This is reprinted from England's Horse and Hound magazine.

 

Ros Canter has claimed the Mars Badminton Horse Trials trophy with Lordships Graffalo, who at the age of 13 is already deserving of the title “all time great”, for the second time.

Rosalind Canter on Lordships Graffalo (Photo by Peter Nixon)From fourth in the Badminton Horse Trials results after dressage, to second after cross-country, the pair seized victory when the long-time leader Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent lowered one rail to finish second.

Like Kauto Star regaining the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Michele and Archie Saul’s Lordships Graffalo (Walter) has become the first horse in Badminton history to win the title twice, but not back-to-back.

In 2023, Ros and Walter won their first Badminton title, and have since gone on to win European gold and Burghley.

Ros was visibly emotional afterwards.

“This was for Caroline Moore, she was by my side my whole career and passed away a couple of months ago,” she said. “I’m so pleased I managed to make her proud. It’s the first time I’ve done anything without her. Not only was she my trainer and mentor, but also the best friend.”

 

JUST LIKE his immaculate cross-country round, Walter’s clear in the famous arena appeared foot-perfect. Perhaps they took off on a smidgen of a long stride at fence six, but this was a class act confirming their legendary status.

“I’m not sure it was my best round,” said Ros. “I was really nervous. I am so used to having Caroline keeping me occupied, and I was sat by myself quite a bit this morning. It was mind over matter. But I had Nick Turner and Chris Bartle helping me and they filled me with confidence.”

The great horse played a big part on that front, too.

“He just relishes it; he absolutely loves anywhere that people are watching him,” Ros said. “Most horses as they get older, they almost get trickier, because that anticipation is there. But Walter relaxes into the environment in a nice, bubbly way and just thoroughly enjoys himself. I feel like he helped me out quite a lot, because I was quite nervous.”

Ros explained how she approached the showjumping, after Kelvin Bywater’s track yielded just two clears inside the time in the morning session.

“I re-walked the course at lunchtime and made sure I had a clear plan of where I wanted to go,” she said. “I went straight down to let Walter have a look around.

“Some in the morning session, when the bell went they hadn’t had a chance to go up the gears, so I made sure I got down quickly to give me time to get the gears going. Walter would sit pretty in a fairly average canter if I let him!”

Ros admitted she couldn’t watch Oliver’s round.

“I didn’t want to wish bad on anyone else,” she said. “I would have been quite happy with second and this win is the icing on the cake. Oliver is a fantastic performer, and his horse will definitely have her day here.

“Weeks like this are always rollercoasters, and I am quite pleased it’s finished – though maybe I could do it all again now,” she smiled.

“I am just so lucky to have Walter – he’s a cool customer, a bit of a pet who likes to lick and chew and play games. I am forever grateful to Michele and Archie for buying him, and Pennie [Wallace] for breeding him.”

How the Badminton Horse Trials results played out

Although the minor placings were very tight, there was more room for manoeuvre at the top.

Oliver had only three time-faults in hand over Ros, but these two had a couple of rails to spare over third-placed Gemma Stevens.

When Gemma and Chilli Knight had a very uncharacteristic five fences down, there was still Austin O’Connor in striking distance thanks to his clear round, a whisker outside the time on Colorado Blue. They finished third in a virtual copy of the 2023 podium, although with Oliver runner-up on Cooley Rosalent rather than Ballaghmor Class.

Harry Meade set the target for the top 20 going in the afternoon session. Jumping out of order because he was riding two horses, he put in a beautiful fault-free clear on his Burghley third Cavalier Crystal – to move up from seventh to eventual fourth.

He had less luck on Superstition, who was looking fantastic until a miscommunication saw them plough through fence 10, but they regrouped incredibly well to finish with two down. They slipped one place to sixth.

One of the favourites for the title at the start of the week, Tom McEwen produced a copybook clear, on JL Dublin, leaving us all to wonder quite how close he might have come had he not activated a frangible across-country to add 11 penalties to his second-placed dressage. They moved up from 14th to finish ninth on 44.2.
Badminton Horse Trials results: top 10

Only two Americans competed at Badminton.

Grace Taylor finished 30th on Game Changer after finishing 47th in dressage, and Tiana Coudray on Concaras Girl, 37th after dressage, finished 44th.

1. Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) 25.3
2. Oliver Townend (Cooley Rosalent) 26.3
3. Austin O’Connor (Colorado Blue) 31.2
4. Harry Meade (Cavalier Crystal) 33.8
5. Emily King (Valmy Biats) 38.5
6. Harry Meade (Superstition) 39.8
7. Christoph Wahler (D’Accord FRH) 40.2
8. Bubby Upton (Cola) 44.2
9. Tom McEwen (JL Dublin) 44.2
10. Tim Price (Vitali) 46.2