Andrew James completed the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials this morning (4 September) on a horse whose dam he also rode.
“It’s been like a fairytale,” he says. “His owners Michelle and Dylan Harries live on the west coast of Wales in Pembrokeshire and bred him in the back garden, their first and only foal.”
The couple bought his dam, Rebels Riches (by Rich Rebel), from a trekking centre, who brought her over from Ireland.
“Then Michelle went abroad to work and asked my sister Amy if she’d event her for a bit. She was a little bit funny, had a few stops cross-country, so my sister asked if I’d ride her,” says Andrew.
The mare, known as Seren (Welsh for star), had plenty of novice placings but intermediate was her limit.
Andrew goes on: “So we had a chat and said she wasn’t going to step up, so we agreed to put her in foal and the dream’s lived on.
“He is like his dam, he’s cheeky, he’s quirky – all the girls who’ve worked for us over the years remember him as a four-year-old bucking and having us off. Everybody’s fallen off him, but he’s such a little trier.”
The pair went round the cross-country yesterday with 20 penalties at the Holland Cooper Leaf Pit when Celtic Morning Star suffered from “stage fright” at the top of the step when he saw the crowd. Because the pair had “hung in the air so long” here, the horse couldn’t make the distance to the final corner out of the combination and had a run-out.
“It’s easy in hindsight to say you’d do something different, but he went on and jumped round and he’ll come back next year so much better for it,” said Andrew.
A clear round in the showjumping this morning, with 1.6 time-faults, was a super end to Burghley Horse Trials for Andrew James, despite the rider having to cope with losing a stirrup part of the way round.
“He was fab. I think when you’re coming in and the pressure’s off a little bit, because you’re not in the prize-money, you can enjoy it and I enjoyed every minute,” he says.
“He jumped so big over number nine I was like, ‘Oh crikey, where’s my pedal?’ All my hunting and Pony Club games maybe came back into play and I found the stirrup.
“I’m just so proud of him and think next year he’s going to be phenomenal.”
The pair will finish 23rd or better, depending on faults for the final riders this afternoon. This is Andrew’s third Burghley completion.
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