H&H interview Will Furlong on making his Badminton debut
The Badminton debutant talks to Pippa Roome about moving on from youth medals, juggling eventing with hockey and breeding his next stars
I’M buzzing already,” says Will Furlong, his face lighting up as he sits in the kitchen at his family home in East Sussex and his thoughts turn to his first Badminton.
Modestly, he describes his efforts at under-21 level as “pretty good going”. The reality is that he is one of Britain’s most successful youth event riders of the past decade — junior individual bronze in 2013 and young rider team and individual gold two years later.
But Will, now 22, is aware that his biggest challenges are yet to come.
“I don’t want to be known as the person who did really well in young riders any more, because I can’t trade on that double gold in 2015 for the rest of my career,” he says.
“Now, it’s about proving to the senior professionals that I’m not just good at young rider level. I want to compete at a senior championship eventually, so I’ve got to be as good, if not better, than them.”
Will won the under-25 national championship at Bramham last year with his Badminton ride, Collien P 2 (Tinks), as well as finishing sixth in the Nations Cup CICO3* at Haras du Pin and in the CCI3* at Blenheim.
“Those sixths were almost a bigger deal for me — Bramham is great, but there were only 27 people in that class and it’s not generally super-competitive,” he says, pointing to Blenheim’s 85-strong field, including European long-listed pairs such as Laura Collett and Mr Bass.
Will wants to be competitive at Badminton, but is keeping his aims “realistic”.
“I’d love to get around a 30 in the dressage and go clear cross-country,” he says. “But it’s more about the experience, making it a positive one for me and my horse so we can learn from it and move on from there.
“It’s my first four-star and people often say it’s a big jump up. The little things add up. My trainer Nick Turner said that when he first rode at Badminton, he was surprised by the crowds leaning in beyond the ropes — that line you walked isn’t there any more.”
Unusually, when Will rides down into Badminton’s main arena, it won’t be the first time he does so, as he has twice been the guinea pig rider, performing a dressage test before the first competitor to try out the event systems and help the judges get their eye in.
“It’s nice I’ve been there with a competition mindset rather than as a spectator — it’s as close as you can get to the real thing,” he says.
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WILL’S Badminton debut was in some doubt earlier this year when a 31 January deadline loomed for selling Collien P 2 to allow his mother Lou to sort out some tax affairs after the death of his grandmother.
“It was stressful because a few people came to see her and we were running out of time,” he says.
Thankfully, five owners came together to form The Acorn Syndicate and secure Tinks’ future with Will.
The 12-year-old mare by Carentan has been with Will since May 2016, having been bought from Germany’s Josephine Schnaufer.
“She found her too strong, too much horse,” he explains. “The talent was there, although her form was patchy. She was bred nicely and I felt like I could make a positive difference to her way of going.”
Many of Will’s top horses have been mares, from Fancy That II, who took him to his first one-stars, to his junior medallist Pioneer Silvie.
This is among the reasons he became interested in breeding — among the 20 or so horses on his East Sussex yard, he has a home-bred three-year-old by the Jaguar Mail son Tresor Mail, two two-year-olds and two yearlings. This year, he’ll try again to breed from Silvie after previous unsuccessful attempts.
“I’ve done quite a bit of research into different stallions and how horses are bred at the top level,” says Will, who believes in using mares who have competed successfully.
“With event horses you’re almost trying to breed the impossible — something that moves well, jumps, has a good temperament, enough thoroughbred and good conformation.”
COMPARED to many successful riders, Will was a relatively late starter, trying the sport at a riding school when he was 10 or 11. He progressed through the East Sussex branch of the Pony Club and hunted with the Coakham Bloodhounds, which gave him the bug for riding fast across country.
Also unusually in a world where youngsters often leave education early, Will boarded at Tonbridge School and achieved straight As at A level, a plan discussed between the teenager and his divorced parents, Lou and Mark.
“We agreed I would try to get as good grades as possible so that if I couldn’t make eventing work financially, I got injured or
I just didn’t want to do it any more, I would have something to fall back on,” he says.
“I don’t regret doing it at all.”
He played hockey internationally until he was 16, juggling alternate weekends at the national sport centre at Lilleshall, Shropshire, with eventing and school.
“Mum was manning the fort here, but it got to the point where I couldn’t do two sports at that high a level,” he says.
Will believes having other interests — and not being part of the eventing team system too early — made him enjoy riding more.
“If something is your whole life, it doesn’t create a healthy environment,” he says. “If you don’t enjoy it, there’s no point doing it and if you put so much pressure on being successful at a young age, you kind of fall out of love with it. That happened with me with hockey — I played really competitively so young and it frazzled me a bit.
“However good the youth eventing programme is, I’d recommend people don’t get too engulfed by it — being watched by selectors at every event does sort of eat away at you.”
Will’s transition from the under-21 world to seniors has been cushioned by the World Class Podium Potential Programme and making his Nations Cup debut. Like many young riders, he admits he’s short of horsepower — and he hopes Badminton will help raise his profile for potential owners and sponsors. But he rates the nine-year-old two-star mare Elstar.
“She’s very rangy and has taken time to progress,” he says. “Tinks is more agile and quick-thinking, but Elstar probably has more natural ability.”
For this week, it’s all eyes on Collien P 2 and Badminton.
“She’s not hugely experienced and I wasn’t sure whether Badminton might be too much for her mentally. But she made Blenheim feel easy and this might be our only chance when we’re qualified and ready to go,” says Will.
He’s number 53 — let’s hope that it’s a lucky one.
‘I can’t trade on young rider double gold for the rest of my career’