“I love cross-country now!” declared Fiona Kashell after bringing Creevagh Silver De Haar home clear at Mars Badminton Horse Trials.

It’s the opposite of what she said yesterday — “I hate cross-country!” — but this afternoon’s perspective is considerably different.

“I still agree that the time that you enjoy it versus the time that you don’t dread it —the dreading outweighs the enjoyment. But I had a great spin and he was amazing.”

Fiona explained that she has always had a tricky relationship with cross-country riding because it makes her nervous — not the idea of jumping large obstacles, but the thought of it going wrong.

“I get really nervous. I don’t mind jumping the big fences, that doesn’t bother me, it’s the silly whoopsies, silly mistakes, especially when everyone’s come to watch you,” said Fiona, who runs a livery yard, Pond Equestrian, with around 60 horses to look after in Surrey and has a six-year-old son called Ethan.

“I’ve always hated it [cross-country]. Everyone says, ‘oh, it’s because you’ve had a child’, but I didn’t like it much before either.”

She did confess to enjoying a recent round aboard a young horse — that was last weekend at Littleton Manor and the fences were only 80cm high.

“I really enjoyed that,” laughed Fiona. “I was in the lead after dressage, but because I was producing a young horse, I got 22 time-penalties and I had the best time ever. That was probably my most enjoyable cross-country round of the year to date!”

First five-star at the age of 40

The grey Creevagh Silver De Haar is 18 now and the pair are seeking their third Badminton completion, after finishing 35th last year (when she learned the wrong dressage test) and 50th on their debut in 2022.

“I only went around my first five-star on him in 2022, and I’ve been doing this [eventing] a long time, so to get to 40 and then to be doing your first five-star, it’s a long time coming,” said Fiona.

“I’ve just been so grateful to be here and to get round. Today I thought I’m going to push a bit more on the time and he just stayed with me.

“He was so rideable, full of running. That’s credit to Amy Lovett at home, because she’s done all his fitness work. At the last birch rails [Savills Keepers Rails, fence 30abc), [my plan was] to straighten up because he’ll be tired, but he was so full of running I took it on a complete angle.”

Main image © Tim Wilkinson

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