‘She chose me’: meet the Badminton first-timer splitting her time between Britain and Australia – and her talented mare

Australia’s Samantha Cesnik has a foot in each hemisphere. The Mars Badminton Horse Trials debutante flew to Pau last autumn with her five-star campaigner Graftango and the mare stayed in Europe, while Samantha zipped back down under.

The help of an international support team, including dressage trainer Briana Burgess in France, plus the Cheddington operation in Britain, made the idea a reality.

“We flew her from Australia to Pau last year – she had 10 days between getting off the plane and trotting up, so Pau was like a big ask. Then it rained. She’s never seen mud, and it was proper mud,” says Samantha, who completed with a cross-country jumping clear aboard the now 14-year-old mare, who she owns with her mother Jacqueline, and Andrea Redgewell.

“She then had a very glorious winter in the south of France, which was perfect for her and very similar to our winter in Australia.

“That’s why I didn’t bring her to Britain until February – we kept her there as long as I could, to keep her out of the weather. Then we’ve been so blessed that the weather has really worked for us, for everybody, this season. We’ve had magical prep in that regard and I think the conditions here this weekend are really super, so I’m excited about that.”

Samantha flew over in February and the pair have enjoyed a mix of national and international runs on British soil this spring, with Cheddington serving as their launchpad.

“I’ve been training with Sam Griffiths and Nicola Wilson in person and remotely,” she says. “I’ve known Sam a long time, and I met Nicola earlier this year, in Australia, so it’s been really amazing to have that support on British soil, to help me hit the ground running and find my feet.

“Cheddington is such a brilliant facility – we’re really fortunate in Australia to have a similar type of facility, so it meant that the horse could continue to have a very similar program here, and that’s definitely paying off now.”

Samantha acquired the Grafenstolz daughter when the mare was nine years old “with a plan to do CCI3*-L”.

“She’s a good jumping horse, but she’s not techniquey, and she’s only so careful,” she says.

“She was for sale for quite a long time – and she’s a bit of a tricky mare sometimes, she chooses her people. After nine months of being for sale, her breeder rang and I thought, ‘I could really get on with this’. I feel a little bit like she chose me.

“Then there was Covid – that gave us a chance to get organised – and she only did her first four-star two-and-a-half years ago. She’s 14, but very low mileage. She’s a warrior, she looks after me and tries her hardest.”

The rest of Samantha’s string is back in Australia. As soon as Badminton is over, she will fly back to compete another in Melbourne next week, while Graftango stays in Europe.

“I’m going to try and have one foot in each country for a while,” she says.

The pair scored 36.2 in the first phase, putting them in equal 25th after the opening day of dressage.

“I’m really happy with her. We don’t get crowds like this [in Australia], so to go in and cope is excellent,” she says.

“She tried really hard to stay with me. I feel like today she gave us a little glimmer of how good she can be, so I’m really proud of her for bringing it out when it mattered.”

Samantha has also groomed at this level, including the World Equestrian Games at Aachen in 2006, and spoke of the value she still draws from that experience.

“Those miles are so important – I say this to our grooms. It means when I got to this level, I knew exactly what I was bringing this horse here to deal with,” she says.

“She’s a real battler and I knew that she would come here and try hard to grow, so I hope she does that this week.”

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