“I have a better perspective now”

NEW ZEALAND rider Bundy Philpott returns to Badminton for her third shot at a completion.

“I had a cool New Zealand thoroughbred ex-racehorse,” she says, reflecting on her previous attempts in 2006 and 2007 with Fig Jam. “The second time, I jumped clear across country but he had a bad overreach and couldn’t trot up on Sunday.”

Bundy’s ride this time is her own and her father Bryan’s 16-year-old Tresca NZPH (pictured).

“I’ve had him since he was a four-yearold,” she says. “He broke his pelvis before I had him, so he’s not an oil painting but he’s honest and genuine, one of life’s good guys.”

Bundy, 38, has a “healthier attitude” towards eventing than last time she came to Badminton.

“As I’ve got older, I have a better perspective on the sport – it’s not my be-all and end-all,” she says. “In your early twenties, it’s an obsession and emotions ride high.”

Bundy’s trip here is not just for

Badminton – she has wound up her equestrian business at home and plans to stay here for at least three years.

“I came here a decade ago and wasn’t very successful,” she says. “I went back to New Zealand, put together a new string of horses and worked hard to get back to this level.

“When you’ve put this much time, commitment and energy into something, at some point you have to draw a line in the sand and give it a go or walk away.”

Bundy has brought six horses over and is based at the Oxfordshire yard of Brazilian

Olympian Ruy Fonseca and his wife Renata.

Says Bundy: “I guess I won’t be eventing in 20 years – I’m older than the average person coming from New Zealand. We’ll give it everything we’ve got and if it works, it does. If not, I can say I gave it my best shot, I wasn’t good enough, but I left it all on the table.”