Thirty-one five star starts and 15 years later, Gemma Stevens finished on her dressage score of 29.6 penalties to be crowned the Defender Burghley champion for the first time, on board the indomitable Chilli Knight.
Their story is the stuff equestrian dreams are made of – the pair met the day “Alfie” was born, out of Gemma’s 5 star mare, King’s Gem, and have forged an unbreakable partnership over the subsequent 16 years of the gelding’s life. “I knew him as an embryo” Gemma said of Christopher and Lisa Stone’s British Sports Horse.
It’s partnerships like that which see you eventually win your first Defender Burghley after a decade and a half of trying, and no one explains it better than former Defender Burghley winner, Tim Price.
“What’s really on display [at this competition] is partnership, just like we’ve seen with Gemma here. They have so much belief in each other and know each other so well, she’s been able to win Burghley. It’s such a special thing to be able to achieve and no one can ever take it off her.”
After a less-than-ideal show jumping round for Price, who was sat in second place overnight, he and Global Quest completed on a score of 48.9 penalties having tipped three fences, pushing them down to 11th place.
But it was Gemma Stevens’ day, as she and Chilli Knight entered the arena unknowingly with three fences in hand, and she didn’t need a single one of them to take the Defender Burghley title.
“I’m not sure I can sum this up,” Gemma said as her achievement was slowly sinking in. “If I’m totally honest, I can’t believe it. This just means the whole world. Obviously it’s always a dream to win, and I just knew that he had it in him, but we just needed our stars to align, and it’s all aligned this week.”
After Price’s unfortunate round and Holly Richardson who was sat in overnight third position knocking five poles with Ballyneety Silver Service to finish in 15th, suddenly the remaining podium positions were wide open and fourth placed Katie Magee of Great Britain with Treworra stormed up the leaderboard to take eventual second place on a score of 43 penalties.
“I knew he’s a true Burghley cross country horse, but you always need a little bit of luck going through the week and I try not to think about the end result too much as it always puts a little more pressure on, I just wanted to do him justice really,” Katie said of the 12-year-old British Sports Horse.
Also climbing up to the podium was USA’s Caroline Pamukcu with her World Championship silver medallist HSH Blake. After an early fall across the country in Aachen, the pair rerouted to Defender Burghley and a third place with a score of 44 penalties will have definitely made the trip to England worth it.
“He’s a really special guy and there is no other horse I’d rather do my first Burghley on,” Caroline said of the 11-year-old Irish Sports Horse. “I’m very proud of him, the horse is amazing and he can do anything he puts his mind to.”
Caroline didn’t have the smoothest of journeys to Defender Burghley, having competed HSH Blake at the FEI World Championship in Aachen last month and spoke candidly in the press conference of what it has taken to re-route them to the competition.
“Although there’s some things about this week I’m kicking myself over, at the end of the day I have had to mentally overcome quite a bit to be here and I have been away from my home base for five weeks, so there’s a lot of pressure coming into here. But I went to Pippa Funnell’s [after Aachen] to regroup myself, and yes, I always knew a podium finish with him would be possible,” Caroline said of their tumultuous journey to their podium.
Fourth place was taken up by Tom Jackson of Great Britain with Hawk Eye who climbed up 5 places from overnight ninth position after cross country to finish on 46.1 penalties.
Dressage leader, Switzerland’s Nadja Minder completed in eventual fifth place with Toblerone, and although she finished on the same score, a two second slower cross country round saw former World Champion Yasmin Ingham finish in seventh, both completing their Defender Burghley competition on 46.7 penalties.
Whatever was said about the Defender Burghley 2026 line up – being a World Championship year which saw many of the world’s best combinations missing from the start list – no one can take away from the fact that to finish on your dressage score and for your finally tally to be sub-thirty, is always an incredible achievement. And today, that’s one claimed by Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight.
