History in the making: Laura Collett and London 52’s partnership so far

Photo credit: Laura and London 52 after their winning round at Badminton Horse Trials 2022 © Badminton Horse Trials Limited

Laura Collett’s super-talented London 52 is making headlines everywhere you look, but how much do you know of the combination’s history? H&R reflects on the years that have gone into creating such a formidable partnership

Laura Collett realised a childhood dream as she won this year’s Badminton Horse Trials after a superb performance on Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott’s London 52. Laura’s finishing score of 21.4 — which had just a mere 0.4 of a showjumping time penalty added to it from her dressage mark — is a record completion score for Badminton.

It was the first British one-two-three since Pippa Funnell led William Fox-Pitt and Leslie Law 20 years ago in 2002, and Laura Collett revealed that Pippa’s win on Supreme Rock had been her childhood inspiration. “I was going round the cross-country on my aunt’s shoulders and I wanted to be Pippa Funnell winning Badminton,” she said.

But it’s not just Badminton – the pair’s second 5* title to date – where Laura and ‘Dan’ have proven to be showstoppers. They notched up Laura’s first top-level win at Pau in 2020, which was followed by Olympic selection and a team gold medal at last year’s Tokyo 2020. However, as with all epic tales, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

On the rollercoaster

Laura and Dan’s terrific form started building gradually over the last few years. In 2019, the combination enjoyed a promising start to the year – having taken the win in the prestigious CCI4*-S for eight- and nine-year-olds at Blenheim Palace in late 2018, Dan came out for his 10-year-old season looking as impressive as he had the year prior, and the pair duly took the win in the first Event Rider Masters leg of the year at Chatsworth. With the gelding pegged as one of the sport’s next big things, all eyes were on him – and even more so when Laura’s top horse, Mr Bass, was sidelined with an injury sustained at Badminton in the spring.

“It would’ve been very different had Mr Bass stayed in one piece – he’d have been the main focus,” says Laura. “But instead, I felt like it had to be all about London 52, and he needed to step up to the mark probably a year early for him, mentally.”

However, things started to unravel at Bramham CCI4*-L at the beginning of summer 2019. Aware of Dan’s exceptional talent, Laura found herself doing something totally unfamiliar – she stopped riding.

“I’d put him on a pedestal,” she said, looking back on the event, which yielded a shock 30s dressage score and a retirement after a stop at the influential coffin, later on in the season. “He was still young and needed help, but I was riding him like he was too good and just left him alone. I didn’t want to mess it up – and in trying to avoid that, it’s exactly what I ended up doing.”

It was to be the start of a big learning curve for both horse and rider that lasted much of the year – but unlike most inexperienced horses, who sail under the radar and have their early wobbles without comment, London 52 was the horse everyone was watching. It was all too easy to forget that prodigious though he was, the then-10-year-old had only started eventing three seasons prior.

Laura and Dan were selected to represent Great Britain in the team competition at Aachen. After a then-personal best dressage score of 22.9 and a foot-perfect clear showjumping round, they found themselves leading going into the pivotal cross-country phase. But here, too, they met heartbreak head-on when Dan ran out at the second element of the final combination, just tens of meters away from the finish line.

They say bad things come in threes, and if nothing else, you can’t fault the universe for committing to an old adage. Despite their wobbles, Laura and Dan headed back to Germany in August as individual competitors at the European Eventing Championships in Luhmühlen. There, they led the first day of dressage and ultimately wound up in bronze medal position as they left the start box – where their hopes were dashed by a tumble at the final water. Had the eventing world overestimated London 52?

Redemption song

When the proverbial hits the fan, there are two choices – you can let the mess take over, or you can start shovelling. Laura chose the latter. She knew the relatively inexperienced horse had talent to burn, but somewhere along the way, that physical ability had begun to outpace his mental education. Though he could do everything he was asked, he hadn’t yet learnt to put all the pieces together for himself, and as a result, his confidence was on shaky ground. Laura’s 2019 goal now boiled down to one major aim: help Dan find the fun again.

To do so, she knew just the event he needed to go to. The CCI4*-L at Boekelo, about an hour from Amsterdam, is one of the best-loved events in the global calendar – situated at the tail-end of the season, it’s super-sociable and, as the finale of the Nations Cup series, it promises plenty of atmosphere and beautifully-built tracks. And although it’s not an easy course, by any stretch of the imagination – it is, after all, effectively a global championship – it’s confidence-building and encourages a positive rhythm. Even more pertinently, it had been the site of Dan’s CCI4*-L debut the year prior, when he’d finished second. It was the perfect place, thought Laura, to help him find his mojo again.

The plan worked. Three nearly flawless phases saw them finish on their dressage score of 26 – and take their biggest win yet.

Confidence is king

“[That] was a real turning point for him,” reflects Laura. “All year, I’d felt that something wasn’t quite there – even at Boekelo, where he might’ve looked fantastic, but he didn’t feel totally confident. But winning there changed something, and he came out in 2020 so different.”

The newly-confident Dan swaggered his way to fourth place in an enormous CCI4*-S at Burgham and then took a win in the inaugural CCI4*-S at Little Downham. Then, it was time for his biggest challenge yet.

“It was all about giving him a good experience,” explains Laura of her decision to enter Pau at the end of the 2020 season. “I knew he was capable of leading the dressage, and the rest was just about making sure he had a good run – and I was quite fascinated to see if the fact that he’d felt different all year meant what I thought it did.”

The pair’s week began as Laura had hoped it could. After the first day of dressage saw two record-breaking scores go up on the leaderboard, nothing but their very best would do – and London 52 would deliver, earning a 21.3 to set not only the venue dressage record but Laura’s own CCI5* career best at that point, too. Then it was time for the real challenge.

Pau is so different from its fellow five-star events partly because of its location. Unlike Badminton and Burghley, which are housed in sprawling country estates, Pau is a true city event, tucked into a small park and racecourse in the bustling Pyrenees metropolis. That means the course is full of hairpin turns and tight, twisting combination questions out of necessity – a galloping stretch here would put the course at real risk of encroaching upon a Citröen dealership or an Aldi. Combine that with the demands of designer Pierre Michelet – often referred to as Michelet the Menace – and you’re left with a serious test of accuracy, commitment and bold, positive riding. Jam-packed with serious skinnies, blind turns into corner fences and some of the toughest water questions in the world, it’s a real test of the partnership between horse and rider – and surprise run-outs have broken plenty of hearts here.

But the newly reformed Dan wasn’t about to be defeated. By fence six, a tough double of angled hedges that demanded a very forward two strides with no margin for error, he was hunting for flags. As he nipped his way out of the first third of the course and sailed out into the racecourse, his rangy stride opened up gleefully. Dan was having fun.

Lest the naysayers claim it was all just a bit too easy, though, the pair found themselves in a sticky situation at the final combination – a classic Pau question featuring a huge house atop a steep man-made mound, with a steep downhill trajectory to a colossal corner set on a blind turn. Laura had opted to go the long route here with her first ride, Mr Bass, but she knew she couldn’t afford the extra time if she wanted to stay in the lead and so, despite an enormous leap in, she pointed Dan at the corner and prayed.

“I was thinking, ‘oh god – here we go again’,” she laughs, recalling the gutsy half-stride the horse found in front of the fence. But rather than nipping out the side door or dropping anchor, as his old insecurities might have compelled him to do, Dan pricked his ears, spotted the landing side, and corkscrewed his way over the fence in an extraordinary feat of boldness and athleticism. Mere moments later, they crossed the finish line – clear and inside the time.

A dream come true

Nothing’s certain in life, and even less is certain at five-star, but despite Dan’s relative inexperience, he came into Pau with the best final-phase record in the field. Laura couldn’t have been better mounted – but she also couldn’t have been under more pressure. If she’d ever been worried, though, she didn’t show it. Instead, she delivered a typically foot-perfect clear, and as she rode out of the arena in tears, she did so as a five-star champion – an accolade she’s spent her whole career working towards.

Olympic selection

Between 2020’s Pau and 2022’s Badminton sat a particularly poignant dream come true – selection to represent Great Britain at Tokyo 2020. Coming home with a team gold medal, Laura and Dan more than proved their worth on the squad and although missing out on an individual accolade this time, the combination was consistently knocking on the door for the podium. With their current form, we’re sure they’re not off the selectors’ radar as we look ahead to World Championships later this summer and beyond.