September 7, 2026 
If there was one word to sum up Gemma Stevens’ week at Burghley Horse Trials, “shocked” might come close.
At least, that was the running theme in her commentary.
By her own admission, the 41-year-old rider was astonished to find herself leading the CCI5*-L division aboard 16-year-old Chilli Knight after dressage.
“I’m genuinely in shock actually, like really in shock,” Stevens said of “Alfie,” a horse she’s watched grow from a foal.
“I feel really happy that the horse has been rewarded for being such a good boy, because he’s always such a good boy and he always tries really hard. It’s always been so hard to get any marks out of the judges and we’ve always been just outside the top ten or never really thereabouts after the dressage. [This time] I feel like his good training and his good brain has been rewarded and it’s really nice.”
The surprises continued for Stevens on Saturday when Alfie made a last minute plan of his own on the cross country course—and still emerged as one of only two pairs to jump double clear on the day. (Great Britain’s Holly Richardson and Ballyneety Silver Service were the other.)
“We had a wonderful ride until we got to the Leaf Pit [fence 24] and I saw a lovely distance. However, [Alfie] had other ideas and put in an extra stride, but then he turned into Pegasus and I told him that I loved him,” Stevens said of the horse owned and bred by Christopher and Lisa Stone.
“What a little legend.”
Heading into Sunday’s show jumping phase in pole position, Stevens knew a clear round would clinch the win. But she was in the dark about the points and, once again, stunned to learn how much breathing room she actually had on the standings.
“I had no idea that I had three fences in hand,” said an emotional Stevens. “My husband Gary said, ‘Just imagine that you are going into the ring at Hickstead’ and that is what I did.”
“This really means the world,” she continued. “On Saturday night at the world championships [after her elimination in Aachen three weeks ago], Chris Stone sent me the best text message. He said, ‘This is a bad day but we’re going to go to Burghley and we’re going to win it.'”
And they did. On their dressage score—a feat only 1% of competitors in the last 20 years have accomplished at Burghley, according to EquiRatings.
The five-star win marks the second for the pair—they previously won the one-off CCI5* at Bicton in 2021—and Stevens’ first victory at a “big B” event (Burghley or Badminton).
“This represents 25 years of work and finally I have managed to win a ‘big B’,” Stevens reflected. “We so nearly won Badminton a couple of years ago, and I have just known in my heart of hearts that there was a big win in this horse. We just needed our stars to align, and everything has aligned this week.”
But perhaps it was written in the stars (or the DNA). Chilli Knight’s sire, the Stones’ Chilli Morning, is now the only stallion to both sire a five-star winner and win a five-star himself (Badminton in 2015 with William Fox-Pitt). Stevens also competed the dam, Kings Gem, at five-star level and is now riding three full-brothers to Chilli Knight.
