“It probably wouldn’t have looked so good if I wasn’t sitting on Walter!”
These were the unassuming words of Ros Canter — who is competing here just 15 weeks after giving birth to a baby girl she is exclusively breastfeeding — after a masterful cross-country clear at Mars Badminton Horse Trials aboard Lordships Graffalo.
“I just feel so unbelievably lucky to have a horse who allows me to come out and do this level when I’m maybe not at my best, believing that I can do it because I’m on him,” said Ros, whose daughter Seneh was born on 24th January.
“It’s been busy this week, having a baby and breastfeeding and all that too. Today I woke up and I thought, ‘You know what, Ros? Just try and believe that even if you don’t put quite so much time into the things you normally do, that you can still do it, that you’ve still got it’ — and he [Walter] just helped me all the time.”
‘I haven’t been fast properly yet this year’
The exceptional combination have maintained their top place on the leaderboard, putting them in the hunt for a third victory here.
“There is a lot of pressure going around on a horse like that. Even coming to the last fence, I was like, please don’t mess it up, but he’s just an absolute legend, isn’t he?” said Ros.
“He’s the most amazing cross-country horse in the way he looks for his fences, but he lets me ride how I need to ride, and he gives himself every chance to clear the jumps.
“It never [feels easy] when you’re out there, and there is pressure not only around riding Walter, because of what he does and what he can do. I haven’t been fast yet properly this year, other than a random intermediate where I still didn’t make the time, so there was pressure from that side today as well.”
Ros was also full of praise for her family and support team, which includes groom Sarah Charnley.
“I didn’t even sit on Walter until the end of February, it was my team who did all the fittening work,” said Ros. “Just before and just after you’ve had a baby, you’re just not there, and I trusted them completely.”
Held at the start
Ros and Walter were held at the start while the previous rider, Luc Chateau, was attended to following a fall from Viens Du Mont.
The Frenchman eventually walked off the course alongside medics and the horse was seen galloping away from the fence.
“Walter just settled down and wandered around. I was a little bit concerned that he settled down too much, because he’s so comfortable with crowds and he was just quite happy — he’d have wandered around there all day.
“Then I picked up canter, gave him a little niggle with my leg, and he responded by pricking his ears, so I thought we’ll just go with it.”
Ros added that she is “very privileged” to ride a horse like Walter, because “he gives me time to set up, even for the normal fences.
“I’m able to give him the best version of myself, because he allows me too.”
