For the first time in her career, Laura Collett called upon the services of a hunt horse to escort her to the dressage warm-up at the 2026 Mars Badminton Horse Trials today (8 May).

“I’ve never been escorted up here before, but I’ve seen other people do it and I thought, yeah, let’s try that – anything to make it safe,” said Laura, who was riding Yvonne Ferguson’s home-bred mare, Bling.

“She’s just been so unsettled since Wednesday, so we’re just trying to do all that we can to keep her chilled and calm and it seemed to work,” said Laura, who went on to explain what happened two days ago.

“I said to Tilly [Laura’s travelling groom], that there aren’t many horses that scare me, but she does, because when she sees red, the red mist comes, and there’s no thought process in what she’s doing, and she just, she bolts.

“I was bolted with by Bling down the avenue on Wednesday – luckily, no one was around, but when she goes, she properly goes. Then I had to come back past all the grassroots cross-country – it was a pretty terrifying first day at Badminton for myself. So we’re just very happy we are here, and we survived, and we’re still going!”

‘Tricky’, but feeling good

Laura and Bling put in a solid performance in the first phase to score 33.5 and sit in equal 27th going into tomorrow’s cross-country.

“She hates dressage and physically finds it difficult as well as mentally,” explained Laura. “Since just before Burghley, she started to think about maybe working with me and not 100% against me.

“We’re definitely not fully there yet, but it’s a work in progress with her because she’s tricky in her head as well, so everything’s a bit of a mind game to be able to get her to work in a way that you would want her to.”

Laura said that Bling’s homework has been good, but going to a big event changes the game slightly.

“At home now, she’s feeling really good, but it’s a whole different ball game when we go in an atmosphere and do a test like that.

“I was just very pleased that she didn’t break in the counter canter because she’s just about got her head around doing a flying change on a diagonal line, and then it was like, ‘Oh, no, you’ve got to do medium and then stay counter counter, and then do a change’, and she’s being a bit like, ‘eff you! Decide what you want, one or the other, not all three at once’, but that’s just a bit her mentality.

“If she allows herself to understand it, then she’s fine, but she’s not very good at giving herself that opportunity to listen.

“All things considered, I am very happy. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s cross country.”

Image by Tim Wilkinson

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