{"piano":{"sandbox":"false","aid":"u28R38WdMo","rid":"R7EKS5F","offerId":"OF3HQTHR122A","offerTemplateId":"OTQ347EHGCHM"}}

‘Walter was telling me he thought it was a good idea!’: Ros Canter reflects on winning her first Burghley title

In the second of a three-part subscriber-exclusive series talking to Ros Canter about her phenomenal year, she talks about the decision to take her Olympic ride to Burghley, and the role that sports psychology played in her success at the autumn five-star

  • As the sun set on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, so too did the first chapter of this rider’s remarkable year of two halves. Some six weeks later, the team gold medal-winning combination of Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo would lead another career-defining lap of honour – this time closer to home.

    “The moment we decided that we weren’t going to Badminton in the spring, we thought Burghley might be an option for him,” says Ros, for whom this was a first Burghley win.

    Ros and Michele Saul, who owns the 12-year-old gelding with husband Archie, had the conversation early in the year. While the focus was on Paris, Burghley had also been pencilled in to “Walter’s” tentative season plan.

    Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo clear a cross-country jump on the Paris Olympic course on their way to winning team gold.

    While the Paris Olympics was the primary focus for Ros and Walter during 2024, a trip to Burghley was also on the cards if all went according to plan. Credit: Peter Nixon

    “It wasn’t a last minute, ’let’s just throw him in at Burghley’ – it was very much something we’d had in the back of our minds,” adds Ros. “We were always going to wait and see how Paris went, provided we got there, and what he thought of it afterwards.

    “He had had a week off after Paris. Then I took him for a couple of hacks. He squealed, he bucked, he was fairly fresh and fit. I rang Michele, and said, ‘If you still think Burghley is a possibility and a good idea, Walter is telling me that he thinks it’s a good idea!’

    “We decided to give it to the ballot date and if we were on target, we would enter, and then take every day as it comes and if he felt good, then we would go for it.

    “He never had a day when he didn’t feel like he was as fit as a fiddle and ready to do something else.”

    Ros: “Walter felt fit and ready for Burghley”

    Enjoy the day-by-day reports of Ros’s Burghley win:

    Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2025 with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

    You may like...