Burghley 2026: Brilliant Horses, Big Conversations and a Little Champagne

There are worse ways to spend a few days than standing in the beautiful grounds of Burghley House, surrounded by some of the best horses and riders in the world.

Add glorious sport, fascinating conversations about breeding, a little shopping and the opportunity to undertake some highly important research into fermented grape products, and it's fair to say the Scientia team had a rather good time at the 2026 Defender Burghley Horse Trials.

Joking aside, Burghley is one of those events that reminds you exactly why we find the sport horse so endlessly fascinating.

Because when you watch a horse competing at five-star level, you are looking at far more than a pedigree.

You are seeing genetics, environment, training, management, health, experience and luck come together in one extraordinary athlete.

And that is very much the world Scientia is interested in.

A very worthy winner

Joanne was particularly delighted to see Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight take the Burghley title.

The pair produced an exceptional performance across all three phases, finishing on their original dressage score of 29.6 and winning by an enormous 13.4 penalties.

They were the only combination in the competition to finish on their dressage score, completing Burghley's formidable cross-country course clear and inside the optimum time before producing a faultless showjumping round on Sunday.

It was Gemma Stevens' first Burghley victory and secured the £120,000 first prize.

But there is another part of the Chilli Knight story that particularly resonates with us.

The 16-year-old gelding was bred by his owners, Christopher and Lisa Stone, and Gemma has known him from birth.

For anyone interested in breeding, that's rather special.

We naturally spend a great deal of time thinking about which stallion complements which mare, analysing pedigrees, performance records and the genetic characteristics we hope might be passed to the next generation.

But breeding the foal is only the beginning.

What happens during the years that follow — nutrition, environment, microbial exposure, development, training, veterinary care, workload, human decision-making and welfare — all help shape the horse standing in front of us.

Genotype gives us potential. Life helps determine how that potential is expressed.

And even then, as we openly acknowledge in our five Scientia pillars, there is always Luck.

Chilli Knight's story is a rather wonderful example of why we believe breeding should be viewed as a long game.

The part Gemma could happily have watched all day…

For Gemma, one of the highlights of Burghley was the dressage.

There is something quite enchanting about sitting ringside and watching these enormous, powerful animals move with such softness, balance and precision.

At that level, the movements can appear almost effortless.

Of course, they aren't.

Behind every beautifully executed change, transition and extended movement are years of conditioning, communication, repetition and learning.

What was perhaps most striking was the teamwork between horse and rider.

At the very highest level of sport, you can see just how fine that communication becomes. A tiny shift in weight, a change in contact, an almost imperceptible aid — and the horse responds.

It is athletic performance, but it is also partnership.

And that matters enormously when we talk about breeding sport horses.

We don't simply want to produce horses capable of jumping higher or moving bigger. Temperament, trainability, confidence, resilience and the ability to develop a trusting relationship with a rider are enormously important pieces of the puzzle too.

The spectacular movement might catch your eye, the relationship behind it is what keeps you watching.

Breeding conversations are often the best conversations

One of the most enjoyable parts of Burghley actually happened away from the competition arenas.

We had the opportunity to speak with people from across the wider breeding community and have some genuinely interesting conversations about where sport-horse breeding is heading.

A particular highlight was spending time talking with Pennie Wallace about horse breeding and horse welfare — two subjects that sit right at the heart of what we are building at Scientia Sport Horses.

It was thoughtful, engaging and, perhaps most importantly, one of those conversations where shared values quickly became apparent.

There was a real meeting of minds around the importance of breeding with welfare at the centre, and around the responsibility breeders have to think not just about performance, but about the whole horse.

Those are often the useful ones.

Breeding horses inevitably involves opinions. Breeders have their preferred pedigrees, experiences, methods and philosophies, built over many years.

Scientia's approach is to add another layer to that conversation:

What does the evidence tell us?

What can we learn about the role of the microbiome in health and development?

How does the early environment affect the growing horse?

What are we learning about training, conditioning and long-term soundness?

And how do we use all of that knowledge without ever forgetting that there is a living animal at the centre of every decision?

Science doesn't remove horsemanship.

At its best, it gives good horsemanship more information to work with.

And yes, there was champagne

It would be misleading to suggest that our entire weekend was spent deep in scholarly discussion.

We also conducted a perfectly respectable amount of shopping.

And sampled some champagne.

Naturally, at Scientia we prefer to refer to the latter as an informal investigation into microbial fermentation and its commercially successful end products.

We are nothing if not committed to science.

Whether purchasing said fermented products was strictly necessary for the advancement of equine breeding remains subject to peer review.

Coming home inspired

Burghley gives you an extraordinary opportunity to see what the very top of the sport looks like.

But for us, it also reinforces why the journey towards producing those horses is so interesting.

A five-star horse isn't created by one thing.

Not the fashionable stallion.

Not the mare line.

Not the perfect feed.

Not the best trainer.

Not the latest piece of technology.

It is the interaction between hundreds of factors over many years.

At Scientia, we group much of our thinking around five pillars:

Genetics. Microbiome. Environment. Training. Luck.

And underpinning every one of them is welfare.

Our weekend at Burghley gave us plenty to think about, some wonderful people to talk to and a timely reminder of just how extraordinary the equine athlete can be when breeding, management, horsemanship and partnership come together.

Congratulations to Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight, and to every horse, rider, breeder, owner, groom and team who made Burghley 2026 such a brilliant few days.

We came home with notebooks full of ideas, heads full of horses…

…and possibly slightly less money than we arrived with.

We'll blame the shopping.

The champagne was science. 😜