Laura Tomlinson’s current top ride is the 10-year-old mare Rose Of Bavaria, whom Laura is hoping to campaign for British team selection in 2021.
Rose Of Bavaria, known as Betty, was bred in Bavaria by Rainer and Heidi Heuschmann, and is by Bordeaux out of the Florestan mare Rhapsodie. She was competed up to small tour level in Germany by Rudolf Widmann, and the Bechtolsheimer family purchased her in 2018.
“She found the movements pretty easy when she came but she was very lacking the basics and the strength to do with it. But she is coming along very nicely, especially for such a big horse,” said H&H columnist Laura, adding that Betty is around 17.3hh. “I really believe in her; I’d say she is a podium horse.”
Laura competed Betty a couple of times locally in Gloucestershire during 2019, and the pair made their international grand prix debut at Oldenburg CDI4*, Germany, in November 2019. There, they scored plus-70% in both the grand prix and the grand prix special, with top five placings.
The partnership landed their first international win in February 2020, scoring plus-74% to top the grand prix special at the Le Mans CDI3* in France. The pair made two trips to compete in Germany during the summer of 2020, culminating in two plus-74% top 10 finishes at Hagen CDI4* in September.
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Olympic gold medallist Laura is gunning for a return to the British team, and hopes Rose Of Bavaria is the horse who will help her achieve her goal in 2021. The last time Laura rode on a championship team was at the 2012 London Olympics where she and Mistral Hojris helped Britain win team gold and also took individual bronze.
Don’t miss the 24 December issue of Horse & Hound for a full feature charting the memorable career of Laura Tomlinson’s former top horse Mistral Hojris.
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