Caroline Powell

The Badminton winner tells Martha Terry about the story of her victory, perseverance, and how trusting her intuition paid off for the opinionated but brilliant "Cav"

AT the start of this year, Caroline Powell and owner Chris Mann played a game of "This or That".

"You know, "Vegemite or Marmite', 'gin or vodka', 'Jelly Beans or Wine Gums," says the Kiwi rider. "And then Chris said, 'Badminton or Olympics?" "He said Olympics and I said, "Tough, we're going to Badminton.' I knew what the right answer was, I just needed to get an idea of what and where he was thinking, but Badminton was always the first plan for her." "Her" is, of course, Greenacres Special Cavalier (Cav), the 11-year-old mare by Cavalier Royale who excelled throughout the three phases to swoop to victory on Badminton's final day. Caroline's plan came to perfect fruition - "I think it worked out quite well," she says, deadpan and with that success putting her right into the reckoning for the New Zealand team, it might just be a case of having both this and that.

But the Badminton plan was hatching long before the start of this season. Much has been made of Cav's debut there in the wet last year, when she had two stops en route to finishing last of the 30 combinations who completed. From last to first in 12 months is some progress, but it's not something that had been preying on Caroline's mind.

"You don't learn anything if you pack up and go home after a stop," says Caroline.

"She just went a bit green, but after the first stop I wanted to carry on. Then the second stop happened and she'd lost a shoe, but as I was near the water, I thought I'd see how she did that. And then I thought it would be easier to get her around the rest of the course as I'd have the help of my grooms and vets at the finish, otherwise I'd be managing her on my own at the stables, when she was still full of adrenaline. There was some method in my madness.