LITTLE Cheverell eventer Coral Keen will compete for Great Britain next week at Waregem CICO3*in Belgium, as part of the Nations Cup team.

It is the first time the 28-year-old will have worn the British flag, when she partners her 11-year-old gelding Wellshead Fare Opposition, with whom she achieved a top 20 placing at Luhmuhlen and finished 12th in the CIC3* at Hartpury.

After disappointment at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials held earlier this month in Lincolnshire, where she unseated at the Cottesmore Leap, Keen said:  “It just proves that every cloud has a silver lining.

"Derby was going so well at Burghley, jumping all the technical combinations beautifully. We came to the Cottesmore Leap on the wrong stride and he hit the back bar, catapulting me out of the saddle.

"We had to have a cross country training session with team selector Yogi Breisner, just to check Derby was a 100 per cent and hadn’t lost any confidence.

"But he was raring to go and as full of himself as ever and I’m so pleased to have been given this opportunity. I am really looking forward to it. “

Keen has carefully produced the horse since he was a four-year-old, progressing him through the ranks from BE100 level up to four star.

“He had a week off after Burghley and was very full of himself. He’s feeling very pleased with himself at the moment, he’s very fit and mentally I feel fully prepared too, as its come so close to Burghley, which requires the highest level of focus. I can’t wait to go,” she added.

Last week, at Gatcombe International, Coral also

Keen won the CIC1* at Gatcombe Internationa last week with Cascadelle, a six-year-old she has produced since she was three.

“She was absolutely amazing doing a beautiful dressage test and then jumping a double clear,'' added the rider.

"She just popped round the cross country and gave me such a lovely ride. She’s such an exciting prospect for the future so we’ll keep carefully plotting her career with the aim of competing at the highest level.”

Cascadelle will also be heading to Waregem where she will run in the CIC* along with her stablemate Highmead Proposition.

“We were supposed to be going to South of England, but as soon as I was offered the chance to ride on a Nations Cup team, a leapt at it, and decided to re-route these horses there too. It’ll be a very busy week but I am really looking forward to it,” she said.