Katie Magee had a day to remember when securing both the British open championship and British intermediate championships, becoming British national champion in the process.
She won the open title with Treworra, an 11-year-old owned by Angela Hislop, with whom she finished 11th at Badminton this year. They finished bang on the 7min1sec optimum time to complete on their 29.7 dressage.
“It’s rare that I’m speechless, but it’s incredibly special to win this class and very unexpected,” said Katie, who next heads to Burghley with this horse. “I’ve been training hard with Nicola Wilson, and we’ve been continuing to develop his strength with lots of flatwork.
“He’s a really good cross-country horse; in the dressage and showjumping, he’s always had the potential, but he’s a good 17.2hh so he’s just needed a bit of time to fill into his frame, which he can carry much better now.”
Of her quick cross-country round, Katie said: “He’s 75% blood, so he’s quite an old-fashioned type and I’m very lucky to ride him.
“The surfaces here are great and the team did a brilliant job with the going on the cross-country, so it has served as a perfect Burghley prep run.”
Katie added that Eric Winter’s cross country course was a “really, really good track – there were plenty of questions, but they were all very fair.”
Ultimately 14 of the 16 cross-country starters jumped clear, three making the optimum time.
British open championship: previous winner impresses once more
Tim Price finished second with Joe and Alex Giannamore’s Vitali, who won this championship in 2024 and 2022 . They led the dressage on 23.3, but 7.6 time-faults put them 1.2 penalties behind Katie.
“I’ve had some good help from Shane Breen with this horse’s jumping,” said Tim, who has picked up some costly rounds on the final day of three-day competitions with this horse in the past. “I’ve not been jumping him too much away from competitions, but when we do, we make sure he really understands the job at hand and do gymnastic work and things that he needs to really pay attention to.
“Shane’s been good with my riding as well, because he has me riding him like a good jumper rather than a horse that I’m constantly thinking about what’s going to go wrong.”
David Doel and the five-star campaigner Galileo Nieuwmoed finished third, adding nothing to their 32.7 dressage, building on a win in the open intermediate at Aston-le-Walls last month after a horse fall at Badminton in the spring.
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