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From trying cross-country on a whim to competing at Blenheim Europeans in five years: meet Turkey’s first senior championship rider

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • A Turkish rider who had never evented prior to the Covid pandemic has made her senior championship debut at the Agria Blenheim European Championships. Kumru Say, 24, is also the first rider to compete for Turkey at a senior Europeans.

    Riding her own Baladin De L’Ocean LA, who was produced to four-star by Astier Nicolas, Kumru scored 37.1, which puts them 21st at the end of the first day of dressage.

    “I’m delighted to be here,” says Kumru, who was born and raised in New York though her mother lives in Istanbul. “To be the first ever Turk, aged just 24, it’s so exciting. But I’m not an experienced event rider – let’s see what happens!

    “I was delighted with my horse’s test, he was composed and focused. We had small mistakes here and there from my side. But there’s plenty to jump on Saturday. We don’t have much scope to spare, but plenty of heart.

    “He’s a very arrogant horse, he doesn’t need anyone, doesn’t need me! He’s very full of himself, but he’s lovely and easy-going.”

    Kumru Say’s path to the Blenheim European Championships

    Kumru moved to Germany when she was 14 years old, where she has been living every since, working in “large showjumping operations”. She competed at junior and children-on-horses championships in showjumping, only switching to eventing almost on a whim five years ago. Her first horse trials was a one-star in August 2020.

    “I sold a bunch of my showjumpers and was left with one relatively complicated horse,” says Kumru. “A friend of mine suggested I should take him cross-country schooling to help him. As I didn’t know where to go schooling, I took him to a one-star in Poland and he finished on his dressage score. He’d never cross-country schooled and never jumped into water!

    “After that I thought maybe showjumping is difficult for him, but he is a fantastic event horse and it just kept going.”

    Kumru Say currently works in a German showjumping yard backing horses, and rides her string of five eventers after work.

    “It’s difficult because I have to ride my event horses after work – we work 6am to 5pm – so after feeding I have to ride my event horses,” she explains. “It takes a lot of energy and motivation to ride until 10 or 11pm.

    “But I have a nice string of five younger and older horses.”

    However this week plays out, Kumru Say has already played her part in the sporting history of her nation.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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