We all tend to think of great eventers as natural cross-country horses, super brave and willing to take on anything. But Laura Collett is happy to admit that her top ride, London 52, has had to learn how to tackle this phase.
“He’s never been the bravest horse,” she says. “When he was a young horse, it was about building a partnership so he trusted what I was asking him. He preferred to jump over water than go through it and coming from a jumping background, he knew how to walk and canter but not to trot.”
London 52 was foaled on 28 May 2009, by Landos out of a Quinar Z mare called Vernante.
Laura explains how she found him: “I was at Peter Thomsen’s yard in Germany looking at four-year-olds and saw ‘Dan’ being exercised. It was early in his seven-year-old year, he was quite sassy and had a look about him that caught my eye. He was out of my budget and I had to talk nicely to Keith Scott and Karen Bartlett so they joined me in buying him.”
London 52 turned heads from early in his career – he was second in his first event, a BE100 in 2016 at Nunney, won his first intermediate less than a year later at Withington and was competitive through the levels internationally.
London 52 wins the eight- and nine-year-old class at Blenheim 2018 under Laura Collett.
(Image credit: trevor-meeks-photography.co.uk)
But things didn’t go to plan at Luhmühlen when the pair were third after dressage but came to grief at the final water fence.
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“After that, Tina Cook said on the Sunday of the event, ‘Surely you’re going to take him to Boekelo? You don’t want to finish the year on that note,’” explained Laura in an exclusive H&H column in 2020.
Boekelo, where the pair had been second in 2018 and then won in 2019, proved a turning point. Previously, although Dan had appeared a star to the observer, to Laura he had always felt insecure.
Laura went on: “Between the Europeans and Boekelo, we went cross-country schooling a few times. We treated him like a baby, trotting to fences, trying to build his confidence and encourage him to trust himself because he’s always been quite a shy horse.
“Going to Boekelo, I just wanted to put things right – to win was a lovely extra. It felt like the event was a turning point; now, Dan has belief in himself. He felt amazing cross-country and finished knowing he’d done well. After Boekelo, he had eight weeks in the field to switch off and he came back looking and feeling like a different horse, physically and mentally.”
“He’s got such a reputation that I don’t want to let him down; he deserves to be a multiple five-star winning horse so I’m just glad I’ve allowed him to be that,” said Laura after her win.
Laura’s travelling groom Tilly Hughes says that London 52 is a little nervous at events, but at home he’s more confident and cheekier.
“In the morning, he’ll push the stable door and nudge you to hurry up and take off his rug, though he’ll never actually go out,” she says.
“He can be naughty to catch. He’ll be grazing but as soon as he sees you, he trots circles around you, which is nerve-racking as you don’t want him to injure himself. You have to leave and come back – then he’s like, ‘Oh, I do want to come in, I just wanted to play first.’”
Dan has taken Tilly to many prestigious events all over the world and she says he’s “one of my favourites, a really sweet horse”.
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
