A stellar couple of years have taken Lydia Hannon to the brink of personal history but the Britwell Salome-based eventer can’t help but thank Lady Luck.

The 29-year-old has competed at Badminton for the past two years but is almost set for her first shot at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, one of just six four-star eventing competitions in the world.

Indeed it’s a level that eclipses that of the Olympic Games – leaving Hannon fulfilling a long-held dream atop My Royal Touch when she heads to Lincolnshire later this month.

“I was brought up riding ponies since I was tiny, but I never thought I’d have the opportunity to make a career out of it,” she said.

“And then the Harris family, who own My Royal Touch, moved in next-door to me and basically gave me every single opportunity that I could’ve ever wished for, and now we are doing it properly. I’m very lucky.”

Hannon’s success has been built on a bounty of hard work – this is her tenth year of eventing and her fourth competing with My Royal Touch.

The understanding goes deeper than that though – horse and rider have been together as a pair for the best part of seven years.

And it was on My Royal Touch that Hannon has enjoyed some of her proudest moments in the saddle so far.

“I think my first Badminton will be my proudest moment, jumping a clear cross country and show jumping round in 2017,” she added.

“You know when you were young you would always say ‘one day I’m going to go to Badminton,’ and you have no expectations, and you get there and it goes really well.

“It’s such a big team effort and it’s just so good to get it for everybody, and to prove that we can do it. Badminton last year was amazing, hopefully I can do the same at Burghley.”

Hannon went on to finish 19th that year as she and My Royal Touch equipped themselves expertly to the challenge that a four-star Trials brings.

Like Badminton, fellow four-star competition Burghley will follow in the tradition of three-day eventing, beginning with dressage and then cross country before concluding with the show jumping to determine who is crowned overall champion at the beginning of September.

Attracting more than 160,000 visitors each year, Burghley features the top eventers in the world while shopping, food and fun activities make it a fun day for all the family.

This year’s maiden Burghley appearance will offer a special moment in more ways than one for Hannon, with this appearance seeing her complete the Grand Slam of Eventing after also competing in Kentucky.

“I actually didn’t have the best start to the season, everything was being rained off and so my preparation wasn’t super,” she added.

“I didn’t have the best Badminton, Missie [My Royal Touch] was a bit unruly, we weren’t sure whether we would get a run in before that.

“She’s had one run since Badminton, winning at Great Witchingham which was great. We went up to Burgham in Northumberland and now the next event will be Burghley.”

The multi-award-winning Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials from August 30 – September 2 has been established as a major international equestrian and social event in the Autumn Sporting Calendar for over 50 years. For more information visit burghley-horse.co.uk