History makers: Tom McEwen, Laura Collett and Oliver Townend celebrate Britain's first Olympic eventing team gold medal for a half century in Toyko last year
REAT BRITAIN are the triple champions in eventing, holding Olympic, world and European T team gold medals, plus two out of three individual titles. There aren't too many sports one can say that about and it's taken 50 years, since the late Richard Meade spearheaded this country's double gold at the Munich Olympic Games, that British eventing has been able to make those claims.
Badminton Horse Trials was founded in 1949 precisely to give British riders the edge, the idea being that the cross-country there (and at Burghley, founded in 1961) would be more difficult than anything they would find at an Olympics. This is certainly true of the 21st century, with the downgrading of the cross-country phase at championships to four-star level (Badminton is one of seven events worldwide run at the highest, five-star level).
Badminton has long been an international affair, with about a dozen nations represented most years (there have only been three British winners since 2006), but there is no doubt that experience of serious, homegrown competition at five-star level has stood British riders in good stead over the decades—nine of the current top 20 in the world rankings are from here. Most have rides at Badminton and, with the big German names absent and a couple of notable retirements from the sport, expectations are that the magnificent new silver trophy sculpted by Judy Boyt (Town & Country, April 27) will remain here, which would have quietly pleased Badminton's sporting founder, the 10th Duke of Beaufort.
The champions will return: Piggy March and Vanir Kamira en route to Badminton glory in 2019
Best of British
Oliver Townend
Denne historien er fra May 04, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 04, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds