Britain’s Ros Canter and her charismatic horse Lordships Graffalo entered the pantheon of greats in the sport of eventing with an emphatic triumph Sunday at the Defender Burghley CCI5*-L (England).
Their finishing score of 23.6 is the best in the 63-year history of Defender Burghley and is the climax of a golden 18-month run for Ros with Archie and Michele Saul’s 12-year-old Lordships Graffalo. This has included victories at the Mars Badminton CCI5*-L (England) and the 2023 European Championships (France), plus an Olympic team gold medal in Paris six weeks ago.
“It was an amazing opportunity to bring ‘Walter’ here,” said Canter, who lives in Lincolnshire, close to Burghley House, which hosts the five-star and has been competing there since her Pony Club days. “If there was ever an event and a horse that were well-matched, this was it.
“Defender Burghley has always been an event I felt I hadn’t got quite right and it was great to be able to bring a horse like Walter and to let rip. I was determined to enjoy it—I sometimes struggle to enjoy top-level competitions—but this week I felt I got the balance right.”
The pair started the weekend with a score of 22 in dressage to sit in second place behind Canter on her other horse, Izilot DHI. When that horse had a run-out early on course and pulled up, Canter’s challenge was to jump clear on “Walter” to stay ahead of Tim Price and Vitali, who were just behind them in dressage on a score of 22.3 but ended up with 3.2 time penalties cross-country.
Watch the double-clear cross-country round—one of just four double-clears on Saturday’s course—that put Canter and Walter in first place going into the final show jumping phase and earned them the Avebury Trophy for the best-ridden cross-county round. All video courtesy of Burghley.tv:
On show jumping day, Price rode brilliantly to conjure a near-perfect round—just one fence down—on Joe and Alex Giannamore’s Vitali, a famously difficult horse to manage in the tense atmosphere of the final day and finish on a score of 29.5.
“You have to reinvent the wheel each time with this horse,” Price said. “I believe in him and have long been trying to find the key to his long-format jumping issues, so I am thrilled. Today will go down as one of the greatest days of my life.”
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With Price’s one mistake, Canter entered the ring with a rail and time in hand. She didn’t need it, though, producing a clear round with just 1.6 time penalties for a final score of 23.6—good for not just the win but a Defender Burghley record low score.
Watch their winning show jumping round:
Following Canter and Price, Great Britain’s Harry Meade was third and fourth on two mares, Cavalier Crystal, also third in 2023, and the relatively inexperienced Annaghmore Valoner, plus 12th on Superstition.
“It’s been a whirlwind week trying to do all three horses justice, and so this is a great outcome,” said Meade, whose late father Richard won Burghley exactly 60 years ago, in 1964. “As a little boy, I grew up wanting to ride at the big events. It’s what I try and dedicate my life to and one day I hope to be sitting where Ros is sitting.”
The top-place U.S. rider in the competition was U.K.-based Cosby Green, who finished 16th with Copper Beach on a score of 49.6.
See complete results here.
