Berkshire-based Jack Pinkney’s first appearance at this year’s Defender Burghley Horse Trials marks the culmination of a dream that once wasn’t even on his radar.

With no horsey childhood and an ambition to become a rugby player blighted by injury, his journey to one of eventing’s greatest stages has been anything but conventional.

Unlike many riders at the highest level, Jack did not grow up immersed in horses. He only started riding seriously in when he was 17, after his original sporting ambition – becoming a rugby player – had fallen by the wayside.

“I wanted to be a rugby player, and that failed,” he says. “So I had left school, and Mum was like, ‘Well, you need to go get a job.’”

That job was at a point-to-point and team-chasing yard, having spotted the position advertised in a newspaper.

“I thought, well, let’s go and make some money, and that was kind of that.”

But after watching Badminton on television, Jack saw something that captured his imagination.

“I thought eventing looked cool,” he recalls.

And so began an unlikely journey towards the top of the sport — one that has now brought him to Burghley for the first time.

“It’s been a big goal for a long, long time,” Jack says. “And we finally got here.”

Lacking confidence

His Burghley partner in the 12-year-old Claragh Olala, who is owned by Margaret and Simon Hope, has had his own long journey to reach this point.

When the gelding came to Jack as an eight-year-old, he was nervous and lacking confidence, forcing them to go back to basics.

“He was very nervous,” Jack explains. “Just a few things have probably gone wrong or something, and he was just very nervous and anxious, and just had to build his confidence and teach him to enjoy it basically.”

They started again at 90cm, gradually rebuilding the horse’s trust. Jack remembers being far from certain that their partnership would develop into one capable of tackling the sport’s biggest challenges.

“I’m not one who wears an air jacket, but I remember going around the lorry park at this horse’s first novice, asking if anyone had an air jacket because I wasn’t so confident with him.”

But he rose to the challenge.

“He just took it all on and got stuck in, and then he’s just built up the levels,” says Jack. “He’s been very good.”

‘It’s amazing to be here’

Three CCI4*-L starts later, that belief has brought them to Burghley.

The enormity of the occasion is not lost on Jack. Riding into the arena for his dressage test on Thursday, there was naturally a job to do, but also a moment to appreciate the significance of being there.

“It’s amazing to be here, but obviously you’re thinking, right, let’s try and nail this,” he says.

The dressage was not quite the performance he had hoped for, with a couple of costly mistakes and they scored 38 to sit in 25th after the first phase, but Jack was determined not to dwell on them.

“I wanted it to be better, but to be fair, I think we went in there and we did enough,” he says. “There were just some moments where there was a couple of big mistakes, which are costly at this level.”

Jack and ‘Blazey’ then followed this up with a superb clear jumping round across-country, adding 16.8 time-faults to sit in 16th going into the final showjumping phase.

“I’m here on a horse that I think is just an absolute trier. He’s done as good as he could,” said Jack. “He really wants to try, which is all you can do — and I think ones like that are really rare.”

Images by Tim Wilkinson

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