Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist Matt Ryan has announced his retirement from eventing.
Matt, 49, posted the news on Twitter.
“G’day everyone! It is with sadness I have made the decision to hang up my riding boots for good. Mainly due to niggling injuries.”
He will now concentrate on “training, teaching and media work”.
Matt arrived in England in 1984 as a working pupil to Richard Meade, and moved here permanently in 1989. He represented Australia in eventing at the Olympics in Barcelona 1992 — where he won individual and team gold — and helped clinch team gold again in Sydney 2000.
More recently he has finished 4th at Badminton in 2007 and 8th in 2008.
In 2009 Matt looked into changing his nationality to become British after disagreeing with the Australian championship selection policy.
He last competed at the Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe in August (2-4 August) where he did not run cross-country and has withdrawn from all competitions since then.
Laura Collett was one of the first of Matt’s fellow riders to respond, tweeting: “Very sorry to hear this Matt…. Hope you enjoy your retirement!”
Blyth Tait added: “You’ll be missed. Congrats on a stella career. Enjoy the next phase.”
Find out more about Matt’s plan’s for the future and what is happening with his string of event horses in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine…
