Bubby Upton won the CCI4*-L at Defender Bramham Horse Trials in June with Its Cooley Time – and shared some insight into her tactics after the event, including around riding horses differently as they change over time.
She has had the 10-year-old Its Cooley Time since the end of his five-year-old year and has brought him on from a very sharp young horse to the polished athlete who led from start to finish at Bramham.
“At Belsay, three weeks before Bramham, ‘Finn’ was trending on a score of 24 in his dressage until the flying changes, when I made a mistake and cost him the win,” said Bubby.
“He’s always been very talented, but he wasn’t easy as a five-, six- or seven-year-old. As he’s developed, the aids have evolved for our flying changes. But at Belsay, I rode him like the sharp young horse he used to be – I underrode the changes.
“He either does a beautiful change or doesn’t change at all and we got twos at Belsay, which was my fault. I was furious with myself as I hate nothing more than knowing I let my horse down. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again at Bramham.
“If you’re not winning, you’re learning and Belsay was a learning weekend in terms of trusting and cementing how to ride the test now. Out of the time I’ve had Finn, it’s a small percentage that I’ve been riding him how he is now, so it’s easy to slip back into how I’ve ridden him for the majority of his flying changes, rather than this new phase of development.”
With that lesson learnt, Bubby improved her score from 29.8 at Belsay to 24.4 at Bramham.
Bubby Upton and Its Cooley Time at home soon after Bramham. Credit: Elli Birch/Bootsandhooves
Bubby Upton: ‘You can use your experience, but also take each horse as an individual’
Bubby also talked about how she approached walking the course at Bramham and what riders can take away from previous rides at a big event such as this.
“This was Andy Heffernan’s first year designing at Bramham, taking over from Ian Stark, but I didn’t think too much about that – the course is what it is,” said Bubby, who walked the course five times in total. “It still felt very much like Bramham, making use of the hills and a big, bold track.
“I’d ridden here twice before, once in the long format and once in the short. The big features remained, but Andy used different parts of the terrain. For example, four from home at fence 21abc the new brush oxer to two skinnies – named the Defender Trail – was clever use of that final pull when horses were tiring.
“My previous long format ride here, Magic Roundabout, who won the under-25s in 2023, is a different type to Finn, who on paper has less thoroughbred. But no part of him would ever allow himself to admit he’s tired, even if he was, which is an enormous luxury as a rider. But it was an unknown for him as he’d never done this distance before.
“I was able to use my experience on Magic Roundabout for how some fences might ride, such as the rail, ditch, rail into the wood at fence 8abc, but I also believe in taking each horse as an individual.”
Read more from Bubby Upton about her week winning at Bramham in this week’s Horse & Hound magazine (issue dated 7 August).
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