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‘It was a challenging 12 minutes’: rider jumps around Burghley cross-country with broken stirrup

Gemma Redrup Gemma Redrup

    • Ireland’s Sam Watson and Ballyneety Rocketman have risen from 33rd after the dressage to 16th going into the final showjumping phase at the 2025 Defender Burghley Horse Trials. But his cross-country round wasn’t without incident.

    Sam and the 11-year-old he co-owns alongside his wife, Hannah, picked up 23.2 time-faults around the Derek di Grazia-designed cross-country course, mostly due to the gelding becoming very keen after jumping the Irish Horse Board Cottesmore Leap at fence 11. But Sam also suffered a tack malfunction just one minute into the course, when the outside of his stirrup snapped.

    “A lot of things were thrown at me, including my stirrup breaking one minute into the course at the Lion Bridge at fence four,” explained Sam. “I decided the leather was okay, but it meant my foot was slipping off the side of it.

    “You have to give it to my horse though, he dug deep in that moment.”

    Sam said that he had to think very quickly to analyse the situation and make a decision about what he was going to do.

    “I had to think about how I was going to manage to jump round with the stirrup broken and then change my tactics a little bit. And then when he became keen I had to add in some little turns to regain rideability – it was a challenging 12 minutes.”

    Speaking further about his broken stirrup on the Burghley Horse Trials cross-country course, Sam Watson explained: “There was nothing keeping my foot in, so I had to get a bit more balance in my toe and tried to take the weight onto my knee, but my horse wanted to jump the fences and I have to credit him for that.”

    To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout Burghley and other major shows this year, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website, from £1 a week. Horse & Hound’s 20-page magazine report on Burghley is published in 11 September issue, including full analysis and exclusive comment from six-time Burghley winner William Fox-Pitt.

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    Gemma Redrup
    Gemma Redrup

    H&H features, racing and point-to-point editor
    Gemma is an experienced journalist, having been part of the H&H team since 2014, who is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s reporting talents have taken her to numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
    Gemma Redrup

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