As the year comes to an end, we look back on highlights from the 2013 season and bring you some of our best horse quotes from the great and the good of equestrian sport.
1. “I’m just the curator of a spectacular horse”
Sprinter Sacre’s trainer Nick Henderson (pictured top, with Lucinda Green and the brilliant horse) knows his place
2. “Sam’s going round like he’s been charged with murder. I think he’s been watching too much Silent Witness”
Jockey’s father and trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies feels his son’s pain when The New One is beaten first time over hurdles
3. “Irish and English point-to-pointing are like Cheddar and Stilton; similar, but different”
H&H guest columnist Carl Evans draws a parallel
4. “10 years ago, I’d ride anything with four legs and a tail, but I’m a lot fussier now”
Andrew Nicholson on the calibre of his horses
5. “Uthopia, being more in ‘show condition’ than his neighbour, passed hay through the bars to Hello Sanctos”
Carl Hester on the jumping and dressage heroes being stabled together at the Europeans
6. “I didn’t even dare to dream about winning. Before the class I was worried about every fence”
Phillip Miller on his unexpected win in the Hickstead Derby with Caritiar Z
7. “An observer likened the set show to planes landing and taking off at Heathrow”
H&H columnist Stuart Hollings bemoans the speed of individual displays
8. “They are horses; everyone has a s*** time at some point and mine’s clearly now. But no one’s died”
Piggy French puts the injuries to her top string before the Europeans into perspective
9. “I’m so busy [showjumping] that I now say I spend my spare time being an event rider”
Pippa Funnell on combining both disciplines
10. “He’s more food-orientated — you’d have to put a cupcake on a mare’s bottom to make him interested”
Tahley Reeve Smith on her lackadaisical dressage stallion Luca 41
11. “There’s no limit. I’m going to keep going — there’s 100% out there somewhere and we’re going to find it”
Charlotte Dujardin on what she and her European dressage partner Valegro could yet achieve
12. “Horses will throw in the towel when ill, but hounds will keep going whatever”
H&H columnist John Holliday on the summer outbreak of kennel cough
13. “It’s nearly easier than riding two — I didn’t have time to stiffen up between rides”
Andrew Nicholson on piloting three horses round Burghley
14. “It made my day to have recognition from a German who said that they now expect soft, harmonious, elegant riding from the Brits”
Hannah Biggs enjoys a CDI4* win in Hamburg
15. “His genetics played the biggest part in his success. But William [Fox-Pitt] also made him what he is. Tamarillo was too clever for most people”
MW Guinness on cloning 4-star eventer Tamarillo
16. “The majority of huntsmen would rather take tea with Tony Blair than meet their MFHA committee representative for a kennels inspection”
H&H columnist Richard Gurney on the meticulous nature of inspections
17. “I don’t like the word submission. Horses should have their own opinion; they should buck once, they should spook once, they should kick once”
Isabell Werth explains why she likes alert horses at the Global Dressage Forum
Take a look at the 17 signs you’re dating a horse rider
This article was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (5 December 2013)
