Defender Burghley Masterclass: ‘First impressions count’
“To earn high marks, you have to understand what the judge is looking for,” says eventing dressage supremo Bettina Hoy, who kicked off this year’s programme of expert masterclasses at Defender Burghley by coaching two talented young riders, Josh Levett and Barnie Brotherton, in the art of test riding.
Bettina, who won the European Championship title at Burghley in 1997 and has three Olympic Games and five World Championships to her name, has been highly sought after as a coach since hanging up her competitive boots in 2017.
Bettina explained how accuracy and attention to detail, from the moment you enter at A, is crucial to laying the foundations for a high-scoring test.
“Don’t just think about straightness on the centreline — although of course that is important —think about how you get onto the centre line and how you turn off it at the end,” she instructed Barnie.
Bettina emphasised how first impressions really do count.
“If you think about it, the first three movements in the five-star test — the entry, the medium trot across the diagonal and the half-pass onto the centreline, all depend on the rider’s effectiveness in setting the horse up for the movement in the corners,” she said. “I like to see the rider softening the horse to the inside with the inside leg and asking for a little bit of flexion before they get into the corner.
“Often, it’s not what you do in the middle of the movement, it’s how you get into it and out of it that matters,” she continued. “Judges like to see how and where you prepare for a movement, so you need to make this very clear. As soon as the judge has to hold their breath and wonder how it’s going to happen, you’re on the back foot.”
Bettina worked with Barnie and Josh on other aspects of arena craft.
“In the medium and extended trots ride the rhythm rather than pushing for more and more,” she said. “Regularity is far more important than extravagance.”
Spectators can look forward to more masterclass insight in the main arena tomorrow when icons from the worlds of dressage and eventing combine to demonstrate the differences between top-level eventing dressage and pure grand-prix dressage. Multi-Olympic medallist Carl Hester is joined by his former team-mate Richard Davison, and fellow Defender Ambassador and double Olympic gold medallist Tom McEwen, and will no doubt have Burghley visitors enthralled as usual.
Every moment of the action from Defender Burghley 2025 will be shown live on Burghley TV: https://burghley-horse.co.uk/b...
To find out more about Defender Burghley (4-7 September 2025) and to purchase tickets and hospitality, visit www.burghley-horse.co.uk.