EARDISLEY’S Louise Harwood admitted she struggled to contain her delight after recording her best-ever four-star finish at this year’s Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.

Harwood, onboard Mr Potts, didn’t have the best start to the competition after scoring 58.5 in the dressage which left her down in 46th place.

But an impressive cross-country run on Mark Phillips’ challenging course saw her jump clear and elevate herself up to 15th.

And with just four faults in the show jumping the 38-year-old found herself in 12th at the end of competition.

Top honours in Lincolnshire went to New Zealand’s Andrew Nicholson but, despite not troubling the top-ten, Harwood was delighted with her performance.

“I think I have achieved what I wanted to. I wanted to see if I could get into the prize money and I’m happy that we’ve done that,” she said. “I’m really pleased and this is his best four star result.

“Last year we just scraped into the top half to get us Badminton qualification and we still didn’t have enough FEI to go to Badminton so hoping next year we should be all organised.

“We’ve had the line since his grandmother and I’m really, really satisfied.

“You have tricky moments with them as youngsters and you sometimes just think I’m never going to get this horse out of novice and then he ends up being a top four star horse.”

And, with her best season coming to a close, Harwood now has her eyes set on a place on Great Britain’s squad for next year’s European Championships.

“It’s been my most successful season yet so I’d like to think I have a small chance of getting onto the British team for the first time when they do the Europeans in the Autumn,” she added.

“The show jumping was good and in the majority he jumped really well, he just had one down.

“He was a bit spooky looking at the crowds and he got a bit upset during the parade and I think he’s always been a bit spooky.

“I did feel at a couple of moments that I thought we might go on a few jumps but he did it.

“He felt really fresh despite the cross-country and about as fresh as he normally does to show jump.

“So overall I’m so happy and I think we can continue to develop and grow as a combination.”

The multi-award winning Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials has been established as a major international equestrian and social event in the Autumn Sporting Calendar for over 50 years. For more information visit www.burghley-horse.co.uk