The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials round up
Set in the picturesque grounds of Burghley House, this year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials did not just exceed expectations with its astounding natural beauty, the show appeased every sense from sight to sound with a buzz like no other. Combining a mixture of history, style and without out a doubt fierce sportsmanship, this year’s show came back with a bang, and luckily for you we were there to capture all the action.
The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is a favourite of ours at Fairfax & Favor, because of its English heritage and Equestrian roots. So, we couldn’t think of a better way of kicking off the start of September than in celebrating this world renown 5* star equestrian event with all of our customers. Before we dive into our Burghley highlights, we first want to take you back to the day before the show, when the grounds of Burghley House were eagerly awaiting the crowds.
Our stand – bringing the outside in.
Over the years we have assembled a multitude of trade stands and it is no secret that each year we set ourselves a target to make each show better than the last. A key part of this starts before the show with not just the planning, but with the art of our trade stands coming together – a process that allows us to take the time to make our stands the best shopping experience for our customers. The interior of our stands is of course key, however, like everything, location was also top of our list for this event. This year, we are proud to say that not only was our stand bigger, but it was also the first time ever that we erected a show stand outside at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials - allowing our signature flags the freedom to stretch their wings.
And with this extra space ultimately came the extra room to welcome back our customers. Another reason why Burghley is a highlight in our shows calendar is because, like us, you also welcome the transitioning seasons, and a change of season means a change of footwear. At this year’s show a lot of you traded in your trainers and sandals for your beloved boots, where we saw an array of Regina’s and Amira’s, not only on our stand but also swishing through the shopping village. With September marking the last official day of summer, the Burghley Horse Trials was also the perfect opportunity to welcome back the chill of Autumn and preview some of our new additions to our ever growing Autumn/Winter collection.
Limited Edition Burghley Collection.
To celebrate the expansion of our stand we produced a limited-edition collection exclusively for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials. This year we utilised one of our seasonal colour ways, olive for a bespoke tan and olive colour way. With this in mind our goal was to channel the luxury of Burghley House and its majestic grounds, which is why it made sense to take our most classic pieces, the Mini Windsor, the Highcliffe, the Rockingham and the Chiltern and recreate them in a tan and olive colour-way. We combined the rich earthy green of the leather with a more neutral shade of tan suede, to create a juxtaposition of colour and texture which we believe was perfect for a day exploring the cross country course.
Fear not, if you did not manage to get your hands on our Limited-Edition Burghley Collection at the show, the collection is also available to shop on our website.
Bringing it back to the reason why thousands of people passed though the gates of Burghley House throughout this four day event, the riders! The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is both World renown and globally acknowledge - the three day eventing is a comprehensive test of the all round ability of the horse and rider, comprising Dressage, Cross Country and Jumping. We are proud and extremely grateful to say that we work with some of the riders that competed at this years event - Kitty King and Bubby Upton to mention a couple. 
Bubby Upton
'Burghley is globally renowned for being the toughest test there is and it certainly lived up to that! It was my first time at Burghley and the feeling of coming through the finish line after going clear cross country was incomparable and a feeling I will never forget'.
Interview with Kitty King Olympic Rider.
Kitty King
Kitty King was kind enough to share her experience at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, here's what she had to say.
How do you prepare for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials?
My preparation for Burghley was done alongside prepping for the World Championships, as until two weeks prior to Burghley I wasn’t sure which event I would be riding at. However, it did include lots of fitness work for myself and my horse, Vendredi Biats. I gallop him every fourth day and in between gallops we would be working him on the flat and fine tuning the dressage movements, he also jumped and hacked.
As well as riding, I do two Pilates classes a week, one Personal training session and two spin classes a week - for Burghley it’s hugely important that horse and rider are fit enough. We had a great final preparation run at Hartpury 4 star, where we finished 3rd, then had a couple of dressage lessons, a great cross-country school practicing some tricky lines with Richard Waygood and a final jump the day before we left.
What was your highlight at this year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials?
Leading the dressage was a huge highlight and to post 3rd time best ever score recorded at the event was pretty special.
What was your biggest challenge on the Cross-Country Course?
The first half of the track was very intense with lots of questions and areas where you could make a silly mistake. I was particularly worried about the leaf pit as it’s very hard to judge the type of jump and control you will get off the step, so that really effects how you jump the B & C elements.
What is a necessity for your Trot up outfit?
My Fairfax & Favor Rockingham ankle boots, they are really stylish, very comfy and I can run in them! I’m not terribly good in heels and these have a perfect size heel to give me a bit more height but without me worrying about tripping over in them.
What can we expect to see from you next?
I’m hoping to better my 7th place that I achieved at Badminton in the Spring, and I’d love to go back to Burghley and achieve the result Vendredi Biats deserved.
We still have a couple more shows ahead of us (HOYS and Cheltenham) before we wrap up for the year. Let us know in the comments your highlights from this years Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and what are you hoping to see from us next year?
