Swiss rider Nadja Minder takes home the accolade of best first timer at Mars Badminton Horse Trials, piloting Toblerone (‘Choccy’) — who at 19 is the oldest horse in the field — into 24th.
“It’s a childhood dream come true. We have such a partnership,” said Nadja, 26, who lives on her family’s farm at Illnau in the Zurcher Oberland in south-east Switzerland.
“I was actually very confident going into the cross country. I don’t think you have that very often. I didn’t really feel nervous through the whole week. I was able to eat something on Saturday morning and slept well. That shows how much trust I have in him.”
Nadja has been riding the veteran horse since her young rider days, when his owner, Nicole Basieux, handed over the reins.
“The owner produced him to two-star level, and then asked me if I wanted to take over the ride, because I’d retired my other young rider horse,” said Nadja.
“Now being on this journey together, it’s just unreal. When you don’t even try really, and you get to this point, it’s so cool.”
‘We had zero worries about his age’
Nadja described Choccy, who was groomed by her mother Therese at Badminton, as being “incredibly smart” and said there are currently no plans to retire him.
“I really need to see and feel how he’s doioing. With him being 19, you don’t want to push them over the edge,” she said.
“But I mean, we had zero worries this week with him. So it feels unfair to say he’s 19 and so he needs to to retire. He loves the job, and today he felt on springs.”
Nadja partly credited Choccy’s longevity to the fact he started eventing relatively late on in life, taking part in his first international event at the age of 11.
“As he started so late, he doesn’t have the mileage of other 19-year-old’s,” she told Your Horse. “He also doesn’t need that much preparation as he is super-professional and I just can go from show to show, and do what’s necessary.”
Nadja and Choccy were pathfinders at last year’s European Championships at Blenheim, where the Swiss team came fourth and they finished 19th individually.
Nadja made her senior team debut at the 2022 world championships, also aboard Toblerone, and they were members of the fifth-placed Swiss team at the 2023 European Championships in France.
Their best five-star result to date is 16th at Luhmuhlen last year, and 20th at Burghley in 2024.
Main image by Tim Wilkinson
