TIVERTON'S Tim Cheffings admitted he could have no complaints despite an early exit on his Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials debut.

After a busy eventing season so far in 2014, Cheffings arrived at the prestigious Burghley House to contest his first ever four star event.

It was a similar step into the unknown for his nine-year-old horse Alinero Van Het Scharenberg who was also making his Burghley bow.

First up in Friday’s dressage session, the duo scored 66.2 from the judges before taking on Captain Mark Phillips’s tricky cross country course 24 hours later.

Unfortunately for 31-year-old Cheffings, they pulled up on the course resulting in a retirement and subsequent exclusion from Sunday’s showjumping finale.

But despite failing to finish the competition, Cheffings insists it was all part of the learning experience for both horse and rider.

Cheffings, who is based at Downe Farm, said: “It was very good for him. Obviously he’s very new to the stable and the dressage has been quite a big struggle for him but it’s getting better.

“It’s what I was expecting really. Obviously I could have hoped for better but he’s only nine so I can’t expect too much from him.

“He’s only young so hopefully in a few years’ time he’ll be in a much better position but he's not quite there yet.

“In terms of preparation I’ve done everything we could have done and apart from maybe having some more time there isn’t a great deal else.

“I didn’t really come into it with any expectations to be honest, with it being his first time I just wanted to do and see how he got on.”

Cheffings was very close to completing the cross country course before pulling up at The Lion Bridge Marina, just three jumps from the finish.

But with his eyes already on a return next year, Cheffings believes his horse will come back stronger.

He added: “He’ll get there at some stage but I knew after the dressage I wasn’t going to be competitive.

“I still wanted to do well and he is more than capable of going double clear, unfortunately it wasn’t to be our day.

“But hopefully the experience has been a good one for him and we can look ahead and think that he will come out better for it next year.”

n 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