For the first time in history, a Swiss rider leads the way after the first phase of competition a the Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

Nadja Minder, 26, and the evergreen Toblerone, who is 19, have put themselves firmly in the spotlight after completing a polished dressage test on Thursday and have maintained the lead ahead of tomorrow’s cross-country.

For a horse who does not necessarily regard dressage as his favourite occupation, Toblerone produced exactly the performance his rider had been hoping for – accurate, mistake-free and rewarded by the judges.

“Toblerone is a cool dude,” said Nadja afterwards. “Now he’s the Burghley leader.”

Nadja explained that, much like Gemma Steven’s Chilli Knight, who sits in second on 29.6, just 0.1 penalties behind the young Swiss, dressage does not come entirely naturally to Toblerone.

“But he was just so with me, so correct and didn’t make any mistakes.”

For Nadja, this was precisely the sort of test riders dream of extracting from their event horses at the highest level: a clear, obedient performance in which the horse stays with his rider and delivers when it matters.

“It was the clear-round dressage performance we’re all trying to get out of our horses,” she said. “And to get rewarded like this is pretty cool.”

Toblerone is no stranger to the demands of the sport. He and Nadja were trailblazers for their team at last year’s Blenheim European Championships, producing an outstanding cross-country round on a course that was tough even by four-star long standards.

Twelve months on, Nadja believes that experience can only help – although she is keen to make sure tomorrow’s strategy is rather different from one of her previous visits to Burghley.

“His best phase is still coming tomorrow, so that’s exciting.”

She admitted that she had been deliberately conservative around Burghley two years ago.

“I was very slow two years ago around here because I was quite scared to go out and try to be quick,” she explained. “So there’s a different plan tomorrow – I’m going to try and put ourselves in a good position, but obviously stay safe, jump the jumps, and there’s a lot to do,” she said. “But he’s a cross-country machine, so I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

At 19, there may not be many more major outings left for Toblerone, making this week particularly special.

“He’s a true family member,” said Nadja. “My whole family loves him. We have a yard at home and my parents look after him too – he’s my partner in crime.”

She credits him with teaching her a huge amount, particularly as they progressed through the levels.

“He’s very special and there were no shortcuts with him because he wouldn’t allow it.

“He really communicates with you. You really feel like he could talk. He blinks, and sometimes, just with looks, he shows you exactly what he wants.”

Gemma Stevens: ‘I’m genuinely in shock’

Gemma Stevens will head out on cross-country remaining in second after their Thursday dressage performance, a position she admits she scarcely expected.

“I’m genuinely in shock, actually,” she said. “Really in shock.”

Her delight was largely for her mount, the 16-year-old Chilli Knight, who she feels has finally received the recognition his consistency deserves.

“I feel really happy that we’ve been – or actually, the horse has been – rewarded for being such a good boy,” she said. “He’s always such a good boy, and he always tries really hard.”

The pair have often found themselves frustratingly close to the top without quite receiving the marks to match their performance.

“It’s always been so hard to get any marks out of the judges,” Gemma explained. “We’ve always been just outside the top 10 after the dressage.”

This time, however, everything came together.

“Yesterday I felt like his good training and his good brain were rewarded,” she said.

Gemma will be out relatively early on cross-country, continuing a theme that has followed her throughout the season.

“To be honest with you, me and him just need to go and do our thing,” she said. “It’s Burghley, it’s tough, the terrain is tough, and there’s questions all the way to the end.

“Us as riders have got to ride with our brains and ride in a good balance and look after our horses,” she said, “and try and be as fast and clear as we can.”

Tim Price: precision will be key for Falco

New Zealand’s Tim Price and Falco were the only new addition to the top three after today’s dressage. They sit on a score of 30.5, despite a couple of mistakes. Falco is the only horse competing at Burghley this weekend having completed the eventing World Championships at Aachen almost three weeks ago, where they finished 21st individually following a disappointing first phase score.

“He was basically unrideable in Aachen,” Tim said. “He was so fresh in the dressage, and I pledged to not make that mistake again.”

This time, some additional work over cross-country fences yesterday helped take the edge off.

“He was very rideable today,” Tim said. “So therefore, it was just down to me to do as good a job as possible.”

He felt he could have produced a cleaner performance, particularly in the flying-changes, but added: “Other than that, he was really good. He’s a lovely, lovely horse and I enjoyed riding him.”

Tomorrow represents something of an unknown for Falco. Although Tim has won Burghley before, this is Falco’s first appearance at the event.

“I don’t really know the answer,” he admitted when asked how the course would suit him. “But I do believe in him a lot.”

Now the key is giving Falco a course on which he can feel confident enough to show his considerable jumping ability, as he is widely considered a good enough showjumper to take this up professionally.

“He’s such a deliberate show-off with his jump,” Tim said. “He loves to jump well.”

The going, therefore, could be crucial.

“If I did something that took away his ability to jump well, I think you could see an unraveling,” he explained.

“I want to go out of the start box and have him having fun.”

Just 10 penalties cover the top 37 combinations, so it really will be all to play for tomorrow. The cross-country gets underway at 11.30am.

Images by Tim Wilkinson

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