Burghley is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this month, are there any special plans afoot?
Yes, certainly! We started planning this occasion about three years ago — at the time it seemed over hasty, but in hindsight, I’m so glad we did! Firstly, we’re inviting all of the past winners back for a celebratory luncheon and, of course, a parade round the main ring! In addition, we’re marking the milestone with a £15,000 bursary which will be awarded to the Animal Health Trust to fund research into strangles (in layman’s terms a particularly nasty equine respiratory disease). We’ve also used our 50th birthday as a reason to incorporate a new fence into the cross-country course. It’s on an island in the lake and during the construction of a causeway to and from this, we met a rather obscure obstacle in the form of 600 white clawed crayfish which, as a protected species, had to be removed by our course designers!

Is there a particular competitor that you really look forward to watching year after year?
I could watch New Zealander Mark Todd forever and a day! He just seems so at one with the horse, and he’s a real treat to watch competing. He used to have a horse called Charisma, who remains one of the greatest event horses to date; they were an absolutely fantastic team! Of course, I enjoy the entirity of the event, but Saturday’s cross-country discipline is probably what I get most excited (and nervous) about!

Do you have a favourite part of Lincolnshire?
Lincoln’s city centre is beautiful. When I was younger, we used to drive up the hill past the
Cathedral with the horse box on our way to the old racetrack. It wasn’t until my father dragged me along to the Cathedral that I realised just how spectacular it really was! I also grew up just outside of Stamford, and sometimes I have to take a step back to realise how beautiful the surroundings on my own doorstep are!

Can you recommend a favourite book, movie and music?
The hectic Burghley schedule means that I go almost four months of the year without even
picking up a book! My ultimate favourite however — which I make a concerted effort to read from cover to cover once a year — is Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, by Robert Louis Stephenson. I have a leather bound copy given to me by my mother.
I don’t watch a lot of movies, but I’m particularly fond of cinematic classics such as Out of Africa. That is a really fantastic film!
I’ve got eclectic taste in music. In the months running up to Burghley I listen to a lot of
classical music to keep me calm and slightly slow the pace of life! The rest of the year, my tastes stretch far wider, and I enjoy listening to anything from Rod Stewart to Michael Buble — as long as it’s what I call ‘proper music,’ I’ll enjoy it!

What will your epitaph read?
Do you know something I don’t? I’m not expecting to pop my clogs just yet — so if I’m honest, it’s not something I’ve given any thought to!

Finally... tell us something good?
At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, Burghley is — we hope — going to be absolutely brilliant! I urge everyone to come along and enjoy the event! In particular the Monday after the event is sure to be ‘something good’ for me, as I’ll be able to sit back, relax, and breathe a sigh of relief!

The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials will run from Thursday 1st September to Sunday 4th September. For tickets, telephone the Box Office on 01933 304744 or see http://www.bdwp.co.uk/tickets.