What an exciting end to the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight produced a clear showjumping round to become the only combination in the competition to finish on their dressage score and secure their second five-star win.
The showjumping phase had a significant impact on the leaderboard with Gemma being the only rider in the top eight after cross-country not to pick up penalties.
Katie Magee riding Treworra finished second, her first time on a five-star podium, with just one fence down. The US’s Caroline Pamukcu also had on fence down, but moved up from fifth to third.
The pairs placed second and third after cross-country both had expensive showjumping rounds. Tim Price and Global Quest had three down to finish 11th. Holly Richardson with Ballyneety Silver Service dropped to 15th with 20 jumping faults, plus 0.8 of a time-fault.
Read all of the event reports below, and if you'd like to relive the action step by step, then you can replay the breaking news as it happened via our live news service.
Look back on the action with Horse & Hound
A Horse & Hound website subscription gives you instant access, wherever you are, to all of our coverage of the event with no limit on how much you can read, from as little as £1 a week. Sign up now to enjoy all the news as it happened, including our live news service, which was running throughout the event.
The autumn five-star is directed by Martyn Johnson, and the course-designer is Derek di Grazia. If you're planning to attend, book your Burghley tickets, while you can.
Key stories
How much prize money did the Burghley winner receive?
The 2026 Burghley winner took home £120,000, which was an increase of £5,000 on 2025. The total prize fund at Burghley Horse Trials was £388,000.
Burghley Young Event Horse
Test your knowledge of Burghley 2026
Burghley Horse Trials 2027 dates
The Defender Burghley Horse Trials will be held on 2 to 5 September 2027.
Does Burghley help any charities?
World Horse Welfare was the event’s official charity in 2026.
Where is Burghley Horse Trials held?
Burghley Horse Trials is held in the grounds of the Burghley Estate, which is located in Stamford, Peterborough.
Burghley Horse Trials history
The first Burghley event was held in 1961 and the horse trials had never been cancelled or abandoned until Covid-19 took out the 2020 and 2021 renewals.
Anneli Drummond-Hay was the event’s first winner, riding Merely-A-Monarch, who also became the first horse to win both Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley when he took the Gloucestershire event the following spring.
Andrew Nicholson’s ride Avebury, who won the event in 2012, 2013 and 2014, is the only horse who has won Burghley three times. The only other horses to be listed among the Burghley Horse Trials winners more than once are Ros Canter’s Lordships Graffalo, who won in 2024 and 2025 and Ginny Elliot’s ride Priceless, who won in 1983 and 1985, when he was also crowned European champion.
Burghley has hosted the European Championships on five other occasions, the most famous of these being in 1971 when Princess Anne took the title on Doublet.
What is Burghley Horse Trials?
Burghley Horse Trials is one of just seven five-star events in the world. Five-star is the highest level of eventing competition, where the very best horses and riders in the sport compete against each other in three phases: dressage, cross-country and show jumping. The same horse and rider combinations take part in all three phases and their penalty scores are added up. The horse and rider with the lowest penalties is the winner.
What is eventing?
Burghley Horse Trials latest news
‘I am disturbed young British riders have to find +£5,000 to represent their country,’ says Mark Phillips
‘Because of him, my dreams came true’: tears, carrots and one last standing ovation as eventing legend is cheered into retirement at Burghley
‘I just can’t believe it’: the new face on Burghley’s podium, just two years into a five-star career
‘I’m really happy, but it’s bittersweet’: podium place for a World Championships faller at Burghley
‘I’m so proud of that little horse and proud of myself for holding it together’: Gemma Stevens wins her first Burghley title by a wide margin
Burghley Horse Trials 2026 as it happened: review every day’s action
‘No shortcuts, and lots of purple shampoo’: Paige Watson on winning Burghley’s £1,000 groom’s prize with Deerpairc Revelry
‘I could just be normal and go home for dinner’: the lawyer trading courtrooms for cross-country at Burghley
Rider jumps clear round Burghley as she continues recovery from serious injury: ‘It was a horrible winter; I was extremely depressed’
One horse leaves the competition at Burghley final trot-up
‘I shouted, prayed, screamed and told him how much I loved him’ – Gemma Stevens leads Burghley after one hairy cross-country moment
How an afternoon nap to ‘reboot’ turned Harry Meade’s Burghley cross-country day around: ‘I rode like an absolute moron’
‘I don’t know why I was worried’: Yasmin Ingham leads Burghley’s British first-timers through a mixed cross-country day
Refusals, falls, jumping the string – what happened to the leading dressage pairs who didn’t finish the cross-country at Burghley?
Pre-event Burghley favourite’s competition comes to a disappointing end on cross-country day: ‘Up until there, he was amazing’
A new name will lead Burghley after cross-country, as the dressage leader drops down the order
Meet the 67-year-old groom working at Burghley – why Mags Hill loves going to events, the time she met the Queen Mother and more
One withdrawal before Burghley cross-country: ‘I’m erring on the side of caution’
Check out the Burghley cross-country times for Saturday’s action
