Farewell to… Captain Michael Naylor-Leyland

Captain Michael Naylor-Leyland – who won European team gold with the British eventing team in 1955, but saw his Olympic ambitions thwarted – died on 8 August. He was 86.

An officer with the Household Cavalry who served in Palestine, it was a trip to the 1948 London Games that fired his Olympic ambitions.

Capt Naylor-Leyland was selected for the 1952 eventing team, but caught chicken pox and was not allowed to compete.

He won team gold at the European Championships three years later and, in 1956, the British Equestrian Federation bought High and Mighty from Sheila Willcox for him to ride. But the horse went lame, ending his Olympic dream.

Capt Naylor-Leyland turned his attentions to training event horses and produced Leadhills, who, renamed Beagle Bay, won Badminton and Burghley with Lucinda Green.

He also served as technical delegate at Badminton and the Montreal Olympics.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (23 August 2012)

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