Ros and Walter win rain-soaked Badminton at a Canter

ROS Canter defied conditions to take her first Badminton Horse Trials title with a huge 15-penalty advantage aboard Lordships Graffalo.

Leading from start to finish, Ros carried a dressage score of 22.1 into the demanding crosscountry phase, where heavy rain made the going testing and led to just 30 horse and rider combinations completing the course out of 58 who had set out to tackle it.

No-one got round within the optimum time but former world eventing champion Ros and her 11-year-old bay gelding, known as Walter, were the second quickest and earned praise for their seemingly effortless performance.

They then went clear in the final day’s showjumping phase, accruing just 1.6 time penalties to finish on a final score of 35.3.

They were way ahead of runner-up Oliver Townend and his Olympic team gold medallist Ballaghmor Class, and thirdplaced Irish Olympian Austin O’Connor on Colorado Blue.

Double Olympic medallist

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Tom McEwen, from Gloucestershire, was fourth on Toledo De Kerser, Tom Jackson took fifth position with Capels Hollow Drift and Gemma Stevens was sixth with Jalapeno. Ros also rode her second horse, Pencos Crown Jewel, into ninth place.