British rider Tom Rowland tackled his first ride around the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials’ CCI4* cross country course in 2018
Tom, who is based near Cirencester in Gloucestershire where he runs his own yard, completed his first four-star riding Hennessey Cormac at Pau in 2015, but his first ride at Burghley was on board the Irish Sport Horse, Possible Mission, known at home as ‘Hunter’.
Possible Mission, owned by Mr and Mrs Robin Patrick, certainly has the breeding for eventing; he is by the Clover Hill son Temple Clover out of Bahrain Supreme by Ricardo Z (sire of Sportsfield Othello, Fenyas Elegance, The Lion). The 11-year-old gelding was having his first four-star start and, despite one scary moment on cross country, the pair handled the famous course well and completed the event in 27th place
Tom and Possible Mission picked up 29.6 time penalties on cross country and Tom is looking at ways to reduce that number! In preparation for runs at possibly both Badminton and Burghley in 2019, Tom is using An Eventful Life’s video of his cross country ride at Burghley as a training aid and also to share his experience with the horse’s owners
Watch Tom’s full ride on Possible Mission in the video below and hear his thoughts on his first ride at Burghley and what he will change in 2019
“One of the useful things that this video has shown me is that I wave my arms around and I’m a bit embarrassed about it!”
View our 2019 XC Video event calendar here
