Matthew Wright and Cossan Lad impressed us at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials last year with an early clear round in the show jumping phase, one of only 12 clears on the final day. However we were even more impressed when, chatting to him afterwards, we discovered that the 12 year grey gelding was a catch ride for Matthew and was a horse that he had only ridden twice before the event.
Despite the fact that the warm up for the cross country was ‘the first time I’d really jumped cross country fences on him’ Matthew looked remarkably composed as he is about to set off, as you can see in the video below, and the pair made it around the cross country with just one hiccup half way through the course at The Maltings, incurring 20 penalties. There also had the fun of being joined by a dog on course that chased them for some of the way but it seems that little fazes Matthew
Matthew has certainly had plenty of experience with many different horses, having grown up riding ‘all sorts’ of horses at his parent’s horse dealing yard in Nottinghamshire. He won the Pony Club Championships when 12 years old and represented Britain at the Young Rider European Championships in 2002 finishing sixth and winning team silver on the homebred and home produced skewbald Park Pilot. The same year he made his first appearance at Burghley at the age of 18 and completed his first Badminton in 2003
As Matthew explains, the last minute ride on Cossan Lad came about after his owner Kirsty Short had retired the ‘strong’ grey on course at Blair Castle and decided not to ride him at Burghley, despite having an entry. Matthew first sat on the horse the Monday of Burghley and it was then decided that he would take him around the big 4* track
We’d love to know what the outcome of the dinner was and wonder, will we see Matthew and Cossan Lad back out competing this year?
Matthew Wright
