Lissa Green, daughter of six-time Badminton winner Lucinda, will make her debut at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials next month (4-7 May) after being accepted from the wait-list.
Although the lists have not yet been updated on the Badminton website, Lissa tweeted just after 4pm today that she had “just got THE phone call of the century” to say she was into the event.
Lissa, 28, will ride The Ali G Syndicate’s Malin Head Clover, a 15-year-old by Amiro. She has been competing the 15.2hh gelding since the middle of 2014 and their best results include a double jumping clear at Blenheim CCI3* and eighth in the CCI3* at Strzegom, Poland, last year.
Lissa’s mother Lucinda Green won Badminton six times on six different horses, setting a record which no other rider has yet come close to matching. Her wins were in 1973 (Be Fair), 1976 (Wide Awake), 1977 (George), 1979 (Killaire), 1983 (Regal Realm) and 1984 (Beagle Bay).
Lissa did not always intend to follow in her parents’ footsteps — her Australian father, David, also competed at the top level — and for a long time kept horses as a hobby, studying criminology at Bristol for a year. But watching London 2012 was a turning point for her.
“Only then did I think, ‘I really love this, I’ve got to give it a try’,” she told H&H in an interview earlier this year.
Lissa was originally 12th on the wait-list for Badminton. Others recently accepted include Brazil’s Ruy Fonseca and Tom Bombadill Too, Louise Harwood’s second horse Mr Potts and Paul Sims with Glengarnock.
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More Badminton news:
Nine things you need to know about this year’s Badminton cross-country course
Six horses withdrawn from Badminton Horse Trials so far
US rider Bunnie Sexton has withdrawn Rise Against, who was the next one below Malin Head Clover on the list, so the next pair waiting to be accepted are Willa Newton and Chance Remark.
Read double winner William Fox-Pitt’s thoughts on the Badminton course in H&H’s preview next week (out Thursday, 27 April).
