Burghley Review: Day Three

Saturday started earlier than the others for us, as it was the ever-popular cross country day! After a cooked breakfast, in which I ate far too much, mistakenly believing that doubling my portions would give me more energy to walk around but instead made me need a nap at about eleven o'clock, we arrived at Burghley at about twenty past eight. Again, there were no queues, and whilst we weren't as close to the front as we had been the day before, we were in an ideal spot to leave the ground later on.

We had a wander round and got a reviving cup of tea to perk us up after the insane amount of calories consumed at breakfast, and then looked at the Burghley app to decide which fence to start our cross country day on. My mum was still mystified by the Leaf Pit and so we opted to head there, knowing that it wasn't too far a walk and that it would also be popular, so at about quarter past ten we set off for it.

Louise Lyons on Watership Down

Crowds had already started to gather, although we did have a brilliant spot just to the left of the drop, right in front of the fence, and for just over half an hour we had nothing to do but bemoan the lack of signal on our phones and then let my mum try to work out, for the umpteenth time, exactly how anybody had the nerve to jump the sight in front of her. Thankfully, after about ten minutes of this, the first competitor was on her way (picture, left), and although my mum gasped audibly after watching her negotiate the Leaf Pit quietly and accurately, she was thankfully left in no doubt that the jump was, in fact, possible - despite her earlier suspicions! We stayed for a couple more competitors to satisfy her that it wouldn't, in fact, break a horse's leg or a rider's neck if tackled properly, and then walked on to the next fence, the Elephant Trap.

We followed the course round from this point, stopping at a crowded Discovery Valley to watch a couple of rounds, and then continued up towards the Trout Hatchery. Although it was busy, crowds tended to disperse after each rider and so almost everybody got a turn at the front to get the best shot on their cameras or just a brilliant view of the action. Using the ever-helpful app, I knew what times the riders I really wanted to see were starting, and I could gauge whether to stay at a fence or walk on to the next one using the course map.

We saw Andrew Nicholson on Calico Joe at fence number eight, Herbert's Hedge, and then also got to the Trout Hatchery in time just to see Oliver Townend retire his first ride of the day. This fence caught out a few people, although we didn't linger too long here as the crowds were massive around here. I am still trying to work out what exactly the appeal of the water jumps is over fences like Discovery Valley and the Dairy Mound - perhaps it's just the prospect of watching a poor unfortunate soul take an ill-timed dunking!

We stopped for a few riders at the HSBC Maltings Branch, and we had such a good view that as one of the horses galloped past us, we were hit in the face by some hoof-shaped clods of mud (possibly the only time I will not be annoyed about getting mud thrown at my face!). All of the other spectators (and the many numerous dogs) were very friendly and happy to take their turn at the front before letting somebody else have a go, and there was a wonderful, buzzy atmosphere the whole way around.

After walking a little more of the course and stopping for some lunch with what felt like a deadweight picnic backpack near the Dairy Mound, we made our way up to the top for the Cottesmore Leap - another fence that my mum just couldn't wrap her head around, and one that I like to have grand visions that I would fly over, but in reality would be far too scared to even walk a horse up to.

The crowds here were pretty deep as well, with there not being as many fences in the vicinity, but being patient for a couple of riders will get you a good view at the front. Watching the horses and riders tackle such a jump of epic proportions is truly mind-boggling, and makes me wonder why I get nervous about jumping a few blocks and poles in an indoor school as soon as it goes above a certain height! Once we'd seen a couple of riders here, we walked down Winners' Avenue, watched a couple of fences here in the heat of the afternoon before heading down to the Burghley Station and the Anniversary Splash, which was nigh on impossible to see from that side of the fence. We decided to cross Lion Bridge and try to watch it from the other side, and we got a much better view of the horses coming straight on at us. We had to wait a while to see anybody jump it as one or two people retired before they reached us, but it was worth the wait (the following video is my terrible footage of Polly Stockton and Westwood Mariner tackling the three fences - apologies for it being the wrong way round, video editing is not my strong point!).

We watched Bettina Hoy over the Jubilee Leap, the Cottesmore Leap's smaller and only slightly less intimidating cousin, and then decided to skip a packed arena and carry on to the Flower Frame, before heading back to the last fence (and also the first and second fences), which was located in Ring 2. We stayed here for a good forty five minutes or so, watching horses come and go in almost perfect synchronisation, and the backdrop of Burghley House made it all the more stunning.

 

After a few more of this, with the crowds starting to thin ever so slightly, we headed back to the arena to see the Legacy fences - all three of which had been moved from the Olympic site of Greenwich to here (more were at Blenheim which was a week later than Burghley). The only fence we didn't see jumped was the Vegetable Stall, and it seemed a long way to go for a relatively straight-forward fence, so having seen it the day before, we opted to call it a day not long after the last rider on the course, Mark Todd, had set off, and we headed back to the hotel, thoroughly exhausted from the long walk, sporting some spectacular sunburn and tan lines but feeling exhilerated from what we'd seen that day.

 

Top Tips:

- Be prepared for a hike! Some people camped all day at certain fences, but never having been to Burghley before, we were determined to take in everything, which many people seemed to do. I can't recommend this enough - some fences we only watched one horse and rider at, others we watched a few, to give ourselves a break and to see the riders we were particularly looking forward to watching. The course map helped us with this, as we knew what we were heading for and which fences we wanted to spend a bit of time at.

- Take your food with you - It might weigh a ton to lug your lunch around with you, but at least you won't be bored from standing in a queue for a mediocre jacket potato that you have to spend seven pounds to get...we stopped by the Dairy Mound which was probably just over halfway round, and it was perfect. We were out of the way of the main crowd around the jump, but we could see the action clearly from where we were sitting.

- Don't forget the suncream! I had no idea my nose had burnt until I got back to the hotel and took off my sunglasses. Who needs to go abroad, eh?!

 

Purchases

Amazingly, we were very restrained on cross country day - our only purchase was a cup of tea in the morning before we set off!