The final horse inspection took place in gorgeous morning sunshine at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials earlier today (6 September).

Twenty-nine combinations came forward to present to the ground jury, made up of Xavier Le Sauce (France), Joanne Jarden (Ireland) and Sandy Phillips (Great Britain).

All were accepted to continue to the showjumping, apart from the USA’s Jennie Brannigan’s mount, FE Lifestyle, who was eliminated.

The 16-year-old was in 12th following a clear cross-country round yesterday where they picked up 11.2 time-faults. The gelding, owned by Nina and Timothy Gardner, was trotted up by U.S Eventing Chef d’Equipe and High Performance Manager Leslie Law (pictured top), who was also an individual Olympic gold medal winner for the British team at the 2004 Olympics. Leslie was trotting this horse up for Jennie as she is unable to run following a fall when one of her other horses flipped over and landed on her in a cross-country start box last autumn.

“I shattered my ankle the weekend before Maryland 5-Star last year, and I actually rode FE Lifestyle at Maryland with a shattered ankle and a bad knee,” explained Jennie after her cross-country round yesterday. “Unfortunately, I didn’t break my tibia and fibia like a normal person – instead I broke some bone that’s crazy hard to break and heals horribly.

“The doctors told me I’d maybe have a limp for the rest of my life and I haven’t been able to trot my horses up since.”

The showjumping at Burghley gets underway at 10.30am, with those placed 21st-27th jumping in the morning session. The top 20 will then jump in reverse order, starting at 2.35pm.

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