Melton event rider prepares to compete at Burghley

Emma Hyslop-Webb will be riding Jeweetwel when the competition gets underway in the picturesque Stamford park on Thursday with the dressage stage, followed by cross country on Saturday and showjumping on Sunday.

The 10-year-old mount, who is makes his prestigious five-star debut at Burghley, has enjoyed a strong season alongside Emma, finishing fourth at Mallow in Ireland earlier in the year.

But this is a significant step up in class for Jeweetwel, whose name means ‘you know who’ in Dutch, and who is also known by a different name thanks to an unlikely celebrity lookalike.

Emma, who is competing at Burghley for the fifth time, said: “His everyday name is Hughie – he’s a little bit like Hugh Grant, that’s why we call him Hughie.

“To begin with he was very shy, very scared of people. I’ve had him for about five years, and he’s now learned to trust people and now is very much the centre of attention in the yard. He loves being fussed and having as much attention as possible.

“This’ll be a very big question for a 10-year-old horse, but we’ll walk the course and see if we need to do a couple of long routes on the cross-country course. We’ll very much just keep it real, go out there and give the horse a nice first five-star experience.

“He’s been very consistent. He’s very much a quick horse with a lot of power, a lot of speed, so one that would hopefully lend itself stamina-wise to a course like Burghley. But the proof will be in the pudding.”

Emma competed at Burghley most recently in 2022 and she is well aware of the huge amount of work it takes to prepare a horse to appear there.

“We’re based 40 minutes away, I’ve grown up with Burghley,” she said.

“I think every Pony Club child has a dream of competing at Burghley so it’s very much at the forefront of your mind when you’re there, you soak up every second.”

Emma started riding as a toddler and grew up around horses, training the hunting horses her mother hired out.

After a 12-year stint working in sales it felt natural to come back to start a career with horses, and that has since gone from strength to strength.

She moved back home to parents’ Julie and Mark’s Vale View Equestrian Centre in Leicestershire nearly three years ago but has always lived close by.

And in some ways Burghley has felt like a home competition to her.

She added: “There’ll be a lot of people there that know me or follow me, or I could have gone to Pony Club with them,” she said. “That’s the great thing about events like Burghley, it brings people together.”

Defender Burghley Horse Trials – from September 5-8 - 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.

Click HERE for more information.