‘We’ll do our best to make everyone proud’: Gemma Stevens on the honour of representing Britain at the World Championships
Gemma said she is relieved to be back on the British team, and looking forward to Aachen
Gemma Stevens said she is looking forward to a World Championships return with the “brilliant” Flash Cooley – and that they will do their best to make everyone proud.
Gemma, who was on the team that won gold at the World Equestrian Games in 2018 with Arctic Soul, returns to the squad with Pru Dawes’ versatile 14-year-old gelding.
She has had an action-packed season competing in eventing and showjumping; at the Royal International Horse Show last week, she joked she could do with a helicopter, as she combined showjumping there with competing Flash Cooley in an advanced section at Aston le Walls on Saturday (25 July). They came seventh, adding a double jumping clear to their 29.6 dressage, which was only beaten by Piggy March’s five-star ride MCS Maverick, Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo and Tim Price’s World Championships ride Falco.
Gemma then had to hot-foot it back to Hickstead, a drive of about two and a half hours, so she could jump Envoy Merelsnest Z in the JCL Queen Elizabeth II Cup – in which they clocked up the fastest jump-off time but clipped the second-last rail to finish seventh.
It was the finale to a great week at Hickstead for Gemma, who won the Unibed high-performance equine bedding winter grades B and C final with Warrior Special on the Wednesday, followed by a second consecutive Ashby Underwriting Eventers’ Challenge with Cooley Park Muze on Thursday.
After the eventers’ challenge, which Gemma won with Flash Cooley in 2022, she was asked about the World Championships.
“It’s an absolute honour, and I’m relieved and so chuffed to get a call-up,” she said. “It’s been eight years since my last World Championships, and that’s not for want of trying, I can tell you.
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“It’s incredible to even be selected – I genuinely think it’s an honour to be selected on the British team because at the end of the day, the Brits are the best. So you have to be so brilliant to be able to even be considered for the long list, let alone get selected.
“That in itself is a huge achievement. I’m chuffed to bits, the horse is brilliant. I’m really looking forward to going, and we’ll do our best to do everyone proud.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.