5-8 September 2024

Oliver Townend Ballaghmor Class DBHT 100623

Ambassadors

Andrew Hoy (AUS)

Andrew, 65, holds the Australian record for all sports for Olympic participations — he has competed at eight Games so far, and is aiming for a ninth in Paris this

summer.

Andrew lives just a few miles away from Burghley in Somerby, Leicestershire, with his wife Stefanie and children Philippa and Oscar. He scored his first Defender Burghley win in 1979 — he first represented Australia the year before at the 1978 World Championships. Since then he has won six Olympic medals, including three team golds (1992, 1996 and 2000).

His second Burghley success came in 2004, on Moon Fleet, upon whom he also won Badminton in 2006. In 2006 he also won the Kentucky CCI5* with Master Monarch, setting himself up for a bid at the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing at Burghley that autumn.

In 2021, Andrew finished fourth individually at the Tokyo Olympics on Vassily De Lassos and helped Australia to team silver.

www.hoyteam.com

Piggy March (GBR)

Piggy, 43, is one of Britain’s leading event riders and won Defender Burghley in 2022 riding Trevor Dickens’ mare Vanir Kamira.

Christened Georgina, Piggy received her nickname when her elder sisters visited her in hospital as a baby and declared that she looked like Piglet from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

Piggy was successful in Young Riders, winning team gold for Britain in 2001 at the Young Rider European Championships on Flintlock II, who became her first-ever Burghley ride the following year.

She has been a regular member of Britain’s senior teams since 2009, when she took individual silver at the European Championships - a feat she repeated in 2021. She was on the gold medal-winning team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games on Quarrycrest Echo.

Piggy, who lives just 45 minutes from Burghley in Maidwell, Northamptonshire with her husband Thomas and their son Max, has numerous top-level three-day triumphs to her name alongside her Burghley win, including Badminton in 2018 with Vanir Kamira, Bramham, Blenheim, Burgham, Hartpury, Millstreet, Burnham Market, Chatsworth and Barbury. She won the Young Horses World Championship in Le Lion d’Angers, France, in 2019 on Cooley Lancer and 2007 with Cast Away II. She also won the test event for the London Olympics in 2011.

In 2023 she published a book about her Burghley- and Badminton-winning ride, Vanir Kamira: an incredible journey.

www.piggymarch.com

Boyd Martin (USA)

Boyd, 44, grew up in Australia but moved to the USA in 2007. He always had dual citizenship as his mother is American - his parents met at the 1968 Winter Olympics - but chose to ride for the US from 2009 onwards.

He is one of the US’s most successful event riders and won the first running of the Maryland CCI5* in 2021. He has ridden at three Olympics (Tokyo in 2021, Rio in 2016 and London in 2012), and in 2022 was part of the US team that won silver at the Pratoni World Championships.

Boyd has competed at Defender Burghley on three occasions so far, finishing seventh in 2011, 10th in 2017 and ninth and 10th in 2023. His ride in 2011, Neville Bardos, survived a terrible fire at Boyd’s barn to compete at Burghley and at the Olympics the following year.

He and his dressage rider wife Silva and their three children, Nox, Leo and Koa, own Windurra Farm in Pennsylvania, and are based at Stable View Farm in Aiken, South Carolina during the winter.

www.boydmartin.net

Tim and Jonelle Price (NZL)

Husband and wife Tim and Jonelle Price are currently New Zealand’s foremost event riders. Tim, 44, and Jonelle, 43, moved to the UK in January 2005, and were based outside Marlborough for many years before moving to their current yard in Dorset in early 2023, where they live with their two children, Otis and Abel.

The pair have eight CCI5* wins between them to date; Tim took the Defender Burghley title on Ringwood Sky Boy in 2018, while Jonelle won Badminton earlier that year on Classic Moet, which she followed swiftly by success at Luhmühlen on Faerie Dianamo. In 2022 she won Pau on Grappa Nera. Tim’s other CCI5* wins have been Luhmühlen 2014 (Wesko) and 2019 (Ascona M), Pau 2021 (Falco) and Maryland 2022 (Coup De Coeur Dudevin).

At the 2022 World Championships in Pratoni, Italy, both Prices were on the bronze-medal winning New Zealand team, while Tim won individual bronze as well. Jonelle has their only Olympic medal at this stage - team bronze at London 2012 - but they will be aiming to improve on that this summer in Paris.

www.timandjonelle.com