Wills Oakden takes a bow at Burghley after completing first five-star

By Lucy Wilde, Sportsbeat

Wills Oakden took a gracious bow as he celebrated the small wins after successfully completing his first 5* at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials astride A Cool Cooley.

The Perthshire-native had already made it clear that this week’s competition was about educating his 12-year-old stallion, and having clinched a top 20 finish it seems he can tick just that off his wishlist.

Oakden, 34, concentrated all of his efforts into just one entry this year, having had two horses finish inside the top ten at last year’s prestigious competition, and was relieved to make it through in one piece.

“The expectation was to get a completion under his belt,” he said, speaking after finishing the third and final phase of the Lincolnshire event with a +0.8 penalty.

“This was only A Class Cooley’s third 5* and he hadn’t yet completed one, so the expectation was to complete first and then after that minimise total penalty score. Fair play to him for doing exactly that.”

Oakden’s completion of the gruelling four-mile cross-country course during his second outing of the competition - known as the toughest in the world - proved the perfect morale boost heading into the final stage.

While it was not a faultless test, the Scot is confident the experience of competing among the world’s best rider’s, including Olympic champion and this year’s Burghley victor Ros Canter, will reap future rewards.

“He [A Cool Cooley] took a couple of jumps to warm up, I think he thought ‘Oh my god, there’s so many people and so much noise’. He’s never been in an arena like that before but I thought he grew into his round and jumped fantastically.

“When I added a stride between fences five and six, I was dreading coming out of the arena and seeing my coach. I thought he would give me a kick up the backside but he said I dealt with what I needed to.

“I think we learn from mistakes but as I’ve been saying all week, he’s a young horse, this week was all about developing him into what we hope will be a proper 5* horse down the line.

“I think we’re very proud of him this week. We’ll look after him in the winter, bring him home, take him out next spring and see what we have. We’ll develop, improve and come back and climb that leaderboard.”

Defender Burghley Horse Trials (5-8 September 2024) has been a major international sporting and social event for over 50 years. It attracts the world's top equestrians and is attended by vast and enthusiastic crowds. For more information visit www.burghley-horse.co.uk