Veteran grey goes from Badminton waitlist to top 10 after dressage following ‘emotional roller-coaster’ week

Fiona Kashel got the call to say she had made the cut for the 2025 Mars Badminton Horse Trials just three days before driving in through the park gates.

Fiona and her veteran grey five-star campaigner Creevagh Silver De Haar were on the Badminton waitlist until Saturday. Just shy of a week later – and after discovering at the 11th hour that she had learnt the wrong test – Fiona and Creevagh Silver De Haar danced their way up among the leaders.

Their score of 28.4 put them into provisional fifth ahead of the afternoon tea break, and seventh by the end of the day.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Fiona, who gazed up in apparent astonishment at the stands as her final score rang out across the main arena.

“I’m so proud of him. He’s not the biggest mover, he’s not the biggest jumper, but he just tries his heart out.

“We’ve got a really special relationship, and he owes me nothing.”

She added: “It was a little bit of an emotional roller-coaster over the last week to come here. But he’s been on great form this year. He’s jumped and done dressage over the winter, and he’s had some really good spring runs.”

This is a new personal best at five-star for the 17-year-old grey. Taking a look through this horse’s recent results, the evidence of his ability now to produce a sub-30 score is clear. Their previous five-star record was 29.7 at Pau 2024. But to pull off a career best at Badminton is a different ask.

“I actually have to put it down to my dressage trainer, Damian Hallam, who has transformed my riding,” said Fiona, who also credited her trainer when speaking to H&H at Pau for taking this pair from “getting 35s all the time” to cracking that 30 barrier.

It was fellow Badminton competitor Kirsty Chabert who indirectly alerted Fiona to the fact she had been practising the wrong test since January.

“I’m going to blame my mother, who does all my scheduling,” said Fiona, with a smile, adding that her mum had told her that the test being used was CCI5* 2024 “B”.

“On Friday night – I wasn’t in at Badminton at this point – I saw Kirsty Chabert doing a run through of her test on Facebook, and I thought, ‘that’s not the one I’ve been going through’. I looked at the schedule and it was 2025 “C”.

“I thought, ‘it doesn’t matter, because I’m not in, I’m not even going to say anything to my mum.’ Then I got the phone call to say I was in.

“The horse had already galloped on Saturday, and I was at Bovington on Sunday, so I couldn’t run through it then. So Damien drove up from the New Forest on Monday night to run through my test.

“I’m just pleased I didn’t go wrong, I think my mother’s pleased I didn’t go wrong as well!”

It’s been a wonderful journey sprinkled with five-star completions since Fiona first acquired the Camiro De Haar son as a six-year-old 11 years ago.

“I couldn’t keep any showjumps up on him as a seven-year-old, and I couldn’t stay on him, so I actually tried to sell him for a year,” she said.

“He wouldn’t pass a vet, even though he’s the soundest horse I’ve ever had. So I kept going with him and he’s answered each question.

“In the last two years, he’s felt better than he has ever felt – he is like a fine wine.”

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