Walk the BE90 Badminton Grassroots Championships cross-country course [PICS]

Badminton Horse Trials

Check out how challenging the BE90 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Grassroots Championships cross-country course was in 2014.

Championship stats — how the class panned out

86 runners
21 finished on their dressage score
47 showjumping clears
25 collected faults at fence eight
18 did not complete the cross-country

Most influential fence

This was fence eight (an ABC combination) the ASX Triple, comprising a rail-ditch-rail. The combination required a short, bouncy canter on the approach in order to give horses time to assess the ditch.

The winner

Zoe Symes, 23, topped this class in 2014 riding 15-year-old Serendipity IV. The pair lead from the start after posting an impressive dressage score of 18.3. They then rolled one showjump before going cross-country. Serendipity, who has a sporadic eventing record, then flew around the 2,900m track to clinch victory. Zoe works as an oil and gas recruitment consultant in Southampton during the week, and returns home to Bath at the weekends to ride Serendipity. Zoe’s mother, sister and 72-year-old grandma help keep the horse fit during the week.