‘He had to stay in his stable for a year’: Badminton debutant saved for the big time after serious injury

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Published In Features
Mike Winter riding El Mundo at Badminton
Michael Winter rides El Mundo in the dressage phase at Badminton.
(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

Mike Winter might be in mid-division of the dressage leaderboard, but El Mundo’s Badminton debut is a bonus for the horse the Canadian describes as “a real pet”. It’s a testament to the gelding’s temperament that he is still competing today, let alone at Badminton Horse Trials, the event presented by Mars Equestrian. When he was contesting his first novice as a six-year-old he had a serious accident.

“He broke his stifle at a sunken road,” said Gloucestershire-based Mike. “He had to spend a long time on cross-ties in the box, with the whole family sleeping in the lorry at the yard so we could let him off the cross-ties to put his head down every four hours.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.