Double Burghley winner Pippa Funnell has given her exclusive insight into the 2025 CCI5* Burghley cross-country course ahead of this year’s event (4 to 7 September).

Defender Burghley Horse Trials course-designer Derek di Grazia has reversed the track for this year’s event – the last time it ran in this direction was in 2017.

Pippa said that the psychological effect of the course being reversed surprised her when walking it.

“Riders have a lot to think about this year,” she says.

The 2025 Burghley cross-country course features 31 numbered fences. The Defender Lion Bridge and Defender Dairy Mound come up early this way round, while iconic fences such as Defender Valley and the Holland Cooper Leaf Pit are towards the latter stages of the course.

“One of the arts of riding around

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