitors' show jumping rounds. So far, the red postbox fence had been the bogey of the course, but the treble combination had seen a couple of casualties and the gate wasn't taking much of a knock to go. We watched as rider after rider came in, and very few managed clear rounds (although those that did included Bettina Hoy and Dirk Schrade), but the atmosphere got more tense as we got closer to the finish. Oliver Townend had a good ride on Armada, and then when William Fox-Pitt had two down you could almost hear the whole crowd do an intake of breath. Andrew Nicholson had one fence down, which left the leader, Sinead Halpin (having led from the dressage phase) with three fences in hand. Few could believe it when she had a relatively simple fence down, and then another fell before she had even reached the bogey postbox fence. Everybody watched with baited breath as she approached it...and it rolled! This put Andrew Nicholson above her, making him the winner of Burghley Horse Trials 2012, and Sinead Halpin wore a wry smile as she cantered out of the showjumping arena.

We stayed to watch the prize-giving, and headed back to the car after William Fox-Pitt had been awarded the HSBC FEI Classics title for the second time, and although we had to wait marginally longer to get out of the grounds this time, it was still only a matter of minutes, and we were on our way home after the most incredible four days.

Top Tips:
- Buy Sunday grandstand tickets - This sounds obvious, but they sell out very quickly. Ours weren't expensive - £10 in the uncovered seating area - but had we booked earlier, we might have been able to choose our block (although the view was still very good). You don't want to miss all of the drama for the sake of ten pounds!
- Take a good camera - You'll regret not getting all of the good pictures from the lap of honour and the final rounds of the show jumping by the time you get home!

Purchases:

Burghley Hoodie, £59.95 from Burghley Collection at Joules (although mine was on sale at £49.95)

Polo shirt, £39.95 from Joules

Roeckl riding gloves, £21.50 from Townfields Saddlers

(plus the rest that my mum decided she couldn't live without!)

Verdict
I had been looking forward to Burghley all year, ever since my mum had offered to buy me two tickets for my birthday all the way back in March. I opted to take her with me, but at the back of my mind I did wonder how much she would enjoy it, not being at all horsey beyond taking an interest in it as my hobby. I knew I would have a good time, but I thought my mum would be bored after the first day or two.

Having now been to the event, and seen everything it has to offer, I can't believe that it has taken me fifteen years, since I first started riding, to come here! The shopping village is incredible - I think it's more than a little obvious that I'm fond of Joules, but it was too hard to list all of the many other incredible handmade things we bought for other people, or the small gifts we found for friends (and Christmas presents as well!). If you ride, it is paradise. If you don't ride, stands like Joules and the craft tents are fascinating and the majority aren't even equestrian. There is so much to see and do that we felt we had only just about managed to take in most of it by the end of the fourth day - and I'm still sure that we missed something out.

With regards to the horse trials itself, my mum arrived at Burghley knowing nothing about horses beyond what I had briefly (and inarticulately) tried to demonstrate over the years, and she has left with a renewed enthusiasm for the sport. She will never get on a horse herself, but since coming home I have found her with her head buried in Horse and Hound, and asking about the dates for next year. She was fascinated by the dressage (at least after I had explained what a flying change was!), gripped by the cross country, and far too excited by the show jumping. When we arrived back home, she confessed that she was gutted it was all over, and it had far and away surpassed all of her expectations, and that whether I wanted to go next year or not, she would be returning. And that, I think, has to be the biggest achievement of them all.