RIO: Christopher Burton after the dressage…

Where did you first see Santano?

“It’s a great story. Rebecca, my wife, sat down one night in the winter time, with the Ipad and she said, I’m going to find you a horse. He was in England, Sarah Gallop who is still very supportive, had him as a dressage horse, but the cat is out of the bag now, everyone saw his walk today (The walk scored 5, 5, and a 4  from the C judge, Marilyn Payne) we work on it very hard but sadly he hasn’t got a good walk…

That’s a Sandro Hit thing…

“Well the judges marked it accordingly, but that was fine because they gave him the marks he deserved for his trot and that makes it quite interesting.”

“When I first saw him, he was in a dressage yard and they had decided that the walk was too big a problem and he can get a bit hot, but today he was good.”

You looked a little apprehensive on the changes…

“Yeah, they are going to come stronger as he gets older, he has a good change in him, I just rode one change badly, it wasn’t really his fault – the last two changes I was happy with. Delighted with him, it’s nice to have fun on a nice horse in an arena like this…”

That first trot across the diagonal was magic – 9.5 from one judge!

“That’s a bit gutless, why give 9.5 when you can give a ten.” (He is laughing folks)

When did you discover that it could jump as well as point a toe?

“We decided whatever, he was too much of a quality horse to let go by, so we had a go with him, and the biggest surprise is the gallop on him, it is unbelievable, the blood from Sacramento Song has really come through – he can out gallop most of mine!”

Everyone is saying that the course is bigger and tougher than they expected, but that’s what you guys always say before you go cross country…

“No, it’s a tough track. I’m lucky the selectors have done a great job and I am part of a strong team, top top riders on experienced horses but I am packing it. It is a really tough, technical four star, more difficult than what we were expecting. I don’t think at London you would have got that answer out of me really, this is much much more like a tough old Olympic track. The designer has done a great job.”

Tough in an old fashioned way, or a technical way?

“Really really technical, technical and big, and lines we’ve never seen before, it’s an incredible job he has done, there’s going to be an exciting result on cross country day, well done Pierre Michelet, super. But on my nine year old, doing its first four star!!!! I’ll probably have a sleepless night on Sunday.”