Chris Burton knows what it takes to make it to an Olympic Games; after all, he’s done it twice previously. However, campaigning for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been different: not only is Chris competing across two disciplines, but his eventing horse has only been in his stable a matter of months.
In mid-2021, Chris Burton had what could have been his last FEI-level eventing start. Stepping away from the sport to focus on show jumping, there wasn’t really any plans to return. Fast-forward to the beginning of 2024, and the UK-based Australian had a change of heart. In March, the news became public that Burto had purchased an eventer – and the aim was the Paris Olympics. Australian eventing fans rejoiced.
“It was completely Shadow Man; I always loved him,” says Chris, explaining it was this specific horse that lured him back into the sport. “I once before tried to purchase him off [former rider] Ben Hobday. When he came over the table to be sold to an American, I came in and asked my wife how she felt about me going eventing again, and she rolled her eyes… Luckily for me, we went ahead and acquired him. Bek soon agreed it was a good idea. His performance [at Millstreet] proved my point!”
“It was completely
Shadow Man; I always
loved him.”
The performance at Millstreet that Chris refers to is of course the pair’s win in the CCIO4*S at Millstreet International Horse Trials in Ireland in May. It was only their sixth start together, and it was the event where it all came together. Showing just what they are capable of, they finished on their dressage score of 25.7.
Prior to that event, Chris’ focus wasn’t on pushing any limits; he simply wanted to get to know Shadow Man – a 14-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding by Fidjy Of Colours out of Favourite van de Keezerswinning by Winningmood van de Arenberg – and tick off the required Olympic qualifications with minimal risk or stress on the horse.
“I was just ticking boxes,” says Chris of those earlier events. “I wasn’t even schooling him; I was hardly riding him, and it was a testament to how well schooled he is thanks to Ben Hobday and the job he’s done and testament to what a great character the horse is.
“I would literally be show jumping in St Tropez, and then turn up and get on him at an event. It was very much a case of ‘just get through it’. I went as slow as I could to the very maximum of the qualifications and I still think he was incredible to do what he did; we shipped him all around Europe. Going slow, doesn’t sort of stress them as much and I wasn’t intentionally putting effort into getting good dressage scores or good jumping out of him… I was just doing it off his raw talent.”
The time penalties at these events could have seemed odd to those watching from afar, given Chris’ reputation of being a fast cross country rider. He says it’s a reputation that he’s been proud of and not proud of all at the same time, and believes the credit lies with the horses he’s had over his career. “It’s largely due to the horses that I had…. I had some amazing animals, and they were just so easy to take fast,” he explains.
When Chris and Shadow Man produced their outstanding performance at Millstreet, the big question was what had changed from those earlier events – but as Chris explains, it basically came down to the fact they’d actually had some time to get to know each other schooling at home.
“That was the talking point in Millstreet… people said, ‘What, what have you done differently?’ I said, ‘I’ve had him at home and I’ve actually schooled him and gotten to know him a little better!’ We showed a little bit what we’re capable of.”
Chris says ensuring he maintained a sound horse for Paris has also been at front of mind. Having had eventing horses injure themselves at inopportune times previously, he was cautious not to push for too much, too soon.
“I didn’t want to go fast at all in this campaign until I got to Paris. The selectors wanted to see me do a more competitive run, they wanted to know if I could still go fast and if the horse was fast, which is fair enough. Luckily for me, the ground came a lot better at Millstreet. Personally, at that event we were most interested in seeing if we could do a better performance in the dressage and show jumping. It all came together there for us.”
THE POCKET ROCKET
Shadow Man isn’t the only eventer Chris is currently riding – he’s also had three starts this year with Clever Louis, a horse he campaigned previously. When Chris switched to show jumping, owners Geoffrey and Kate Guy of Chedington Equestrian opted not to sell the horse and instead placed him with Great Britain’s Bubby Upton and later New Zealand’s Jonelle Price.
“He’s a terrific little horse. Jonelle and Bubby have both done a good job riding him. I’m riding him again largely because my incredibly generous friends, Tim and Jonelle [Price], said, ‘You’re going to need another horse if you’re taking up eventing again’. Geoffrey agreed and I was fortunate enough to get the ride back on him.”
In April, Chris and Clever Louis – a 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding by Cyrkon out of Latifa by Cor de la Bryere – won the CCI4*L at Strzegom in Poland. Despite their success, Chris explains that Clever Louis wasn’t aimed at Paris.
“Clever Louis couldn’t be campaigned for the Australian equestrian team because he doesn’t have an Australian on the passport,” he says. Horses needed to have an Australian listed as an owner by 15 January this year in order to qualify to represent their country – something Chris managed to organise just in the nick of time with Shadow Man. “Rather annoyingly, Clever Louis is not even a backup horse for me, for Paris,” explains Chris.
When it comes to Clever Louis and Shadow Man, Chris says they are quite different. “They couldn’t be any more different if they tried, they’re miles apart. Both are fantastic horses, but totally opposite. Shadow Man’s extravagant… a bit more of a Warmblood, very fancy, very big jumping, very good on the flat. Clever Louis is a proper little Thoroughbred type: a tricky mouth, a little bit of a more difficult ride, but capable of great things. He does lovely dressage, and he’s all blood… he could probably go twice around Burghley, that one! He’s insanely fast, he’s a really cool horse.
“He got out to Poland the first time [CCI4*S in April] and thought he was at the races. I think he’d been there when he was a young horse and he seemed to remember it and I couldn’t ride one side of him for the first week… so I didn’t do a very good dressage test. He stayed there between the two shows and our groom hacked around on him… he settled down in the second week and I did a very good test on him [in the CCI4*L, which they won].”
STILL SHOW JUMPING
As Chris very much still intends to continue show jumping at the elite level, he says there are no plans to add further eventing horses to his stables beyond Shadow Man and Clever Louis.
Chris’ jumping team is comprised of Chedington Hazy Toulana and Jacksonville Eurohill and Chedington Blue at the elite level, as well Carly 14, Chacoon’s Nevo Ps and Qatar B alongside a few others. Most are owned by the Guy family of Chedington Equestrian.
“The focus [in the jumping team] right now is on Chedington Hazy Toulana [a 12-year-old KWPN mare by Toulon out of Mariska by Indorado], as she’s qualified for Paris. Jacksonville Eurohill [a 10-year-old KWPN gelding by Emerald out of Fyolieta by Carambole] is also just the most beautiful animal, and he’s sort of propping Hazy Toulana up, and being there as a fantastic second horse thanks to the Guy family,” says Chris.
Chris has had quite a few Nations Cup starts for Australia to date, one of the most recent being Rome CSIO5* at the end of May. “It wasn’t a bad show,” says Chris of his performance there with Chedington Hazy Toulana. “I had the last fence down on Hazy in the first round of the Nations Cup, which was so frustrating. She jumped so well; it was one of those things. And then I was working with Jan Tops and he said, ‘I told you not to do the 9 strides, do the 10 to the last!’ So I swapped and did the 10 to the last and had it down in the second round as well… so still some room for improvement,” he laughs, adding that overall the team was very happy and he was pleased with how the mare has been jumping the big tracks. “I did feel a little bit like I was short on a run, which is probably a side effect that comes from running an eventing regime at the same time!”
Chris says competing at a five-star event such as Rome is a great experience – and one that doesn’t come along every day. “I’ve had a terribly hard time getting into the five-star show jumping events, which is pretty common for a rider that’s not ranked in the top 300 [of the FEI World Rankings],” he explains.
Since Rome, Chris has also competed at a CSIO4* in Sopot, Poland where he and Hazy had just the one rail down in the Nations Cup class. However, riding Jacksonville Eurohill in a CSIO4* 1.50m class Chris executed two faultless rounds, clocking in at a quick 38.24 seconds in the jump-off to claim first place of 68 combinations – more than five seconds ahead of the second-placed combination.
DISCIPLINE CROSSOVER
So, coming back to eventing, is there anything Chris would do differently based on what he’s learnt training and riding at the elite end of show jumping?
“We’ve been fortunate, thanks to a very well-run eventing high performance programme, to have show jump training with Nelson Pessoa,” says Chris. “In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest equestrians of all time. When I came back [to eventing] and I show jumped in Kronenberg [CCI4*S, March 2024], Nelson said, ‘Do you think the jumping’s been good for you? and I said, ‘Yeah, I do. It really helps, it has to help.’ And he said, ‘Me too, I think so.’
“Very few words, but when Nelson does say something, it’s an absolute pearler and it’s bang on. So that was nice… quite validating, and quite reassuring. I certainly feel like I’m show jumping with a lot of confidence these days, which has to help, doesn’t it?”
Although Chris feels the show jumping work has benefitted his eventing, he says that when it comes to training horses in these two disciplines, it’s not all that different.
“I was asked that a lot when we stepped up to 1.60m show jumping and did a few Nations Cups for Australia. People would say, ‘Oh, it’s not the same’. To be honest, I feel it’s fundamentally the same skill set: you have to get the horse to a good enough distance to jump it well. I did the first few big Grand Prix show jumping courses, and I thought, ‘It feels a bit the same… it feels like riding a five-star cross country course’. So, I don’t think there’s actually a huge amount of difference between the sports.”
“I don’t think there’s
actually a huge amount
of difference between
the sports.”
OLYMPIC TEAMS
Having competed at the London Olympics in 2012 with Holstein Park Leilani and the Rio Olympics in 2016 with Santano II – the latter resulting in a team bronze and fifth place individually – Chris certainly knows what it takes to make the team and then perform when the time comes.
Chris has horses qualified and short-listed for both show jumping and eventing for the Paris Olympics, and on 4 July it was announced that he has made his third Olympic eventing team alongside Shane Rose and Virgil, and Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam. Talk about returning to the sport in style! EQ
Equestrian Life would like to thank Abi Penrose from Success by Design Agency LTD for conducting this interview.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Chedington & The Burtons a Perfect Match – Equestrian Life, July 2022
Chris Burton Sees the Bright Side of 2020 – Equestrian Life, October 2020
