Alex Hua Tian holds first place in the CCI4*-S after the first day of Defender Bramham Horse Trials dressage.

Cheshire-based Chinese rider Alex, who is always strong in this phase, scored 29.4 with his own nine-year-old Manjushri, known as Buddy.

“He’s always been a pretty competitive horse, but he’s green still at four-star,” said Alex Hua Tian after his Bramham Horse Trials dressage. “He ran a couple of four-stars last year and this is only his second run this year.

“I’m very happy with him – he got a bit behind my leg in there so there’s more to come, but he’s very scopey and exciting.

“I’ve had a little walk around the cross-country and it’s big enough out there, so he’s going to have to be quite brave on Saturday.

“Bramham is Bramham – it’s an iconic event. He’s a big, galloping, bold horse naturally so I think the track will really suit him. He’s here for development and education and if we can be competitive at the same time, that’d be amazing.”

Gemma Stevens holds second on Chris and Lisa Stone’s Chilli Morning clone, Chilli Morning IV, who sits one mark behind Alex and Manjushri. The chestnut, another nine-year-old, put in a great test aside from a light-hearted buck in his final change, which had Gemma laughing.

“That was fun – I actually enjoyed doing dressage, even though it’s raining,” said Gemma, who is known for not being a fan of wet, cold weather.

“He’s just lovely to ride – you can literally ride every movement, every blade of grass, and he’s so bendy, so you can really get lovely flexion and prepare him for every movement, because he’s so with you and he’s not tense.

“He’s not worried about any sort of atmosphere, he likes it, and because I’ve had him from the beginning and he’s never really missed any work, he’s had consistent training, so he’s very confident. Apart from one cheeky change at the end, which I don’t mind, he was so good everywhere else.”

Kitty King holds third on 31.6 with 14-year-old Cristal Fontaine, a horse she now owns having previously ridden him for Alex Wakeley.

“The owner decided that he wanted to move on, so he’s now mine,” she said. “I’d never sell him, because he’s not very saleable – he’s not the nicest on the ground and he’s had his few niggles, so I’m looking for anyone who’d like to become involved in the sport with a high-level horse.

“He’s been very consistent at four-star – he’s barely been out the top 10 and if there are some people who want to join in with the journey and pay towards some of his running costs with me, that would be the dream. But if not, I’m just going to be enjoying him as my horse with no pressure.”

Of the grey’s test today, Kitty said: “He did lots of nice work and then he did his normal trick of when he hits the centre line, he thinks he should be stopping. He’s reasonably lazy so as soon as you go and do anything away from home up the centre line, he’s ‘Halt, halt, halt’ and you’re ‘Get going’, so he blew a few movements.

“But when we were going forward, he did some lovely work, so there’s lots to be pleased with, and he hasn’t been at this level for a long time. The atmosphere certainly didn’t get to him, so that’s always good to know, with no arena familiarisation, so he’s very straightforward in that respect.”

Cerys Macaulay holds the lead in the under-25 national championship and ninth place overall in this class, on Wendy and Richard Coney’s Kananaskis.

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It’s nine years since China’s Alex Hua Tian last competed at Mars Badminton Horse Trials (7 to 11 May) and the Olympic rider has set his 2025 campaign off to a solid start aboard Chicko.

The gap is explained by Alex prioritising championships – important as five-stars are to top riders, major championships mean they do not always fit neatly into a horse’s plan. Pau 2024, where Alex finished fourth with Chicko, marked the 35-year-old’s first CCI5* since Badminton 2016 (where he rode Harbour Pilot C) and a happy return to the level with his best-ever five-star placing.

Alex, who has competed at four Olympic Games and three worlds, plus regional and young horse championships, spoke at Pau of his faith in the horse and his hopes that the gelding’s performance would give connections confidence for a Badminton entry.

That faith was rewarded with the pair’s dressage score of 31.6 putting them in provisional fifth at Thursday’s lunchbreak, just 2.3pen adrift of leaders Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class.

“He’s 15 now and has spent his life at four–star – he’s ready for his crack at Badminton,” says Alex, who rides Chicko for Kate and Peter Willis, adding he is “so happy to be back”.

Badminton final scores

“I thought that he actually did a better test today than he did at Pau (28.9), but it is Badminton, so you don’t come here expecting to be given anything. I think it’ll be a big week for him, but he’s got a lot of heart, so hopefully we will go well.”

The “no fuss” gelding was previously ridden by Polly Stockton and joined Alex in 2023. They won Ballindenisk CCI4*-S last year, before the horse’s impressive five-star debut at Pau.

“He would have been very happy as a Pony Club pony, or coming to Badminton. He loves his job – all he wants to do is please,” he says.

He adds that the age of Chicko and Paris 2024 ride 16-year-old Jilsonne van Bareelhof (“Chocs”), the latter of which was withdrawn from Badminton 2025 owing to a minor injury, means neither will really be horses for the next Olympic cycle “and both deserved their chance here”.

“I’m really pleased that Chicko does have his chance, and he’s very sad that Chocs hasn’t,” he says, adding the Chocs is fine and “would have been delighted to gallop around here”, but it just “wasn’t meant to be”.

How to watch Badminton Horse Trials

If you want to watch the live action from Badminton Horse Trials from the comfort of your home, wherever you are in the world, you will need to subscribe to Badminton TV. This year, Badminton TV has teamed up with ClipMyHorse.TV, but you do not need a full ClipMyHorse.TV subscription to watch Badminton – you can just subscribe to Badminton TV for £21.99. Go to clipmyhorse.tv/en_GB/badminton to subscribe or to activate your account as an existing Badminton TV subscriber. If you are already a ClipMyHorse.TV premium member, Badminton TV is included in your subscription. As part of Badminton TV, you can enjoy the documentary programme Legends and Legacy, a fly-on-the-wall insight into the 2024 event and preview of 2025.

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Bubby Upton had her game face on as she entered the arena on her mother Rachel’s Cola for the Mars Badminton Horse Trials dressage phase. The pair already have three top-10 finishes at five-star and are among those who will be vying for the title.

Their halts to start and end the test were spot-on to score eights, and the white-socked bay has a sweet and consistent way of going. Bar a peek at the notorious ground camera near A, and fluffing a flying change, this test would have taken the lead. As it was, they moved into third behind Oliver Townend and Gemma Stevens on 30.2.

This solid test is a good benchmark as to the judges’ mood – they certainly aren’t giving marks away.

“I’m not one to focus on the score, so long as the judges don’t suddenly throwing marks out, then none of us mind if it stays consistent,” said Bubby.

Badminton final scores

“I was thrilled with Cola. Every time I go in [the arena] he’s the same horse and he loves it. He’s become really consistent – ever since Badminton last year, we’ve properly got him in the right frame.”

Bubby works with Amy Woodhead on the flat, and has been focusing on the quality of canter.

“He’s a long strung-out horse, and for a long time I was focusing on young rider medals and that wasn’t a priority,” she said. “I’d love to go back in time because now at 15 he’s getting better and better.”

Bubby’s performance is the more remarkable considering she had major surgery directly after finishing fifth, with Cola, at Maryland CCI5* last October, a planned operation after breaking her back in 2023.

“It was tougher than I anticipated, mentally going back to square one, with zero strength and muscles,” she said. “It was quite demoralising to have to rebuild again. It wasn’t really until February that I was strong again and on top of the pain.

“Now I’m back to riding nine horses a day, and with less pain than riding even three or four last year. I feel so lucky to be still doing what I love.”

Badminton Horse Trials dressage on Thursday morning

Alex Hua Tian looked content as he rounded off a composed test on Chicko with eights for his final halt and a score of 31.6. This is Alex’s first Badminton in nine years, and the horse’s first ever, as he has been campaigned with championships in mind.

Unlike many horses who have spooked at the ground camera, Chicko was unperturbed throughout.

“He’s no fuss – very, very easy,” said Alex. “After the salute, I could get off, pull the saddle off and he’d happily graze in the middle of the arena.”

Alex lies in fourth spot at this early stage.

Jonelle Price did not have the test she was hoping for on her 2022 Pau CCI5* winner Grappa Nera, describing a half-pass that scored fives as “more of a diagonal line”.

“One of the things I’ve learnt in this dressage business is you’re better off letting the judges guess what you can’t do rather than showing them what you can’t do!” she laughed.

“Even though I can do that half pass for an either or nine a lot of days, if she’s in a bit of a mood, it’s the one place I have to negotiate. The idea was if I could stay on the right leg I’d have a chance of getting the flying change; you have to pick your moments.

“She could be a dressage diva if the brain would be more cooperative, but I haven’t given up yet – she’s 14 so we have another couple of years,” Jonelle added.

“She’s courageous cross-country; she’s very honest and looks for the flags. All the things that make her a nightmare on the first day, are what make her so good come Saturday.”

How to watch Badminton Horse Trials

If you want to watch the live action from Badminton Horse Trials from the comfort of your home, wherever you are in the world, you will need to subscribe to Badminton TV. This year, Badminton TV has teamed up with ClipMyHorse.TV, but you do not need a full ClipMyHorse.TV subscription to watch Badminton – you can just subscribe to Badminton TV for £21.99. Go to clipmyhorse.tv/en_GB/badminton to subscribe or to activate your account as an existing Badminton TV subscriber. If you are already a ClipMyHorse.TV premium member, Badminton TV is included in your subscription. As part of Badminton TV, you can enjoy the documentary programme Legends and Legacy, a fly-on-the-wall insight into the 2024 event and preview of 2025.

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To ensure you keep up to date with all the breaking news, behind the scenes insight, and the best of the action throughout Badminton Horse Trials with no limits on how much you can read, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website from as little as £1 a week. Sign up now. And don’t miss our bumper 22-page magazine report on Badminton, including in-depth analysis and exclusive comments from top names, in the issue of Horse & Hound dated 15 May.

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The cloning of Badminton Horse Trials winner Chilli Morning came into the spotlight last autumn, when one of the three clones, Chilli Morning IV, won the seven-year-old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers – while another of the clones, Chilli Morning II, also competed there, finishing sixth. Remarkably, the pair scored exactly the same dressage mark.

The clones all belong to the original Chilli’s owners, Chris and Lisa Stone, and they are ridden by Britain’s Gemma Stevens (Chilli Morning IV, known as Quattro), Germany’s Julia Krajewski (Chilli Morning II, known as Deuce) and China’s Alex Hua Tian (Chilli Morning III, known as Tres). We spoke to the three jockeys to find out a little more about the horses’ characters…

All three riders praise the clones’ brains and ability.

“My one has been very easy to train,” says Gemma. “With their brains, it’s like ticking boxes and once they have learnt something once, they never forget.

“The showjumping is his weakest phase, but he tries and is getting stronger. He is absolutely wonderful across country – like he’s done it all before. He’s so positive and loves to gallop. He doesn’t get uptight in the start box, he just genuinely seems like he loves it.”

Gemma knew Chilli as an older horse – she competed alongside him at the Rio Olympics and he retired to her base at Tattleton, which belongs to Chris Stone, for a couple of years before his death in 2020.

“It’s hard to compare because these are young horses, but there are real similarities. Their walk is just like Chilli’s walk,” says Gemma. “My one has a prettier head than the original, though I think Julia’s looks very like him.

“And there are certain things that are weirdly similar – like the way they do a flying change, the way they sort of hold themselves in a frame. Then there are differences – we think my one might trot slightly better. And mine is slightly smaller than Chilli.”

Alex echoes Gemma on his charge’s cross-country prowess, particularly.

“Tres is a very self-confident, intelligent, worldly-wise, cheeky chappy,” he says. “He’s a bit spooky. The first time he went out of the start box, it was like, ‘Whoa, this is really weird’ – I’d never sat on anything that comes out the first time ears pricked, looking for the first fence, super mature, with such a natural engine.

“Talking to Gemma and Julia, they’ve felt very much the same with their two – that strain of genetics obviously has a really strong affinity to the cross-country phase.”

With Alex’s being the biggest of the three clones, he says: “I was warned by Chris, Lisa and Gemma that the Chilli Morning offspring do take a bit of time to get going physically and Tres followed that as a four- and five-year-old. There were multiple flashes of brilliance, but he felt like a very rangy, weak horse who hadn’t grown into his body yet.

“There were weeks when he felt amazing, then weeks where it felt like he’d lost 20 stone and was growing again. His development has been marked by that – he’s clearly an exciting horse who needs a little bit more time physically.”

Julia calls Deuce by his progenitor’s name, Chilli – “we have problems saying Deuce so he’s Chilli to us”.

“He’s always been very straightforward – I don’t think there are many things he’s questioned,” she says. “He’s very good to work with, but he’s a two-sided personality – he can be a bit ignorant, not care much for everything, then can suddenly be quite sweet and cuddly.

“I find it fascinating to speak to the other riders – I chat with Gemma quite often and ask how is this or that with yours? Often we’ve had the same sort of issue in the same time frame, or she says that’s totally normal with Chilli offspring at this time.”

• Read more about the Chilli Morning clones, including how Chris chose their riders, why they have all been castrated and their competitive plans for this year, in this week’s Horse & Hound magazine (issue dated 6 March). 
• To stay up to date with all the breaking news from major shows throughout 2025, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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Chinese Olympian Alex Hua Tian is back riding after three months off for a shoulder operation, just over three months before Badminton.

The Cheshire-based rider underwent the surgery straight after Pau Horse Trials last year; he told H&H he dislocated his shoulder “many years ago”, and it had since become unstable.

“Once last year I sneezed and it popped out!” he said. “The past six months I’d been waking up with it popping out too. I should have had the operation a long time ago, but always swerved it because I didn’t want to bother with the rehab. Then this year, post the Olympics and coming into the next Olympic cycle and as unstable as it was, I felt like there was no choice.”

Alex said he was in theatre on the Tuesday morning after Pau, being operated on by Professor Funk at the Wilmslow Hospital, and has since been working with physio Sarah O’Neill.

“I have been off riding since – for 12 and a half weeks – and because I couldn’t ride or drive or work on the yard, I’ve been back in China doing some business most of that time, so I have to thank my business partner Sarah Higgins and the team at our yard at Pinfold for all their hard work and keeping the horses in work, while been I’ve away and off,” he said.

Alex Hua Tian said his shoulder now “feels really good” and yesterday (30 January) was his first day back riding.

“I was fairly useless on my first and last horses, but not too bad on the three in the middle! I wanted to ride as many as could, but not for more than 15 or 20 minutes each,” he said.

Alex is a rider who prioritises the Olympics above everything, because of its importance for his Chinese federation, owners and supporters, but he has two rides to aim at Badminton Horse Trials this year, which will be his first time competing there since 2016, when he rode Harbour Pilot C. He hopes to start this year on his Paris Olympic ride Jilsonne Van Bareelhof and Chicko, who was fourth at Pau last year.

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A house fire, debilitating back injury, dodgy cooking and a flooded sitting room — several riders reveal the strife they’ve had to contend with on Christmas day

1. “The Christmas tree was under water”

Five-star event rider Gemma Stevens (née Tattersall) (pictured) recalls one unfortunate Christmas Day during her teens when her family’s home was flooded.

“The Christmas tree was in the sitting room under several inches of water and we spent ages sweeping it out,” she says.

The family spent the rest of the festive season in the study, surrounded by five puppies who were born on Christmas day.

“It was certainly a memorable Christmas, but while I found it amusing I don’t think the grown-ups did.”

2. “The house was ruined”

Six-time Olympian Mary King was awoken by crackling fire during the night of 23 December 2001.

“My children, Emily and Freddie, were only young so my first reaction was to get to them and try to escape,” says Mary. “They found it particularly exciting watching ‘Fireman Sam’ at work but the house was ruined.”

The Kings stayed with family for Christmas.

“Luckily I’d put the presents under the tree and they weren’t damaged, but both children were very worried that Santa wouldn’t deliver their presents because he didn’t know where to find them. We left a note on the front door to say where we were staying and, amazingly, he found us!”

3. “I’ve said ever since I can’t muck out”

With his staff on holiday, dressage rider and trainer Andrew Gould was left with 25 horses to muck out before tucking into his turkey lunch. But with just one stable cleaned disaster struck.

“Andrew’s back went into spasm leaving me with 24 horses to muck out,” recalls his wife Polly. “He was in agony and several clients who came to see their horses were surprised to find him flat out on the tack room floor.”

Andrew adds: “It’s why I’ve said ever since that I can’t muck out.”

4. “The turkey was upside down”

Eventer Andrew James recalls the time his grandmother, who didn’t usually cook, was inspired by TV chefs to make Christmas lunch.

Andrew’s father then carried out his annual carving ritual, but only a small amount of meat made it on to plates.

“It transpired that my grandmother had cooked the turkey upside down so that the breast meat didn’t dry out, but she forgot to tell anyone and it was still upside down when she passed it to Dad to carve. There was plenty of prime white meat left for days afterwards.”

5. “The staff didn’t turn up”

In the days when she was married to national hunt jockey Anthony Webber, showing star Jayne Ross found herself serving a tiny Christmas lunch — “basically a sprout on a plate, as he needed to make the weight for racing on Boxing Day,” she says.

“I’ve had some interesting Christmas Days over the years, the most difficult being when the staff didn’t turn up to work and I was left with all of the horses to do. My parents helped — neither are horsey, but they survived!”

6. “I was locked in the tack room”

Chinese Olympian Alex Hua Tian remembers getting locked in the tack room during a frosty December day.

“I was making feeds when a gust of wind blew the door shut. I wasn’t impressed as it only opens from the outside,” says Alex. “It felt like I was trapped in there for ages. I think the wind made my shouts harder to hear — it was pretty chilly.”

7. “She thought I was being ungrateful”

Event organiser Alec Lochore became unpopular one Christmas morning when, having planned to propose to his now wife, Emily, he hid the engagement ring at the bottom of her stocking.

“She was getting upset because I was rushing through my own presents and ripping them open without giving them much thought,” says Alec. “Emily didn’t think I was being grateful, but in fact I wanted her to get on with it and find the ring.”

8. “I decided to clip on Christmas Eve”

Jo May, who evented up to CCI5* with Faere Vision, found herself in her family’s bad books when she chose to clip her horses late on Christmas Eve.

“I got told off because thoughts were that I should have been inside with the family or at the pub, but there was no stopping me,” recalls Jo.

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Individual medal contenders Alex Hua Tian and Jilsonne Van Bareelhof came within a breath of their personal best to put themselves at the sharp end of the Olympic eventing dressage leaderboard today (27 July).

Paris is the fourth Olympics for British-based Alex, who is riding as an individual for China at these Games.

The pair’s flowing, consistent test was rewarded with a score of 22 – the same mark as Australia’s Chris Burton and Shadow Man – putting them in provisional equal third at the afternoon break. The result is Jilsonne Van Bareelhof’s best international test at any level for more than three years, his record being the 21.6 he achieved at Bicton in June 2021.

“I’m so happy,” said Alex, whose best placing at a Games to date is eighth at Rio 2016 with Don Geniro.

“He is good in this phase, but you never know going into an arena like that do you? Especially with a horse like ‘Chocs’. He’s very extravagant and he knows that. He loves the attention.

“He was always going to trot in there and think, ‘Oh, I’ve found a venue of similar majesty to myself’ – and that was either going to go this way, which thankfully it did, or the other and he was going to get over the top about it. So I’m very happy.”

Paris has been the long-held goal for this carefully managed 15-year-old gelding, who is owned by Adam, Angelina and Lin Guo, and Qianru Yi.

Alex added: “He’s a horse that I liken to a human athlete that’s at Olympic level in weightlifting, marathon running and gymnastics. Chocs is the most talented horse I’ve ever sat on in my life.

“There are other very talented horses that have been more consistent and more successful than him over the years. But if you look at him in each phase, he just goes extra.”

• To stay up to date with all the breaking news throughout the Olympic Games, Royal International Horse Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

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China has lost its Paris 2024 eventing team ticket after their top-placed horse tested positive for controlled medication at Millstreet’s Olympic qualifier (31 May to 4 June).

Alex Hua Tian’s ride Chicko, a 13-year-old gelding with whom he finished fourth individually and helped the Chinese team to both second place and an Olympic spot, tested positive for controlled medication altrenogest.

The drug is commonly known under the trade name Regumate, which is a hormonal treatment for mares. It is listed as a controlled medication for males and geldings on the FEI clean sport database. This means altrenogest is recognised as a substance that is deemed to have therapeutic value and/or be commonly used in equine medicine, but cannot be present in male horses during competition.

The positive test means Alex and Chicko have been disqualified from the competition. As a result, Japan has now moved ahead of China in the team standings. The new results mean China’s Paris 2024 Olympic team ticket has been reallocated to Japan.

Alex said he is in “total disbelief”, and that his investigation, carried out by a team of experts, “found conclusively that the trace amount of altrenogest detected” was owing to Chicko eating contaminated hay from the next-door stable at the event.

“As a passionate supporter of clean sport, with a pristine record at international level for 18 years and knowing how careful we are as a team with any risk of contamination, I was in total shock,” said Alex, adding that he was notified of the positive test on 10 July.

“With the support of Richard Davison, Schelstraete Equine Law, JunZeJun Law and Penny Ecroyd we put together a team of specialist vets, equine scientists and toxicologists to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to this adverse analytical finding.”

He said that on the evening of 1 June, Chicko was attended by the Chinese team vet and the treatment vet at Millstreet, as he was behaving unusually with some behavioural signs of mild colic. The vets directed them to remove Chicko’s feed and hay until the following morning.

“The following morning, Chicko was back to his normal self and was passed by all the vets fit and healthy to continue with the competition. We were directed to give Chicko his hay but in regular handfuls throughout the day,” said Alex.

“Due to the nature of temporary stabling, the gap between panel and floor, and in the absence of his own hay, Chicko gained access to hay from the mare in the stable next door.

“This was noted when Chicko was checked on that evening and despite trying to block the hole, was also suspected during the following day when he had run out of his own hay.

“The mare next door was being medicated with Regumate (altrenogest is permitted in mares) during this competition and routinely urinated on her remaining hay.

“It was unknown to me, my team and everyone I have been able to discuss this matter with, including vets and equine scientists, that altrenogest is not only excreted in the urine in its whole compound (not metabolites as almost all other medication), but excreted in reasonably high concentrations.”

The blood and urine sample was taken from Chicko at 3.15pm on 2 June. The horse tested positive, confirmed by the B-sample. The FEI gave Alex the option to go down its “administrative procedure” route, which is offered as a benefit for first-time minor offences. This means that he has been fined 1,500 CHF (£1,351) and ordered to pay costs of 2,000 CHF(£1,801) for the B-sample, but has not been given a suspension.

“However, the core principles of the FEI, clean sport and the level playing field – which I not only accept but support wholeheartedly – are that a horse that is found to have a controlled medication in its system during competition is a rule violation and as a result is automatically disqualified from that competition, regardless of how that substance entered the horse,” said Alex.

“I am in total disbelief. Despite the findings of the investigation, as a rider, I take full responsibility for the consequences. This matter has far-reaching impact on my teammates, supporters of the sport and the national Chinese equestrian eventing team.

“I sincerely apologise to the country, the Chinese Equestrian Association, my teammates Bao Yingfeng, Sun Huadong, Liang Ruiji, our horse owners, partners, our equestrian community and supporters.

“I intend to continue flying the flag for Chinese equestrianism on the international stage, uphold the principles of clean sport and the Olympic movement whilst taking every possible measure to ensure that issues related to doping and controlled substances for both humans and horses do not occur.”

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China scored a major form upset when they beat Japan in the Olympic ticket showdown at Millstreet last week (1–5 June), claiming a qualification spot for Paris 2024 in eventing.

Two Olympic spaces were on offer in the CCIO3*-L for unqualified countries in groups F and G. Australia and Japan were the hot favourites to claim the spots, with China and South Africa also in the mix. New Zealand fielded a team, but were not hunting for an Olympic spot, having already qualified for Paris with team bronze at last year’s eventing World Championships.

As expected, Australia powered through to take top spot, led by Shenae Lowings, who won the class individually on the ex-racehorse Bold Venture. She was backed up by Kevin McNab (Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend, fifth) and Shane Rose (Dotti, seventh).

“This has been the plan for a long time, so to do the job here is great, and means that we can now work towards Paris and maybe going one better than in Tokyo,” said 2021 team silver medallist Shane, who had flown over from Australia for the event.

It was a mark of Australia’s dominance that they won by 21.3 marks despite losing their second-best combination after cross-country when Andrew Hoy withdrew his Tokyo Olympic individual bronze medallist Vassily De Lassos, who was lying third at that stage, as he was not feeling 100% after picking up “a minor cut” on the cross-country.

Australia led the competition throughout and the leaderboard behind them started as expected when Japan sat second after the first phase. But things unravelled for the Japanese when they could only punch in two cross-country jumping clears and they dropped to third.

China rose with clears across country for Alex Hua Tian (Chicko, eventual fourth), Huadong Sun (Lady Chin Van’t Moerven Z, eventual eighth) and Yingfeng Bao (Flandia 2, eventual ninth). In the final phase, China held off Japan to claim second and the Paris 2024 ticket by just 3.6 penalties, despite podium finishes for Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto (second on Brookpark Vikenti) and Ryuzo Kitajima (third on Feroza Nieuwmoed).

This will be the second time China has fielded an Olympic eventing team after their team debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where they finished ninth.

Alex lives in Cheshire, and Huadong and Yingfeng are both based in the Netherlands with trainer Martin Lips. Fourth team rider Ruiji Liang (17th on Kiriaantje) divides his time between Belgium and China and competes primarily in showjumping.

“It’s worth saying just how much of a sacrifice they have all made, leaving their families behind to represent their country in eventing,” said Alex.

Eventing Paris 2024 qualification: five more team spots available

There are 16 team slots on offer for eventing at Paris 2024, including one for host nation France. Germany, the USA, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland all secured their places at last year’s World Championships, while Poland qualified on home soil at the recent group C qualifier in Baborówko.

Two places are on offer at the European Championships in Haras du Pin, France, in August and two at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in October.

The last team place will go to the top squad in the 2023 Nations Cup series, which culminates at Boekelo in the Netherlands in October. Belgium look to be targeting this spot and did their chances no harm with second in the Nations Cup at Millstreet last week.

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Don Geniro, who finished eighth at the 2016 Olympics with Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian, has been retired from eventing aged 16.

“He’s been my top horse for such a long time now – he’s been part of my life for over 10 years,” said Alex.

“We’ve been to two Olympic Games, but it’s not just the championships, the results, the highs and lows – and there have been plenty of highs and lows – he’s also been a horse that’s taught me a huge amount, not just about riding and the experience of going to championships, but about management at home.

“He‘s very much been a horse where if you get the management right, he’ll come out and do well for you. If you don’t quite get the educated guesswork right, that’s where we stumbled from time to time. So he taught me so much about planning and organisation and making sure all those little details are as good as possible and the importance of that.”

The 16-year-old chestnut by Don Kennedy will now take up a new career as a schoolmaster junior dressage horse with 15-year-old Isabel Caldwell.

Don is co-owned by Pip Higgins – whose daughter Sarah shares a yard, Pinfold Stables, in Cheshire with Alex – and his breeder Pam Dews.

Alex said: “We were talking at the end of last year and beginning of this year about Don’s life goals now that he’s 16. He’s done a lot through the years and been a tremendously important horse for me and my career.

“He found both the journey and the cross-country trip difficult at the eventing World Championships at Pratoni last year [so Alex pulled up part-way round the course] and the sport is changing quickly – showjumping [which is not Don’s strongest phase] is becoming more and more significant at championship level. We didn’t feel doing a five-star was the responsible thing to do with him, so it felt like now was the right time for him to take a step back from higher level eventing.

“I think he could have gone on to do lower level eventing or be a dressage schoolmaster but for me and his owners, the right home was the most important thing. We wanted someone connected to us here and we don’t really mind what job he does or how well he does so long as he has the best care he can possibly have as he deserves that.

“Isabel is a very talented young rider, she has lessons with Sarah here at Pinfold and is based 20 minutes away, so Don will be coming back for lessons on a weekly basis. While Don is very talented, he’s quite a quirky little guy and takes some riding. When Isabel came and rode him for a few weeks here before we started discussing whether she would have him, I was really impressed with how quickly she picked up his peculiarities and foibles, both to ride and on the ground.”

As well as their eighth place at Rio, Alex and Don finished 25th at the Tokyo Olympics and also won an Event Rider Masters class at Bramham Horse Trials in 2016.

Don Geniro has often excelled on the flat, holding third after dressage in Tokyo and fourth last year at Pratoni.

“He was never a horse that was going to find the heat in Tokyo easy and of course it was hard to be in the bronze medal position, get to six minutes and know I had to nurse him home when my competitive side wanted to drive him home, but I knew the only choice was to canter home safely and I was always very proud of how hard he tried there,” said Alex.

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Australia’s Kevin McNab had a nightmare round on the World Eventing Championships cross-country when his rein broke in a combination.

Kevin and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam were in ninth place after the dressage, on 25.7, but were given 20 penalties in the 16abc MIM Clip Complex after Kevin had to try to resolve the situation.

“The horse was fantastic,” Kevin said. “He started really well; I wasn’t pressing, he was just taking me to all the fences – he was on fire. I was going, by my watch, a couple of seconds under the time, then between A and B, my rein broke.

“So I had to pull right, slow him down, then grab the left cheek piece to stop without crossing my tracks, reach down and work out a way to tie the rein to the bit, so that I could carry on and finish my round.”

Kevin managed to secure the rein and carry on to complete, but the time he had to spend meant he finished with 28.8 time-penalties, as well as 20 penalties for a score of 70.5.

“When I got down to my next minute marker, I was a minute over time,” he said. “Then he finished a minute and two seconds over so as far as the horse is concerned, he was clear and under the time.”

Kevin added that the rein broke where it attached to the bit.

“It was really frustrating. It was very unfortunate for the horse. I went to give him a half-halt with the left rein and it broke,” he said.

Alex Hua Tian retires on World Eventing Championships cross-country

Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian had to retire on the World Eventing Championships cross-country; he and Don Geniro were in fourth place after the dressage on 23.7 but they incurred faults for breaking a frangible pin, also in the MIM Clip Complex at fence 16, and retired at fence 23.

“I would say he wasn’t 100% when we got here,” Alex said. “He’s improved every day, he was fantastic in the dressage, I was really pleased.

“Today, even if he was 100%, he was always going to find the terrain hard, he’s that kind of horse. But we just got to five, six minutes and he felt like he was at 10 minutes. He was a very good boy through the first water because he was starting to feel like I was having to help him quite a lot, to motivate him a bit. And then he gave me quite a flat jump over the the open ditch and we’d already made a bit of a mistake.”

Alex added that he would like to watch the video to “make sure it wasn’t my mistake” at the corner where the pin went.

“He hadn’t jumped particularly well there and he was just starting to feel like he was struggling a bit and it felt like an awful long way home,” he said. “Also, that trakehner is quite big and I didn’t really want to be on a flat horse over it!

“He got back and he’s far from knackered; he’s in really good shape. He’s recovered really quickly and has been dragging Lucy around around the wash area. But I think just this week wasn’t going to be our week, no matter how good a dressage test.”

Don Geniro will now go home and Alex will determine what to aim for next.

“I don’t know whether it’s realistic for him doing anything this year,” he said. “Maybe something next year? I don’t know, to be honest, is the answer. I think we need to see how he is and see how he feels, maybe see how he is over the winter and whether he wants to give me a spin again next year, it’s up to him.”

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Keep up with all of the breaking news, behind the scenes insight and the best of the action throughout the World Eventing Championships with no limit on how much you can read from as little as £1 per week with a Horse & Hound unlimited website subscription. Sign up now. Plus enjoy our full 20-page magazine report (on sale 22 September) including opinion from Mark Phillips and ground jury president Christina Klingspor.

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Germany’s Michael Jung has replaced Britain’s Laura Collett at the top of the eventing World Championships dressage leaderboard. Michael and FischerChipmunk FRH dazzled the Pratoni judges to receive a score of 18.8 to take over the gold medal position from Laura and London 52, who scored a personal best of 19.3 yesterday.

The 14-year-old gelding by Contendro I x Heraldik produced a flowing, fault-free round, with particularly high marks given for the medium and extended canter and flying changes. The pair also banked 10s for their final centre line, despite a slightly crooked halt, and for the harmony between horse and rider.

“I’m really proud of my horse; FischerChipmunk is an amazing horse,” said Michael. “It is just wonderful if you can compete at this high level at a championship with another horse, another superstar, and it’s amazing how he performed in the arena. He just brings everything inside and you can ride like you ride at home, so this is a great feeling. He’s so relaxed, but still powerful, and concentrated, so you can ride everything that you train for.”

With Michael’s test, Germany become the first team to complete this phase, finishing the eventing World Championships dressage on a score of 76.1. They are five points behind leaders Britain, who still have one rider to go who could widen the gap further: Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class, who will enter the ring at 4.54pm local time (3.54pm BST).

Former world champion Michael will likely start tomorrow’s cross-country in pole position, but revealed he is disappointed in Giuseppe della Chiesa’s track.

“I’m not so happy about the cross-country, because it is a beautiful place but he didn’t use the whole course. He made it very twisty with many turns where you have to slow down and it’s difficult to find a really nice rhythm at this high level. So it makes it much more complicated,” said Michael.

“But there are nice jumps and a lot of nice alternative routes for some people or horses who do not have the best experience. You want the course to have a few options, so that you can still arrive safely home.”

Eventing World Championships dressage: ‘This may well be his last big one’

China’s Alex Hua Tian made an impact as he slammed a brilliant score of 23.6 on the table – a new personal best at this level for the Britain-based rider and the 15-year-old British Hanoverian gelding Don Geniro.

Alex and this expressive gelding glided through his eventing World Championships dressage test, picking up nines for two of his flying changes, and a 10 for his final centre line.

“I’m very proud of him – he’s 15 now and he seems to get hotter and fizzier as the years go by,” said Alex, adding that Don does not tend to enjoy “heat and hill’, and that he found the journey from the UK to Pratoni quite tough.

The eventing World Championships weren’t Alex’s plan A for 2022 – he had hoped to compete for China at the Asian Games this month, but the event was postponed due to Covid, and so the pair switched their focus to Pratoni.

“This may well be his last big one,” revealed Alex. “He’s getting to that stage in life and career, so we decided to bring him whether we were competitive or not. I think tomorrow will be relatively academic in terms of competitiveness – we’ll set off and try to have a nice round, to look after him and make sure he comes home safely.

“I’m happy to admit that he is quite a hard horse to deal with in life,” continued Alex. “He has quite a lot of quirks and he’s very much a horse that when the stars align and your educated guesswork and his management is good, then everything goes well. But if you don’t get one thing quite right, then the way he is as a person, he sort of punishes you for it at a competition. He has been a horse who suits championships, because you can work your way up to a big event and put everything in place.”

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

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Ros Canter has flown into the lead in the Land Rover CCI4*-S on the second day of Bramham Horse Trials dressage on a score of 23.5. She was riding her own and Alex Moody’s nine-year-old Izilot DHI, a horse she has produced through the grades.

“He’s a work in progress and I know there’s tonnes more to come,” Ros said after her test. “He’s quite a sharp and nervous horse, so to cope with going in there and people moving about, which is what sets him off, is great. He’s actually got a very level head for dressage – he’s not a hot horse at all – but he’s just very nervous of things moving, so it was great that he went in there and settled.”

Ros explained that she has had to “rebuild” after “Isaac” competed at the seven-year-old World Championships at Le Lion D’Angers.

“He found it absolutely terrifying and he didn’t have a good experience at all. So it’s all about building for bigger things to come. He’s got incredibly supportive owners that are very accepting that even though we’re at Bramham, we’re still making small stepping stones towards what we hope will be a brilliant horse in the future.

“He’s got so much ability – I’ve never sat on a horse that feels like he does. I’m always running out of room in his half passes because he just glides across – it’s lovely for me and I’m learning a lot through riding him on all different levels, so it’s exciting.”

Alex Hua Tian and his own Jilsonne Van Bareelhof slotted into second three marks behind Ros before the lunch break on a score of 26.5.

“I’m very happy with him because he doesn’t come out that often due to his own physical reasons, so when he does, he can be a bit fresh,” Alex said after his Bramham Horse Trials dressage test. “He’s either boom or bust, but he’s a very, very talented horse.”

Jilsonne Van Bareelhof showed off a beautifully light and uphill frame with expressive paces.

“I adore him – he’s favourite on the yard – and he’s very talented in all three phases. I’ve not sat on something that’s that is as talented in all three phases as he is,” said Alex.

Keep up-to-date with all the action from Bramham via horseandhound.co.uk and read the full magazine report in the 16 June issue of Horse & Hound

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro have gone into joint first place at the halfway stage on day one of the Bramham Horse Trials dressage action in the Land Rover-sponsored CCI4*-S.

They scored 28.6 to tie at this stage with New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell and Gambesie, despite making an error of course.

“Don was wonderful – he’s getting better and better all the time. He warmed up really well and went beautifully. The trot was lovely and the walk was fine, but then Nick [Burton, judge at C and president of the CCI4*-S ground jury] beeped me,” explained Alex after his Bramham Horse Trials dressage test. “I thought ‘oh, I think I’m going right but anyway, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt’ and then he said, ‘well, you’re supposed to do this’ and I replied, ‘Well, I definitely have not learned that test’. I think I learnt an old version of the test, and so it’s a different walk.

“Luckily Nick was happy to talk me through the rest of it and I managed to not go wrong for the rest of the test.”

Don Geniro, a 15-year-old owned by Pippa Higgins, has competed at two Olympic Games with Alex and has solid four-star form.

“We have high expectations of Don on the flat,” said Alex. “He’s always been a good horse on the flat and I’m very frustrated to go wrong. I think it was some of the nicest work he’s done – sort of along the similar lines as how he was in Tokyo and I was really pleased with him.”

Keep up-to-date with all the action from Bramham via horseandhound.co.uk and read the full magazine report in the 16 June issue of Horse & Hound

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Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The Bramham Horse Trials dressage times have been released.

The first-phase action starts at 9.30am tomorrow (Thursday) with the first competitors in the CCI4*-L. In the Land Rover CCI4*-S, the first rider will enter the arena at 10am.

The British Horse Feeds under-25 CCI4*-L competitors share an arena and a ground jury with the senior CCI4*-Ls, so the dressage in that class starts each day after the senior CCI4*-L finishes. The first under-25 pair are at 2.52pm tomorrow.

Bramham dressage times: key contenders

CCI4*-L

• Ros Canter and Rehy Royal Diamond: Thursday, 9.37am
• Georgie Spence and Fanta Boy: Thursday, 9.52am
• Tom Carlile and Darmagnac De Beliard: Thursday, noon
• Izzy Taylor and Monkeying Around: Friday, 10am
• Oliver Townend and As Is: Friday, 10.22am
• William Fox-Pitt and Yes I Can: Friday, 11.37am
• Piggy March and Coolparks Sarco: Friday, 2pm
• Gemma Tattersall and Flash Cooley: Friday, 2.07pm
• Ros Canter and Pencos Crown Jewel: Friday, 2.45pm
• Zara Tindall and Class Affair: Friday 2.52pm

British Horse Feeds under-25 CCI4*-L

• Heidi Coy and Russal Z: Thursday, 2.52pm
• Saffron Cresswell and Up Mulberry Street: Thursday, 4pm
• Harry Mutch and HD Bronze: Thursday, 4.15pm
• Georgie Bartlett and Spano De Nazca: Friday, 3.30pm
• Phoebe Locke and Bellagio Declyange: Friday: 4.37pm
• Heidi Coy and Halenza: Friday, 4.52pm

Land Rover CCI4*-S

• Tom McEwen and Brookfield Benjamin Bounce: Thursday, 10am
• Gemma Tattersall and Chilli Knight, Thursday: 12.07pm
• Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro: Thursday, 12.37pm
• Tom McEwen and MHS Brown Jack: Thursday, 2.37pm
• Izzy Taylor and Hartacker: Thursday, 3pm
• Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent: Thursday, 4.07pm
• Gemma Tattersall and Johan-Some: Friday, 10am
• Piggy March and Brookfield Quality: Friday, 10.15am
• Ros Canter and Izilot DHI: Friday, 11.15am
• Yasmin Ingham and Rehy DJ: 12.07pm

Full Bramham Horse Trials dressage times

• Dressage times

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

The opening rounds of the Olympic eventing cross-country at the Tokyo Games asked plenty of questions as riders tried to follow in Oliver Townends’s footsteps – as Alex Hua Tian drops out of the top three.

Following Oliver and Ballaghmor Class’ faultless round across Derek de Grazia’s challenging course, the next clear came from fifth to go Shane Rose and Virgil for Australia who finished on their dressage score of 31.70.

The United States’ Doug Payne and Vandiver jumped clear but picked up 6.8 time-penalties to finish on 39.8 and said he “couldn’t have been prouder”.

“He probably has the biggest heart of any horse I’ve had the opportunity to work with and, although a bit unconventional at times he tries his heart out.”

Swiss rider Felix Vlogg and Colero picked up 11 penalties after triggering the frangible pin at part B of fence 18, Bumps and Stumps. The pair also picked up 0.8 time penalties.

Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci De La Vigne moved up the leaderboard from their overnight seventh place to fourth after finishing on a jumping clear on the Olympic eventing cross-country but added 1.6 time-penalties to finish on 27.50.

Overnight third-placed Alex Hua Tian picked up a disappointing 12 penalties dropping out of the top three but he was delighted with his ride Don Geniro, having taken the direct routes on all approaches.

“I’m really proud of him” said Alex. “He was great for the first six minutes and I was down a bit at the beginning, I was there or thereabouts at six minutes, maybe five seconds down and I thought if I can just keep travelling, keep going then we might just sneak in. He started flagging as I thought he would do in the heat, and I had to help them a bit at the last couple of combinations, and we just lost time.”

Alex added his advice to his teammates was to “go for it”.

“Look after your horses. Come home safe,” he said. “It’s only going to get hotter. The other two horses are much more blood than Don is. I think they will have a good time. We have a safe strategy for the team so the aim is to finish with three riders today.”

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The Tokyo Olympic eventing team pathfinders have been giving their reaction to being first out for their countries in this new format competition.

Jonelle Price said that “sadly” there hadn’t been much discussion about the New Zealand order, joking about her husband and team-mate Tim and their third team-mate, Olympic debutant Jesse Campbell: “Tim is definitely not at his best early in the morning and Jesse would have been crapping himself going number one, so it was really me by default.”

She added that having no drop score, a change to other eventing championships and previous modern Olympics, is “a different kettle of fish”.

“If I was coming out here on my own, I’d be riding very differently to what I’m going to have to do riding for the team – playing a bit of a safer game because if one person has a mistake somewhere, you can’t afford that person to be on your team. So it slightly changes the way we look at things,” she said.

Alex Hua Tian is by far the most experienced rider of the Chinese team and many would have expected him to be the anchorman. But he said it worked for him and the team for him to go first with Don Geniro.

He explained: “The forecast for Sunday is hit and miss – it was going to be very hot, now it might be raining. ‘Don’ isn’t the most blood animal in the world. He was always going to find the heat hard, especially with that level of intensity on the course. So for me personally, I really didn’t want to go last. With the possibility that it might still be very hot on Sunday, it suits me to go first and give him as much of a chance as possible.

“Our other two team riders are great horseman, sat on good horses, but I think if I have a good ride, it’ll hopefully give them the confidence to go out there and attack it.”

US team rider Doug Payne, another of the Tokyo Olympic eventing team pathfinders, said he chose to be first out with Vandiver.

“‘Quinn’ is very good on cross country – he’s quick, efficient, good on his feet, but he’s also a little bit unconventional, so in the end, watching a whole lot of people doesn’t necessarily add as much value for me riding him as it would for some of the others, riding a more conventional type of horse.”

Doug went on to explain in what way Vandiver is unconventional: “Any sort of drop or a blind fence or a jump into water, for many horses the first landing step is kind of normal to a little bit big. But he would tend to sort of do a little stuttered choppy step. For example, at the first water here, I would imagine we’re going to see some people get down there [from the log in to the fish in the water] in three strides. That’ll never happen, that’ll be just a normal four for him.

“In many ways, that allows him to be sort of be agile, catlike and get out of trouble pretty quick. He’s super genuine and he’s got a massive heart.”

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Walk the Tokyo Olympics cross-country course: photos of every fence

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Riders are in agreement that Derek di Grazia has done a great job as designer for the Tokyo Olympics cross-country course and predict that it will provide a suitable challenge for the competition.

“The course is a ‘four and a half star’ and is very intense – you’re always on the climb or the camber or in the water or in a combination,” said Oliver Townend, who will be the first rider out for the British team.

“But the questions are extremely fair and it’s very horse friendly. If you took each fence individually there wouldn’t be too many problems, but when you add the heat, the terrain, the Olympic pressure and then speed on top of that, it’s going to cause a lot of trouble and it’s going to be very difficult to get the time.”

Oliver has ridden tracks put together by Derek di Grazia several times at Kentucky Three-Day Event.

He added: “Derek is a horseman, which is a very nice start to being a course-designer. I think he’s a very special course-designer, a very talented man at the job.

“For me, this is a very different track to Kentucky, but it still has the feel that he wants the horses to see where they are going. There are no tricks, which you can get quite a lot in the modern day sport with people trying to catch horses. He doesn’t want to catch the horses out. He builds very see-able questions and lets speed and terrain do the job for him.”

US rider Doug Payne echoed Oliver’s thoughts, saying that horses have “a really good shot to try and assess what’s being asked” and that Derek has done an excellent job at making the course as flowing as possible in the tight space available.

He also pointed out that in a number of places, the time difference between routes is minimal, so it’s about trying to find a smooth flowing line for your horse.

Finally, talking about the time, Doug said: “The first and last minute are tough to make up any sort of time, but I think in the middle there’s a couple of spots where you’re going to have to go forward if you want to be close to the time.”

Tokyo Olympics cross-country course: ‘Perfect for this championship’

Alex Hua Tian, who will be followed by two less experienced riders in the Chinese team, commented: “I think it’s a cleverly designed, balanced course which is perfect for this championship. The time will be really tight, which will put a lot of pressure on the traditional nations.

“I think going quickly around that track, the course is intense enough that some superstars will make a mistake in the heat of the moment. But there are enough long ways round that are not actually too time consuming, and not too tiring, for the greener nations like us to take and have a safe strategy for the team cross-country plan.”

Irish rider Sam Watson said: “I think it’s clever – you walk it and you go, that’s a very fair course, but you’ve got to remember what the format is. The team that makes the least mistakes wins medals here, and he’s given us plenty of opportunity to make mistakes.

“There are not many one-stride distances at all and very few two-stride distances, so not many fences where you can just jump in and then momentum takes you through. You’ve got to jump in and either hold your line or attack the line. You’ve got to make choices, so when you’re doing that over a lot of combinations, you could find people sometimes make the wrong decision and get into trouble.

Sam picked out fence 14abcd, the Lone Tree Moguls (above), as an example of somewhere on the Tokyo Olympics cross-country course where riders will need to know plan A and plan B, saying: “The oxer is a big fence and you could go on quite an attacking five strides or a little bit quieter on six. You just don’t know how they’re going to jump that big oxer, if they’re going to land a little bit steep. Derek has given us decisions everywhere.”

Sam also mentioned fence 23abcd, the Mount Fuji Water (pictured, top): “The last water’s got plenty jumping in it as well. You want to have a lot of horse left underneath you.”

Vittoria Panizzon, first out for the Italian team, mentioned that the warm-up is in quite a different area to the start.

She said: “The warm-up is down the bottom of the hill and then you go right up the top of the hill to set off so the horses won’t have seen what’s going on, what environment they’re in. It’s going be a bit of a surprise, I think, when you suddenly set off and you even set off uphill so all they can see when you get up there is the start.

“It perhaps wouldn’t be the biggest course many people have done, but the situation will make it far more challenging than it could look at first. As well as the warm-up, it’s very hard to get your bearings because it’s so twisty. I think the horses need have a lot of trust in the rider, because they’re not always going to be sure where they’re going, what’s happening.”

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China’s Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro are sitting within a whisper of leaders Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class after the first group of riders on the opening day of Olympic eventing dressage at the Tokyo Games.

The pair’s fluent test was peppered with eights and nines, earning the pair a score of 23.9, putting them within a single time penalty of British pathfinder Oliver, who is in provisional first place on a score of 23.6.

“I was really pleased with him because he’s not good with a camera – and there are five around the arena,” said Alex, adding he is “very proud” of the 14-year-old gelding.

“He was quite nervous the first arena familiarisation, and he just gets so tricky when he’s hot. The second arena familiarisation was better, and this time I really felt like he was looking, and it perhaps helped lift him a little bit, but he really tried to stay with me.

“He had one little spook on that right medium canter, which he always does. For some reason in that right medium canter he’s always looking to spook at something, and 50% of the time he changes, so I was really pleased – he spooked, but he stayed with me and let me ride him so I’m very pleased. I’m annoyed that I haven’t beaten Oli though!”

Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and the 13-year-old mare Vinci De La Vigne set a strong challenge in the Olympic eventing dressage for the home nation, scoring highly in the canter and the walk to end the first phase on 26.1.

The Swiss combination of Felix Vogg and Colero were the fourth combination to score in the 20s, keeping in touch with the leaders on a score of 26.7.

Shane Rose and Virgil are in provisional fifth for Australia (31.7) and US rider Doug Payne and Vandiver provisional sixth (33).

“I was very happy with Vandiver,” said Doug. “Of all three phases, this would be the toughest for him, but I think he put forwards a great effort and honestly, in the end, that’s all you can ask for. So, it’s pretty exciting to finally get that through and on to the next. There’s a lot more left. That’s for sure.”

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

H&H has covered the need for horse sport to maintain its social licence to operate; essentially the public acceptance of horses’ use in sport. This World Horse Welfare webinar went into the subject in detail, discussing the ethics of equestrianism

THE ethics of veterinary intervention to keep horses sound to compete, whips, spurs and competing horses in general were under the spotlight in a recent webinar.

Olympic eventer Alex Hua Tian was among the panellists at a World Horse Welfare session titled “How to keep horse sport ethical”, run with the University of Nottingham on 23 June.

Professor Madeleine Campbell, who holds senior positions in universities and veterinary organisations relating to animal welfare and ethics, gave her views on the ethics of riding, enhancement of performance, and “when to call it a day”.

“Is it ethical to ride horses and use them in sport,” she asked? “Yes.”

Professor Campbell said this is an answer she has come to through “a great deal of thought”, as an owner, breeder and rider, and also using various ethical theories and frameworks.

She said she sees using animals in sport as no different to the huge variety of ways in which animals and humans interact; keeping animals in zoos for conservation, or as pets, for example.

“I don’t see their use in sport as any ethically different, provided we always safeguard their welfare,” she said.

Professor Campbell added that World Horse Welfare is funding research for an ethical framework for use with horses in sport. This will have three core principles that must be fulfilled to ensure horse sport is ethically justifiable.

These are always minimising negative and maximising positive welfare impacts, looking at psychological as well as physical effects. We must also identify risk and minimise it as much as possible, and always adhere to sport rules and regulations.

The subject of enhancing equine performance in an ethical way fits, Professor Campbell said, with current discussions on animal sentience.

“Should we adapt things to improve the experience of the horse, or do what we’ve always done?” she asked. “One question is that of double bridles; in the UK, you’re allowed to ride a grand prix test in a snaffle, but in some high-level international competitions, it’s still a requirement to have a double bridle. That’s an anomaly that’s puzzled me, on whether it’s justified. I’m not aware of significant studies on the difference from a horse’s point of view but it’s worth considering.

“What I don’t think we should do is brush the question aside; we need to consider why we’re doing what we’ve always done, and whether it’s still sensible in light of current evidence.”

But she added that taking action to enhance performance is often by definition something that will improve welfare as well, such as working a horse on different surfaces, or travelling it in a manner it prefers.

On the topic of rules, and “when is enough enough”, Professor Campbell referred to issues that are allowed but possibly should not be.

“One question is rider weight; certainly in showing there’s been talk about adults riding ponies in. We can all think of things that are allowed but if we stop to think about, we might question,” she said. “I think that’s the challenge for all of us; trying to see things from the horse’s perspective, and whether what we do is ethically justifiable, or if we need to change something.”

In the panel discussion, World Horse Welfare field officer John Burns also cited inappropriately sized riders as a concern, especially if the horses concerned are also overweight, and said riders should be aware of their horses’ capabilities.

Questions were asked about veterinary intervention such as joint medication or others aimed at keeping horses sound.

“This is a complicated one,” Professor Campbell said, adding that in human sport, athletes often have treatment to keep competing, but the key difference is that humans consent.

“That puts responsibility on all of us – vets, owners and riders – to make sure we’re making decisions in the horse’s best interests,” she said.

Alex added: “There’s a very important line when you’re looking after a sport horse and managing its soundness and mental wellbeing, and long-term welfare.

“Whether managing intermittent discomfort means joint medication or any of the hundreds of other treatments, if that allows the horse to continue to compete and be fulfilled and enjoy its career, and the treatment doesn’t mean the horse is at risk of more injury, I think that’s fine.”

Alex also answered a question about ensuring horses have positive experiences while competing.

“I’m a big believer that horses enjoy the sport, hopefully as much as we do,” he said.

“If you’re at the top level, you have to have a horse that enjoys it, as I don’t think there’s a chance they could get to that level otherwise.”

Whips and spurs were discussed – Professor Campbell said we “need to be thinking about their use more carefully” – and a key was public perception of our sport and its ethics.

“We’ve got an opportunity to bolster equestrian sport,” Mr Burns said. “Its effects on wellbeing for horse and rider; we’ve got a great chance to put horse sport back on the map.”

Alex added that, as an industry, we should have confidence that “a vast majority of horses in our care enjoy the highest levels of welfare”.

He said: “But in an ever-changing social-media world, we need to continue to challenge how horse sport is perceived in the broader world, and continually think about its social licence to operate. Every rider, groom and owner is an ambassador for the sport, and we should continue to promote its values.”

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

This Chinese eventer not only has two horses qualified for Tokyo, but is also steadfast in his aim to build the sport’s profile in China and globally, says Lucy Elder

IT’S 13 years since Alex Hua Tian went to his first Olympics, riding as an individual for China, as the youngest-ever eventer to compete at the Games.

Thirteen years on, returning as part of a team, he will still likely be among the youngest. But this is no longer the 18-year-old who took a year out of school. After two Olympics, including a top-10 finish in Rio, multiple World Championships and medal-winning Asian Games performances, Alex heads to Tokyo as part of a nation whose strength in equestrian sport is growing.

“The whole dynamic is totally different,” says Alex, 31, looking ahead to riding as part of an Olympic team for the first time.

“I really think China has the opportunity to be one of the major forces in equestrian sport in the future. To have two teams, with the showjumpers qualified as well, is such an important milestone.

“In many ways, although I represent China, I’ve been based abroad with my riding since I was six, so my riding and my sport doesn’t necessarily represent Chinese equestrianism itself. Whereas my team-mates, yes their horses are in Europe for the Olympic qualification process, but these guys are all products of the Chinese equestrian system.

“Of course we are going to lack huge amounts of experience as a team in comparison to the major equestrian nations, but if you look at the Japanese team, two Olympic cycles ago they crashed out of London, and now they are going into an Olympic Games as potential medal contenders having finished fourth at the World Championships.”

HORSES have always been a part of Alex’s life. His “very horsey” British mother would make a beeline for a yard in whichever city in the world she was working at the time. He remembers he and his brother would tag along, and started riding in Beijing on a “very naughty little white fluffball Chinese native pony”, whose name translates to “Little Gourd”.

“My father always claimed that my horsiness has come from him learning to ride donkeys during the Cultural Revolution, but I’m not quite sure that’s the case,” he says.

Alex moved from Beijing to Hong Kong for school aged six and his formative riding years were spent with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Pony Club and at Lo Wu Saddle Club.

“Nobody in Hong Kong had their own ponies,” he remembers. “It was a great way to learn to ride. We started riding on the ponies and, because they only had a limited number, as soon as we were competent enough we were stuck straight on to the horses.

“Some of my best friends come from that time: Tom Ho, who is based in the UK now riding for Hong Kong and qualified for the Olympics, and Kenneth Cheng, a Hong Kong showjumper who rode at Beijing.

“It produced a lot of top riders from Asia and I guess the first sort of generation of top championship riders for Asia.”

It was in Hong Kong that the family met Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks, who were so formative in Alex’s career, and he was packed off on a “riding holiday” to their Rosegarth base in Wiltshire aged 10. This turned out to be less pony rides on Salisbury Plain, more cantering around the school on eventers, and was the start of the partnership that would continue when Alex returned to the UK for prep school in Salisbury, followed by Eton.

His first proper event horse, Chance Bid, owned by his mother, was based with the Fredricks. Each holiday, Alex would hop on a train to Westbury and ride lots of horses, before he was packed off back to class.

“Looking back on my first Olympics now, the whole thing was surreal,” he says. “When I took a year out of school I was still 17, it was a big decision to make and we still hadn’t secured funding. To be fair to my parents, it was never a decision they made. They gave me the opportunity and allowed me to decide.”

Alex qualified four horses for Beijing 2008 in the space of four months, made possible by “unparalleled” financial support from the “very generous” Mr Jiang. The Games itself didn’t go to plan, with Alex and FBW Chico parting company at fence eight. But it was this, in a way, that set him on his career path.

“I think if I’d had a respectable result, there’s a chance I would have felt that I’d ticked that off the list, gone back to school, gone to uni and done something else with the rest of my life,” he muses. “I certainly felt like I had unfinished business.

“Having grown up at Rosegarth, having seen how hard Clayton and Lucinda and other riders had to work every day and the emotional toll this sport takes, I was fully aware of how hard the eventing life was. Even in the lead-up to the Olympics, even post-Games, I wasn’t certain that this was what I wanted to do.

“It wasn’t until the point when it was starting to be taken away that I realised how much I really wanted to do it and that I was willing to make the sacrifices necessary. That meant I had a really uncomfortable conversation with my parents two days before I was supposed to go to uni, which demonstrates just how supportive they are.”

THE run-up to London 2012 was a very different experience. The backing from Beijing was gone and he missed out on qualifying for the Games by 1.6 penalties. So he sat down with his family, made a plan and moved forwards.

“In all honesty, Don Geniro was not the horse we wanted to take to Rio,” he says. “We wanted to take Harbour Pilot C, but ‘Pie’ was 17. He was sound post-Badminton and in our final preparations for Rio he was never lame or injured, but I just knew that his wheels were starting to rust.

“He was such an aggressively ambitious horse, I knew that it would be very easy to take liberties with him. At that stage, Don had done catastrophically badly at Chatsworth [in May 2016], then turned it all on its head and won Bramham a month later, and was feeling in great form, so we took the risk.”

It paid off. The then nine-year-old gelding finished eighth and while that inexperience made Don an “unknown quantity” at Rio, he is now going into this delayed Games aged 14 as a horse in his prime.

The pair had a 100% double clear record in 2020 and we speak just after Aston CCI4*-S, where they finished eighth.

“He is terribly affectionate and just wants to do really well for you. He’s a real people pleaser,” explains Alex, who describes him as a phenomenally talented “complex character”.

The British-bred Hanoverian was originally bought as a dressage horse for Alex’s partner, Sarah Higgins, by her mother Pippa.

“He might lack a bit of his own self-motivation, but if you overpush him, he then starts lacking confidence as well. He is quite a sensitive person,” he adds.

Alex’s other qualified ride, the “super little firecracker” PSH Convivial (Spike), couldn’t be more different, with his “can-do” attitude at times leading him to be spicy on the flat.

“But you can go into the showjumping and relax because you absolutely know he will do everything he can to stay away from the poles,” he says. “He is very affectionate in the stable, but he can be very naughty.”

Spike was being ridden by Loretta Joynson for breeder Gary Power when Alex spotted him in an intermediate at Catton in 2017 and spent the next six months trying to buy him.

“He’s the only horse on the yard I’m pretty certain will dump me at some point,” he laughs. “Sarah called me the day before he left for the airport [to join Alex in Jakarta for the 2018 Asian Games, where they won bronze], saying, ‘Do you really want to take Spike as I can’t explain how naughty he’s been today.’

“We got there and he was really well behaved until the final dressage warm-up. Something in the distance caught his eye, his tail went in the air and we ended up reversing. I actually hadn’t got him on the bit before we went into the main arena and I just thought, ‘Look up, smile and it will be all right.’ That’s his personality, everything is on his terms.”

ALEX talks passionately about his horses, meticulously detailing their individual characteristics. As well as his Tokyo contenders, his string includes four-star gelding Jilsonne Van Bareelhof and rising star Hamlet, for whom he has Paris 2024 in mind. He is speaking from the Cheshire yard he shares with Sarah and Chinese dressage rider Sarah Rao. While his base is in the UK, Alex is passionate about building the sport both in China and globally.

He co-founded the Horsemanship Movement in 2017, a programme for children of all backgrounds in China that teaches the values of horsemanship: respect, responsibility and compassion. Challenging the elitist perception, accessibility and building industry standards are key aims, particularly as individual wealth, and in turn, access to horses, is developed in China.

This leads our chat to the future of global eventing.

“We don’t want to lose the essence of the sport but we do have to be open-minded with some structural things to make sure the sport is able to develop and flourish in areas that don’t have the enormous stately home parkland we have here in Europe,” he adds.

“You have countries like India, China and Hong Kong where the finances to host any sporting event are within the urban areas. If we can’t find a way to package eventing in a more progressive way, then the sport will always be a sport for a few nations.

“You can have a discussion about the Olympics being, or supposed to be, for the best of the best, which I’m totally supportive of, but you then have to question whether it really is if the sport is not accessible to 80% of the world.”

He is supportive of the direction the FEI is taking, while reserving judgement on the new Olympic eventing format, and stressed the Games are a vital way of encouraging nations to invest. And, as a sportsman, it’s also the Olympics that drives him.

“I love the idea of it, its values, going to it, competing in it, aiming for it. To me, the Olympics is the pinnacle of all sports,” he says.

“Of course Badminton and Burghley is the pinnacle for eventing, but as a sportsman, being part of the Olympic movement is extremely special.”

Olympic gold and five-star wins are in his aims, but for him, the lifestyle, the sport and the balance between his life and horses here and equestrianism in China are as important.

“I’m a slow-burner and I’d like to be competing at Olympic Games in 10, 20 years down the road and still enjoying it.”

This interview can also be read in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale date 24 June 2021

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Find out what Alex Hua Tian said is sometimes an issue when riding the talented Jilsonne Van Bareelhof

Alex Hua Tian piloted Jilsonne Van Bareelhof into second place this morning in the Bicton Horse Trials dressage for the CCI4*-S section, at this event supported by Chedington.

Jilsonne Van Bareelhof’s score of 21.4 puts him just 0.2 of a penalty ahead of Alex’s other ride, Don Geniro, and 0.4 of a penalty behind Laura Collett and London 52, who are still the leaders.

“I’m really pleased – he’s such a lovely animal,” said Alex. “He is talented in all three phases and really, really wants to do it and actually that’s sometimes his issue – he’s fresh all the time and he always has endless energy. He always wants to be at 100% and it’s just trying to settle him enough to be able to do his job.”

The 12-year-old, owned by Adam, Angelina and Lin Guo and Qianru Yi, is known as Chocs “because he’s big, Belgian and brown,” as Alex put it.

He hit the headlines last month with fourth place at Houghton CCIO4*-S.

“That test wasn’t quite as relaxed as at Houghton, but I think Houghton was the first time I’ve properly run him quickly and I think that’s a little bit gone to his head,” said Alex. 

Alex’s second and third place cut a swathe through the otherwise entirely British top eight in this section, which is dominated by the Team GB Olympic nominated horses who performed yesterday morning.

Tom McEwen (Toledo De Kerser) and Ros Canter (Allstar B) share fourth on 23, with Piggy March (Brookfield Inocent) and Kitty King (Vendredi Biats) in equal sixth on 23.1.

Oliver Townend holds eighth on Cooley Master Class, who is on the Olympic reserve nomination list.

Chris Burton is ninth for Australia on Clever Louis, with Alex appearing on the leaderboard again in 10th on PSH Convivial, who is likely to be his second choice horse for the Tokyo Olympics behind Don Geniro.

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Find out how to first day of dressage competition has unfolded in the super-hot CCI4*-S section at Bicton

China’s Alex Hua Tian put in a stunning performance aboard Don Geniro in the first phase of the CCI4*-S at Bicton International Horse Trials, supported by Chedington, to sit in second place after the first day of competition. The pair scored 21.6 to sit just .6 of a penalty adrift of overnight leaders Laura Collett and London 52.

“He was really good and he was quite zingy too,” said Alex of Pippa Higgins’ 13-year-old after their test. “It’s probably the most atmospheric arena that we’ve had for a couple of years and it was really useful to have this opportunity to have a bit more atmosphere before the Olympic Games.

“I was a bit cross because the announcer spoke for 30 seconds in the middle of my test and that’s something that really affects ‘Don’, and he made a couple of mistakes because of that. But I’m really happy with him — he feels in great nick at the moment.”

Tom McEwen and Toledo De Kerser and Ros Canter and Allstar B hold equal third place on 23, with Piggy March and Brookfield Inocent in fifth. Kitty King is in sixth with Vendredi Biats on 23.1, while Oliver Townend and Cooley Master Class put in a solid test this afternoon to sit in seventh on 24.

“He’s improving a lot for a 16-year-old and is still getting better,” said Oliver of Angela Hislop’s gelding. “His outline and the way he’s carrying himself is becoming easier and easier to ride.”

Just 4.7 penalties separate the top 10 after day one. Day two of dressage action gets underway at 8.15pm tomorrow morning.

Read the full report from Bicton in the 17 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine and keep checking back to horseandhound.co.uk for further updates and insight

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EquiRatings figures show that dressage scores reached a record this year in international eventing. H&H spoke to riders and number-crunchers to find out what this means...

DRESSAGE scores in eventing are improving, but extra time to focus on flatwork during lockdown did not cause an outsize drop in 2020.

Data analytics company EquiRatings reports the average international eventing dressage score has fallen from 38.6 in 2008 to 34.6 – a new record – in 2020. But the decrease for 2020 is “on trend” with previous years, according to EquiRatings co-founder Diarmuid Byrne.

Scores are falling at all levels and across the range of ability. This means competitors are still split by a similar spread of penalties, so the dressage has not become more influential in individual events.

But EquiRatings co-founder and world team silver medallist Sam Watson told H&H the figures raise questions about eventing’s direction, particularly when coupled with fewer horses making the time across country at five-star level.

“There is great benefit available by improving your dressage, but you can’t do better than go clear inside the time in the other phases,” explained Sam, pondering whether the ratio of influence of the phases is correct.

“Progression and evolution of skills is natural – we’ve seen that in many sports. The question is how we achieve it in showjumping and cross-country.”

Sam believes faster cross-country speeds at lower levels might help ensure horses who will excel at five-star are also rewarded through the grades.

“If only the dressage improves, there are unintended consequences,” he said. “For example, horse types have changed and the modern event horse struggles with undulating, testing courses such as Burghley. We could end up dulling down eventing’s unique selling point.”

Chinese Olympic rider Alex Hua Tian (pictured) questioned whether riders’ abilities in the showjumping and cross-country have also improved while courses have gradually increased in technicality.

“I think the current balance of phases is right for the type of horse that we are currently producing – the best judge is the quality of sport and the recent five-stars have been incredible,” he told H&H.

Alex believes faster cross-country at the lower levels should be explored, but with caution: “Sam is right that we should be producing horses that can excel at the higher levels in terms of endurance, but at lower levels the sport has to cater for juniors and one-horse amateurs – do we want to encourage riders who may be riding one cross-country round a month to go faster?”

Five-star eventing dressage judge Sue Baxter said the benefits of having extra time to work on correct basics in 2020 should be seen in 2021.

“Developing topline strength, increased flexibility and balance should improve agility in all phases, making for safer cross-country rounds,” she told H&H. “The four-penalty dressage improvement from 2008 to 2020 only equates to one showjumping rail.

“When the dressage leader jumps double clear it doesn’t make it a dressage competition, they deserve to win.

“At the higher levels, more mistakes in the jumping phases create more changes to the leaderboard. At lower levels, increasing the cross-country speed for immature horses and amateur riders who are learning doesn’t make sense on safety or welfare grounds.”

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Chinese event rider Alex Hua Tian describes his Olympic memories as “totally surreal” when he looks back and that’s hardly surprising when you consider he became the youngest eventing competitor to ride at the Olympics when he competed at the 2008 Beijing Games, aged 18.

“It’s a bit crazy looking back at it all,” says Alex, while being interviewed by H&H’s eventing editor Pippa Roome for episode 19 of the Horse & Hound podcast. “I think it was a combination of a few factors, such as being half Chinese certainly gave me the opportunity to compete for China in my home Olympic Games. But at the same time, being also half British gave me the opportunity to assimilate into the eventing world comfortably and take on the whole lifestyle and so on.

“But also, I had incredibly supportive parents, who not only gave me all the opportunities to do what I wanted to do, but also allowed me to make the decision to do it, because for the Beijing Olympics I ultimately took a year out of school the year before my A-levels — I owned that decision as they never pushed me to do it, and I think that was a very important part of my life.

“Then there’s also the crazy amount of money generously given to that project by Mr Jiang, who funded my Beijing Olympic campaign. I think the combination of all those things and the timing, all brought it about.”

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Unfortunately Alex’s Olympic debut didn’t go according to plan when he parted company with FBW Chico at fence eight on the cross-country – “It was such a heartbreaking moment for me personally and really burst the fairytale bubble I was living in at the time.” But while he admits it took a while to get over the disappointment, with hindsight he thinks it helped to set him on his way to making eventing his career.

“Looking back on it now I think I’ve got more out of falling off at the Olympics than I would have done if I’d finished 50th or whatever. I very much felt after that I still had something to prove, which is why I’m still here.”

After narrowly missing out on qualifying for London 2012 – “by 1.6 penalties” he recalls ruefully – Alex headed to his second Games at the Rio in 2016, where he rode Don Geniro to eighth place (pictured).

“Again, it’s surreal to look back now at those Olympics as Don was a young horse at nine years old, and was admittedly not the horse I was planning to take originally, which was Harbour Pilot C,” explains Alex. “We didn’t know if he was old enough and experienced enough to handle it all, but he seems to be a horse that loves the southern hemisphere!”

To hear more of Alex’s exclusive interview, listen to episode 19 of The Horse & Hound podcast or search “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade to access our H&H Plus online service which brings you breaking news as it happens as well as other benefits.

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In our 19th weekly episode of the first series of The Horse & Hound Podcast, we kick off with an exclusive interview featuring successful Chinese Olympic event rider Alex Hua Tian. Our magazine editor and podcast host Pippa Roome chats to Alex about how he got started in eventing, his surreal experience as the youngest event rider to contest an Olympics in Beijing, narrowly missing out on London 2012 before finishing 8th at the Rio Olympics, and looking ahead to Tokyo 2021 with Team China. Moving on to the week’s top news stories, our news editor Eleanor Jones, senior news writer Lucy Elder and news writer Becky Murray join Pippa to discuss a recent high profile case of suspected horse feed contamination, why employers' liability insurance is essential and how new clean air plans could hit horsebox owners. We also welcome to the podcast for the first time vet Helen van Tuyll, who explains why blackthorn is such a worry for those who hunt.

Episode 19 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, our exciting new audio service available exclusively every Thursday morning for our H&H Plus subscribers, is now live.

Each episode is available for all H&H fans to listen to 24hrs after its early release to our H&H Plus members. Search for “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your prefered podcast app and click subscribe to be notified about each new episode. This will allow more listeners to make The Horse & Hound Podcast an essential part of their week on Friday morning.

In episode 19, Olympic event rider Alex Hua Tian talks to our podcast host Pippa Roome about how he got started in eventing, his surreal experience as the youngest event rider to contest an Olympics in Beijing 2008, narrowly missing out on London 2012 before finishing 8th at the Rio Olympics, and looking ahead to Tokyo 2021 with Team China.

Pippa is joined by Eleanor Jones, Lucy Elder and Becky Murray of the H&H news team to evaluate this week’s top stories including a recent high profile case of suspected horse feed contamination, why employers’ liability insurance is essential and how new clean air plans could hit horsebox owners.

New to the podcast this week is guest vet Helen van Tuyll, who speaks to us between clients to explain why blackthorn is such a concern for those who hunt.

We hope you will enjoy our latest episode and would love to hear your feedback, so please do send your thoughts to pippa.roome@futurenet.com.

H&H Plus podcast: episode 19

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The top British rider tops both CCI4* classes at Burnham Market – but which eventer thinks she has got a Paris 2024 Olympics prospect?

Izzy Taylor has two winning chances on Sunday at Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market. Not only does Monkeying Around lead the CCI4*-L class, but Camilla Behren’s lovely eight-year-old Hartacker showjumped clear in the CCI4*-S to remain in first place as well.

“I thought the showjumping was a tough track for eight-year-olds – a tough track anyway, but especially for an eight-year-old who only started competing last year,” said Izzy.

“He jumped a very good round, and it was accomplished – like he had being doing it all his life. He definitely wants to do everything right, which can have a slight negative effect because he tries so hard, but he’s a very exciting horse.”

Their score of 20.3 gives them two penalties over second-placed Yasmin Ingham and Sue Davies and Janette Chin’s Banzai Du Loir, who also showjumped clear.

“I love the bones of this horse,” enthused Yasmin. “He’s so talented in every phase – I hope he is a prospect for the 2024 Paris Olympics. I do a bit of showjumping in the winter and he jumps 1.30m tracks; I really enjoy my showjumping and it’s probably the phase I am most confident in.”

Banzair Du Loir was bought from France in May last year through Rachel Wakefield and Michael Wynne.

“Lockdown was probably really good for us; it would be easy to get overexcited and do too much with him,” said Yasmin. “He feels happy and confident and that’s how I want him to feel. He has a huge stride and is really quick, and we’ve worked very hard on the dressage.”

Sally-Anne Egginton’s Cillnabradden Evo and Oliver Townend were foot-perfect over the coloured poles, and remain on their dressage mark of 23.3 in third place, half a mark ahead of Alex Hua Tian and Don Geniro, who added 0.8 of a time-fault to their dressage of 23.8.

Both Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) and Kitty King (Cristal Fontaine) increased their dressage scores by 0.4 of a time-penalty but didn’t touch a fence for fifth and six places.

Tom McEwen is seventh with a clear showjumping round on top of a dressage score of 26.8 with Bob Chaplin. Tom was in sixth place with his Pau CCI5* winner Toledo De Kerser, having showjumped clear, but he has withdrawn the Diamant De Semilly 13-year-old before tomorrow’s final cross-country phase.

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Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

World Horse Welfare is giving equestrians the chance to win a “dream” ride with Zara Tindall, Pippa Funnell, Mark Todd or Alex Hua Tian.

The charity has launched its summer fundraising prize draw allowing supporters the chance to win the “ride of their life” with one of these Olympic eventers. For non-riders the “money can’t buy” prizes include a “racing spectacular” for two at Newmarket, breakfast with the stars at Epsom, or an original pen and ink drawing of the charity’s famous foal, Captain Tom.

“Many riders hold the ambition to meet one of these eventing superstars and have the opportunity to chat to them about their careers and horses, but add into that the opportunity to hack alongside them and it is a real dream come true,” said a World Horse Welfare spokesman.

“The prizes have generously been donated by the eventers and others, who are patrons and friends of World Horse Welfare, in support of the charity’s work improving the lives of horses and stamping out suffering worldwide.”

The rides will take place, once lockdown restrictions allow, with Zara in Gloucestershire, Pippa in Surrey, at Mark’s yard in Wiltshire, or Alex’s base in Cheshire. The winners will have to provide their own horse for the ride and will be responsible for all costs associated with attending.

Pippa Funnell said she and her team love hacking their horses.

“It’s a fantastic way to allow them to chill out and it’s an important part of their ongoing management. With a spotlight currently on the mental well-being of horses, this was an obvious moment for us to offer this opportunity to a supporter of World Horse Welfare – a charity very close to my heart – where the welfare of horses is always the primary concern,” she said.

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“I’m really looking forward to meeting the winner and their horse, and finding out about their horsey experiences and ambitions. The views from the top of Holmbury Hill where we will be hacking to are staggeringly beautiful. Let’s just hope for decent weather!”

Tickets cost £5 and proceeds go towards helping fund the work of the charity, whose centres have been shut since March due to Covid-19.

Buy your tickets

Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade to access our H&H Plus online service which brings you breaking news as it happens as well as other benefits.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Now that eventing is up and running again, we all love to see top horses and up-and-coming stars flying round the cross-country. And since spectators aren’t currently allowed at British Eventing fixtures due to Covid-19 rules, photos are the next best thing, so we’re delighted to bring you a selection of pictures from Aston-le-Walls last Saturday (18 July).

Who’s your favourite from our gallery?

Article continues below…

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Pictures by Peter Nixon

We are continuing to produce Horse & Hound as a weekly magazine during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as to keep our website at horseandhound.co.uk up to date with breaking news, features and more. Click here for info about magazine subscriptions and access to our premium H&H Plus content online.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Team uniforms were on display today (Wednesday, 12 September) at the first trot-up for the Mars-sponsored eventing at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, USA.

The female riders from the home nation, the USA, showed up in smart blue and white dresses. Here is Lynn Symansky with Donner.

Belgian rider Lara de Liedekerke-Meier presents Alpaga D’Arville wearing a smart neckscarf and white trousers.

We love a man in uniform — hello Lt Col Thibaut Vallette. The French team member rides Qing Du Briot ENE HN, his individual bronze medallist from the 2015 Blair European Championships.

The Australian team outfits featured specially embroidered shirts — check out Event Rider Masters series champion Chris Burton as he trots up Cooley Lands.

Stylish dresses were the order of the day for the ladies from Canada. Below, Hawley Bennett-Awad presents Jollybo.

China’s sole representative, Alex Hua Tian, looks cool in shades as he appears with Ballytiglea Vivendi.

Germany stuck to a classic blazer look — Julia Krajewski presents her Bramham CCI3* and Aachen CIC3* winner Chipmunk FRH.

Red trousers are the statement piece for Poland’s Pawel Spisak as he kicks off his event with Banderas.

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South Africa’s Victoria Scott looks smart in a green jacket and neckscarf as she presents Valtho Des Peupliers.

Japan made a statement with red trousers and pink shirts. Here are Ryuzo Kitajima and Queen Mary.

Another man in uniform — Italy’s Stefano Brecciaroli with Byrnesgrove First Diamond.

And finally, Meyer’s Happy shows some high spirits, tossing his head as Ecuador’s Nicolas Wettstein leads him up the strip.

Pictures by Elli Birch/Sportinpictures

Horse & Hound has two journalists and a photographer in Tryon for WEG. Keep up to date with all the news on horseandhound.co.uk and in the next magazine issues — full report on the eventing including exclusive opinion and full analysis of all phases in next week’s edition (dated 20 September).

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Hi all,

I must admit I was both jolly surprised and super-excited when I was asked to join the H&H blogging team. I have been wittering away for a little while now on my Facebook page about my day-to-day life and to my surprise it seemed popular among people other than those who know me well and have to be nice about it.

I will start by telling you a little about me. I live in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and share a yard with my partner, Chinese event rider Alex Hua Tian. He has, in the past, been the subject of many of my posts. Mainly because he is away a lot so he can’t do a lot to stop me writing silly things about him, and he is very laid back so rarely gets cross about it, so that doesn’t stop me either.

I am a dressage rider and trainer, my life revolves around winning rugs and sashes and also getting my picture in Horse & Hound. I suppose now I can put pictures of me up all the time?! I have quite a few horses in training at my base, Pinfold Stables. From young horses that I have bred to older advanced horses that belong to a great team of owners. My current top horse is called Davidoff, or The Hoff to his friends. He is owned by Chinese dressage rider Sarah Rao who has another three horses here that she competes. Sarah has been based with us for a few years now. She is aiming to compete for China at Asian Games and hopefully, one day, an Olympics.

This time of year is a bit crazy. Alex is currently about to miss a flight back from Jakata where he has been competing at the Asian games. He did very well and won a bronze medal — so long as I also have a decent present on his return tomorrow, it should be a happy reunion after him being away for three weeks. While he has been away, I have been busy trotting his event horses in circles in preparation for the World Equestrian Games (WEG) and a couple of other international shows before the end of the season. This has been done with varying levels of success and enthusiasm. As well as this, my work rider, Natasha Taylor has two horses qualified for the summer dressage national championships. Also myself and Miss Rao have several big shows planned over the coming months — the plight for sashes and rugs is never ending!

My horses are all actually being surprisingly well behaved at the moment. This is rare that they are all being good at the same time — usually I am having an emotional breakdown about at least one of them. Even Radar (who you will hear a lot about) isn’t being too mental at the moment. He is one of my home-breds and is eight-years-old. He has been a total nightmare, has spent many an hour with all four feet in the air but, over the past few weeks, we’ve managed to attend some shows, not terrify anyone and even win a couple of mediums. Our current challenge is mastering the flying-change. Teaching him these has given me whiplash on numerous occasions. Hopefully the judges will see this as enthusiasm and expression rather than a UFO hitting the bonnet of their cars. He has the most gorgeous personality in the stable, so aside from selling him to a petting zoo, I am stuck with him purely because no one else would want him.

You will also hear an awful lot about Bodger, my dog. Alex thinks he is his dog but he forgets him all the time and I feed him so… He is actually the world’s finest dog. He does currently have fleas but that is only a short-term problem and then he will be re-instated to world’s finest dog.

I will be travelling to WEG in a couple of weeks to offer Alex some assistance in the dressage, inform him that every fence on the cross-country course looks unjumpable and ask my favourite question repeatedly: ‘but do you actually think you and Boris will be able to jump that jump?’ Hopefully I will be able to give you guys a bit of an insight into being ‘backstage’ at these big events. Alex will be delighted for me to have another project to focus on other than building tension before cross-country day.

Until then, Sarah x

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

With temperatures plummeting and the nights drawing in, Andrea Oakes asks grooms how they make winter work — and keep motivation levels up

Oscar Mayhew-Sanders, showjumper Tim Stockdale‘s show groom

“We try to organise things so that every job is easier,” says Oscar. “There’s nothing worse than waking up in the morning and knowing you’ll be cold, but if you keep yourself well-insulated and well-fed you’ll be better able to look after the horses.

“We also make the atmosphere as positive as we can,” adds Oscar, referring to the mid-winter slump that many of us experience. “Motivational levels can soon drop. Good lighting really helps so we make the indoor school as bright as possible, and we turn up the radio.

“Our fields are on a hill and drain well, so some of the horses can go out. However, those competing internationally tend not to. They’re on the horse-walker in the morning, before being ridden at midday and coming out again to hand-graze in the afternoon.

“When we finish at 5.30pm, we leave the horses well rugged-up and with plenty of hay,” he adds, revealing that some have stable toys to beat any boredom.

Tim’s horseshoe-shaped yard is sheltered, with brick stables that stay relatively warm in winter. Waterers are automatic, pipes are lagged and there’s a heated washroom with a solarium. If it sounds a bit cushy, remember that winter coats don’t clip themselves.

“With 20 horses we’re clipping at least one a day – if not more,” says Oscar, who claims that this itchy task is the mainstay of winter management.

Claire Hinton, groom for Olympic dressage rider Spencer Wilton

“When I worked with eventers, on an outdoor yard, it was impossible to keep everything tidy in winter,” recalls Claire. “I hate a messy yard, so sweeping over snow was my worst nightmare.”

With the luxury of indoor stabling, Claire only has to venture outside now to visit the muckheap.

“I am a very lucky groom,” she laughs. “It’s tempting to shut all the doors and windows to make it really warm and cosy, but I’m a big believer in ventilation so I’d sooner put an extra rug on a horse.”

A dryer makes easy work of one winter bugbear: wet horses.

“They love standing under the dryer for 20 minutes,” says Claire. “If I put Super Nova [Spencer’s Olympic horse] under there too often, though, it makes his skin dry. He’s very sensitive, so I often let him dry naturally.

“Hot towelling is good for a sweaty horse,” she adds. “I add a capful of Dettol to a bucket of hand-warm water, before using a face towel or a flannel to rub the horse all over. He’ll need a cooler rug on to dry, but it’s easier to brush him off later – especially around the head.”

Anna Mildner, head girl for eventer Izzy Taylor

Winter is especially hands-on for Anna. The event horses may be out on their holidays, but she oversees a yardful of hunters.

“I look like the Michelin man,” says Anna, who piles on the layers. “I buy cheap and cheerful woolly gloves, as they always go missing or get holes, and wear a hat and ear-warmers. I love my Woof Wear boots, which are really warm.”

With no horsewalker, there’s a lot of hacking — a winter activity that many owners find hair-raising.

“We vary the horses’ routines so that they’re not too fresh,” says Claire, who avoids busy times on the road such as rush hours and school runs. “We work them in the field as well as the school, and try not to hack around the same route each time.

“My other trick is to do all the clipping in one go, before heading indoors for a shower. I keep a ‘clipping coat’ and wear a scarf to stop stray hairs going down my neck.”

Anna finds that rugs with damp outers dry better if left on the horses, rather than hanging up in the yard. She also uses pig oil on the hunters’ legs in the field, to stop mud sticking.

“Plain, cold water is best for washing muddy legs, rather than any shampoo,” she says. “It’s important not to kill off the natural defences in the skin.”

Debbie Carpenter, professional freelance groom

The best defence against the cold is to keep busy, according to professional freelance groom Debbie Carpenter.

“Cups of tea and proper footwear help,” she says. “My Le Chameau boots are my pride and joy.”

Debbie enjoys mucking out – it’s a chance to stand on the warm muckheap for five minutes – but wears gloves to stop her hands freezing to the pitchfork. She also has some top turn-out tips.

“Horses can go crazy in a cold frost and lose a shoe,” she says. “Putting hay in the field before you turn them out, or taking their breakfast down with you, can ease them into the field routine.

“I’m careful not to over-rug, as a hot horse can sometimes roll and get cast in his stable,” adds Debbie, who checks the forecast every day. “You can always add a layer, or put a hood on if the horse is cold.

“The darkness is difficult, but I also hate smashing ice on the field trough. When we had eventers, in the Cotswolds, we had to whip off our gloves and plunge our hands into the freezing water to remove chunks of ice.”

Like this? You might also enjoy reading these:

Getting ready takes forever — and 7 other things you’d forgotten about winter riding

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Kate Hort, who grooms for eventer Alex Hua Tian

Kate says: “The worst thing is the mud – it gets everywhere. You can’t put boots on muddy legs. We give them a thorough wash with hot water and use plenty of towels to dry them afterwards.

“We also use petroleum jelly on the horses’ heels,” she adds. “You can buy lotions and potions, but this creates a really good barrier.”

The yard solarium doubles up as a rug drier, as Kate hangs wet turnouts there for five minutes once a horse has vacated the heat lamps. She’s also resourceful with her footwear.

“Cold, wet feet are the worst, so my vital piece of winter equipment is a plastic shopping bag on each foot as a boot liner,” she explains. “Fingerless gloves are another essential, as I’m always taking gloves off to undo something and losing them. Maybe I need mittens on a string.

“We have a hot lunch in our kitchenette, which has a plug-in radiator, but if it’s too nice and warm it’s hard to get going again,” adds Kate. “I think the best way to beat winter is just to get on with it. The next season comes along so quickly.”

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Alex Hua Tian won the second leg of the new Event Rider Masters (ERM) series today at the Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials.

“I’m on top of the world,” said Alex, after collecting a cheque for £16,000.

The Chinese rider — who has a British mother and a Chinese father, went to Eton and is based in Cheshire — admitted the money will “probably disappear into the black hole of horses” but he added he might treat himself and girlfriend Sarah Higgins to “something nice”.

Alex and Don Geniro were third after dressage, but took up pole position when the two ahead of them both had the first part of the treble at fence eight down in the showjumping. They therefore ran last in the reverse order cross-country and finished comfortably inside the optimum time to hold their lead.

Dressage leader Clark Montgomery of the USA finished second on Holly and William Becker’s Loughan Glen.

“He was really running, a bit too much in the beginning as I was getting pulled into the bottom of some of the galloping fences, but he felt super,” said Clark.

Clark has now surely secured his spot in the American team for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

New Zealand’s Jonelle Price completed the multi-national podium with third on Trisha Rickards and Jacky Green’s Faerie Dianimo. This grey mare is the rider’s first choice for Rio and will run again at Aachen before then.

Izzy Taylor was fourth going into cross-country on Be Touchable, but the inexperienced horse had a run-out at fence 11ab, the Investec Hollow.

Australia’s Bill Levett took fourth on Shannondale Titan, with Rosalind Canter best of the Brits in fifth on Allstar B. Maxime Livio was the top French rider, taking sixth with Pica D’Or, while his compatriot Astier Nicolas — winner of the first ERM at Chatsworth — landed 10th on Molakai.

Full report of Bramham in H&H next week, out 16 June.

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FBW Chico, the horse Alex Hua Tian rode at the 2008 Olympics, has been put down, aged 19.

Zhao Ning’s grey by Carolus I spent his retirement in the field at Alex’s Cheshire yard, but had started to feel his arthritic fetlocks.

“It was a really tough decision, but we all knew it was the right time,” said the Chinese event rider.

Alex is the son of a Chinese father and British mother. He was propelled into the spotlight when a private individual decided to fund a campaign for him to ride at his home Olympics in 2008. He took a year out of Eton and embarked on a whirlwind campaign to buy experienced horses and qualify for the Games.

Chico started his career in Germany and Alex bought him in December 2007, just before the registration deadline for the Beijing Olympics (horses have to be in the ownership of the nationality for which they will compete at the Games by the end of the previous year).

“We bought him from an amateur as a back-up for the superstar horses we had bought beforehand,” said Alex. “Frankly, at the time he was an unlikely contender to go to Hong Kong. I remember thinking he wasn’t a great mover, was a bit skinny and held his tail too high.

“But once we saw him jump we knew he was a good horse and all I had to do was jump him once to know he was something special.”

“He definitely had a cheeky side to him. I remember our first dressage test at Barroca d’Alva 2008 in the CIC* earned us an unpromising 70.3. Clayton [Fredericks, Alex’s trainer at the time] decided we should crack on and do the CIC3* the following weekend and we bombed around with a 44 dressage to get half our qualification for Beijing.

“Throughout that summer it became increasingly obvious that he was the horse I got on with the best and I remember at Barbury CIC3* our final run before the Olympics we went into the cross-country in fourth place in most nations’ final trial.”

At 18, Alex became the first Chinese rider to contest the eventing at an Olympics, but after a good dressage test, he had a fall from Chico across country.

“Hitting the turf in Hong Kong was a really difficult thing to come to terms with, especially as Chico and I hadn’t made a mistake all year but the lessons I learnt and confidence he gave me was invaluable,” said Alex.

“In the years following the Olympics, we struggled to keep him on the road and made the difficult decision to retire him in 2010.

“Since then he has lived in various different fields with my other campaigners from that generation. He was completely feral at the end and used to run the girls ragged around the field trying to catch him to have his feet trimmed.

“He was a cool customer with an amusing combination of machismo and sense of humour. He was definitely the king of the yard or field.”

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The running of the Asia Pacific Eventing Championship this autumn — the final chance for nations to qualify a whole team for the 2016 Olympics — is balanced on a knife edge.

The championship at Boekelo, the Netherlands (8-11 October), can only happen if three countries put forward a team.

New Zealand is favourite to take the Rio qualification, while traditionally the other contestants have been Australia and Japan. South Africa might also field a team this time.

Australia — which has already qualified for Rio after a fifth at last year’s World Equestrian Games — plans to enter a team.

Japan hopes to compete, but does not have many suitable riders and horses. It has the required three pairs already qualified — Toshiyuki Tanaka (Ballastar Bay) and Ryuzo Kitajima (Just Chocolate), who are based with Angela Tucker in the UK, and the experienced Yoshiaki Oiwa (on the former Millie Dumas horse The Duke Of Cavan) based with Dirk Schrade in Germany. But there are no reserve horses or riders in case of injury.

“Japan is trying to qualify reserve horses,” said Angela. “They are classy riders — Ryuzo had barely competed above one-star before this year and has made amazing progress — but with young horsepower.”

If the championship does not go ahead, New Zealand and Japan can qualify individual riders through the rankings system. If they secure three or four spots this way, they can still field a team at the Olympics. This would also apply to the team that finishes in second if the championship does take place.

“It’s in everybody’s best interests that Japan has a team at Boekelo,” added Angela.

“Miracles can happen [and the Japanese might qualify there] but at least if the New Zealanders qualify at Boekelo, that frees up individual spots for China’s Alex Hua Tian and the Japanese [as New Zealand would no longer be contesting the individual spots].”

The championship will run alongside the Nations Cup final leg. The same four horses and riders will compete for their country in both the Nations Cup and the qualifier.

New Zealand’s eventing high performance coach Erik Duvander added: “It’s a bit nerve-racking at the moment — once we get there we have to put in a performance, but at this stage it’s in the hands of others. But assuming it runs we’ll be there all guns blazing.”

Don’t miss this week’s issue of H&H for an interview with Alex Hua Tian and what qualifying for Rio means to him

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Enjoy pictures from Eventing magazine's photoshoot with British-based Chinese event rider Alex Hua Tian

Pinfold is just 20min from many eventers’ favourite cross-country schooling ground Somerford Park Farm. With numerous competition centres within an hour, and the M6 15min away, it is ideally positioned for a busy event rider.

The main yard at Pinfold Stud has barely changed since its heyday as a thoroughbred stud back in the 1960s. Champion two-year-old Petingo, who went on to finish second in the 2000 Guineas and won the St James’s Palace Stakes as a three-year-old, was bred here in 1965. Numerous other race winners have come through the impressive archway that leads you under the clock tower.

The stud’s most recent revival has been as a livery yard, and the facilities include a 44 x 66m outdoor — due to be resurfaced over the winter — and an indoor school measuring just over 20 x 40m, which is light and airy.

The main yard boasts 21 stables with a further five opposite the indoor school. An immaculate circle of grass graces the middle of the square and woe betide anyone who rides over it. They have the use of 20 acres at the moment, but with the option for up to 80 more as necessary with a track round the outside to ride.

The fields are a decent size, with good Cheshire hedges for shelter. Old-timers FBW Chico — Alex’s 2008 Olympic ride — and Jeans are currently enjoying their retirement in one field with another former eventer/showjumper, Norton H.

There is a small kitchen for tea breaks and lunch, and a large tack room.

The staff — Amy Shafe, Alex Roy and Ellis Noble — live on site and are joined five days a week by Kate Hort, who worked for the Frederickses and is now Alex and Sarah’s yard manager.

Read the full ‘through the keyhole’ article in the December 2014 issue of Eventing magazine out on 22 November.

Enjoy more ‘through the keyhole’ features:

Look ‘through the keyhole’: Dutch eventer Andy Heffernan’s yard [PICS]

Enjoy pictures from Eventing magazine's photoshoot at Somerford Park Farm

Look ‘through the keyhole’: Italian eventer Vittoria Panizzon’s yard [PICS]

Enjoy pictures from Eventing magazine's photoshoot at Norton Grounds Equestrian

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British-based Chinese eventer Alex Hua Tian has won an individual silver medal at the Asian Games today (26 September).

The Games, which are taking place in Incheon, Korea, are held every four years in the even years between the Olympics. Equestrian was first held at the Games in 1982 and eventing is held over a one-star course.

Alex was riding Edwina Qu Ye’s eight-year-old gelding Temujin.

“

Temujin is one of those horses who had to be brought on slowly. He is lovely to ride and tries harder than any horse I have ridden. He is such a lovely character, and is everyone’s favourite on the yard,” said Alex.

Gold was taken by host nation rider, Sang Wuk Song, was riding FRH Fantasia.

“The standard and quality here is unreal at this

level. It was a shame that Bertie made a ‘trying to hard’ mistake at the beginning of his test by breaking in his medium trot,” Alex added.

Team gold went to the Korea, with Japan in silver and Hong Kong in bronze.

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Do you know a rider who deserves recognition? Who would you most like to see celebrated in the horse world?

The FEI is looking for nominations for its 2014 awards, known as the Oscars of the equestrian world.

There are five categories with the winners being flown to Baku, Azerbaijan in December for a gala evening.

The awards recognise commitment, dedication and courage in equestrian sport around the world.

Alex Hua Tian (pictured), China’s first event rider to compete at Olympic level won the first Longines Rising Star Award in 2009.

“It inspired me to go professional, to continue to strive to improve both as a horseman and a trainer, and to promote this amazing sport to other young riders,” he said.

Alex, 24, is now preparing for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (23 August-7 September) in France.

“I would encourage everyone to step forward and nominate a person who has really impressed them,” he said.

Last year’s rising star award went to US showjumper Reed Kessler, the youngest rider at the London 2012 Olympics.

Nominations are also open for the other four categories. These are:

Reem Acra Best Athlete – given to the human or equine athlete or combination who over the last 12 months has taken equestrian sport to a new level.

Against All Odds – rewards people who have pursued their equestrian ambitions despite physical handicap or difficult personal circumstances.

Best Groom Award – for the best behind-the-scenes team members.

FEI Solidarity Award – presented to an individual or organisation which has demonstrated skill in expanding equestrian sport.

The closing date for nominations is 9 September.

More information on the FEI awards.

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Chinese eventer Alex Hua Tian has become a patron for World Horse Welfare. 

Alex — who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics aged just 18 — joins 7 other high profile figures in the equestrian world who already support the charity including presenter Emma Spencer and Betfair founder Andrew Black. 

“The charity needs ambassadors like Alex who are recognised for achievement in their own field to give us a new platform and audience to talk to about the impact of our work helping horses in the UK and overseas,” said a spokesman from the charity. 

Alex’s new role was announced at a party to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Horse held in the Jack Barclay Bentley showroom, London. 

More 200 guests attended the event, including Paralympic gold medallist Natasha Baker, which was run in conjunction with Alex’s new sponsors Gieves and Hawkes. 

£10,000 was raised for World Horse Welfare through an auction and donations from guests. 

“The charity was honoured to be part of such a special celebration recognising the Chinese Year of the Horse, which brought together people from around the world with a common love of horses,” a spokesman added. 

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Eventer Alex Hua Tian is to take part in a “style and competition” pairs event at the Gucci Paris Masters this weekend.

Alex will compete in the event, which takes place on Saturday (1 December) night. It will be aired live on the Equidia channel at 7.15pm UK time.

The Chinese event rider has been paired with American showjumper Jessica Springsteen, and he will be riding a borrowed showjumping horse for the class.

The competition raises money for the World Association of Children’s Friends (AMADE) whose president is Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Her daughter Charlotte Casiraghi will also be riding in the competition.

British showjumpers Ben Maher, Michael Whitaker, Nick Skelton, Laura Renwick will be competing in the five-star classes at the show. For updates check Horse & Hound online.

Photo: John Stoddart for The Bund Magazine.

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Olympic eventer Alex Hua Tian this month entered his first showing classes and says he’ll be back for more.

Alex competed at the National Hunter Show at Bury Farm, Bucks, with Rosemary Penn’s five-year-old Redpath Rhyme.

The mare started eventing with Alex this season. At Bury Farm, they competed in the working hunter, ridden hunter and ridden sport horse classes, coming fourth in the latter.

“As I show horses as well, I asked if he would take one of my former in-hand horses to compete at the Sport Horse Breeding (GB) finals for her to get some ring experience, despite the fact that she is now eventing,” said Rosemary.

“Everyone was absolutely wonderful in trying to give Alex a crash course in the art of showing. He felt totally out of his comfort zone, but people went out of their way to explain the complicated nuances of the discipline,” she added.

“Only when I said I would have to shorten my mare’s tail did he go into a state of apoplectic shock. It is just not the done thing in eventing to compete without a long tail!”

And Alex said he enjoyed it.

“I didn’t realise quite how big a deal the show was when Rosemary asked me to have a go,” he admitted.

“I just thought it would be a good experience for the horse.

“Thank goodness I had some advice or I would have made some terrible faux pas – my white numnah and black tack.

“It’s a good a lesson for young horses,” he added.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (20 September 2012)

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Four-star horse Magenta was put down yesterday, aged 13, due to complications associated with colitis and lymphangitis.

The grey mare was produced by Abi Walters in her early career, finishing second in the 2004 British Eventing five-year-old championships.

Magenta progressed successfully to advanced and two-star level under Abi, with numerous wins and top-10 placings on the way.

After a short period with Selina Elliott, the Supreme Edge mare joined young British-based Chinese rider Alex Hua Tian in 2008.

The pair’s good results included 11th at Saumur in 2008, 12th at Blenheim CCI*** in 2009, an advanced win at Aston-le-Walls in 2010 and seventh at Hartpury CIC*** that year. She finished second in the young rider Express Eventing contest in 2010.

Magenta was also the horse with whom Alex recorded his first four-star completion, finishing 26th at Badminton in 2010 with a jumping clear across country.

“She wasn’t the most talented horse, but she had the biggest heart,” Alex told H&H. “She would have been happy doing 100 pre-novices for the rest of her life, but the more you asked, the more she gave. She was the most generous horse I’ve ever come across and she gave me everything.”

Alex kept a diary for H&H during 2009 and 2010 – read Alex’s diaries, including about his experiences at his first Badminton here.

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The Chinese Equestrian Association has announced it is targeting its fledgling national team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

A spokesman for the association confirmed to H&H that the team is now a “more formal one compared to past years”.

Sarah Noble, senior adviser to the Chinese Equestrian Association and mother of China’s international eventer Alex Hua Tian, added: “China has a lot of talented and enthusiastic riders and the more they have the opportunity to compete on an international stage, the more they begin to be noticed.

“Following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there has been more and more interest in equestrian sport.”

In 2008 at the Beijing Olympics – when the equestrian sections were held in Hong Kong – a Chinese showjumping team competed for the first time. Alex Hua Tian became the first Chinese event rider to compete at a Games.

Jane Carter of the China Horse Fair, held in October in Bejing, added: “This [development of a team] is good news and not unexpected, as the Chinese equestrian horse market is growing rapidly.

“China’s professional horse sports industry has huge potential. The number of equestrian sports enthusiasts is increasing, with 1,000 new riding club members registering weekly.”

Last month, it was announced that the Royal Agricultural College (RAC) and China Agricultural University are to establish a new international centre in equine studies in Beijing.

“We see it as an excellent opportunity for both countries,” said the RAC’s Paul Davies.

“There are reportedly more than seven million horses in China.

“With increasing interest in recreational activities involving horses – riding clubs, polo clubs and a growing horseracing business – there is a need for skilled young people to take this sector forward.”

China is hosting more equestrian competitions and attracting international riders. In October China is to host its first Global Champions Tour competition, in Shanghai.

This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (14 June 2012)

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China’s modern pentathlon team will be based at Bishop Burton College in the run up to the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

The team — which includes current world champion, Qian Chen — will use the training grounds at the college, near Hull, next year.

Since H&H reported that none of the official Pre Games Training Camps had been booked (news, 11 August), eventer Alex Hua Tian — China’s first Olympic rider — announced plans to to relocate to Shardeloes, Bucks.

Venues have had more luck with para dressage, with Canada booking Hartpury College, Glos, and Israel going to the Quainton Stud, Bucks.

This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (15 September, 2011)

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With less than a year to go until the London Olympics, just one overseas equestrian team has booked into the 60 designated Pre Games Training Camp (PGTC) centres.

Olympic organisers LOCOG asked sports facilities, including equestrian ones, to apply for PGTC status with a view to hosting visiting 2012 athletes’ training ahead of the Games.

Some equestrian centres fast-tracked facility upgrades and all proudly trumpeted their selection as training camps.

But with most leading equestrian nations hailing from Europe anyway, H&H always queried the demand for them in our sport.

Bookings are buoyant in other sports — for example, 16 sailing camps are booked in Weymouth — but China is the only National Olympic Committee (NOC) to confirm use of any “official” equestrian camp.

Alex Hua Tian — who is China’s first Olympic rider — will be moving from his current yard in Hampshire to Shardeloes in November.

“I’ve been looking for somewhere for a while with an indoor school and hydrotherapy spa so this seemed the perfect opportunity,” said Alex.

“Kate [Hort, Shardeloes manager] is a long-standing friend and I’m very much looking forward to the move.”

“Currently it’s just Alex moving here,” said Kate Hort from Shardeloes. “We’re not sure if anyone else from China will be able to qualify. He wanted his own space so he’ll have a barn with 10 boxes.”

She added that she understood why not many countries had taken up the chance of PGTCs as many riders have links in the UK and it’s easy to travel from the continent.

“We wanted to be involved but being a PGTC has been hard — there’s been no back up nor anyone helping you get a team,” said Kate.

“I went to Beijing and it was awesome and couldn’t imagine having an Olympics on our doorstep and not being a part of it. But it’s been expensive refitting. We’ve had to cover all the costs so far ourselves.”

PGTCs have had more luck with para dressage teams, with Canada booking Hartpury College in Glos for eight horses and 25 riders and support staff, and Israel going to the Quainton Stud, Bucks.

And Hartpury said it is also in discussions with another team, but would not disclose more.

See H&H issue 11 August for more on this subject.

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Alex Hua Tian will appear on television today (Friday 24 June) at 9.30pm.

The event rider and “Visit Britain’s” goodwill ambassador, will be the featured guest on BBC World News channel’s programme “Peschardt’s People”.

Former BBC senior foreign correspondent, Michael Peschardt flew in from Australia to film Alex at Burghley House, home of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials.

Alex was filmed explaining the course and the sport to Michael, riding his two young horses, Furst Love and Wolkenderry.

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Chinese event rider Alex Hua Tian is taking part in a new campaign in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Alex, who is China’s first Olympic rider, has been appointed Britain’s “goodwill ambassador” for China as part of VisitBritain’s new marketing campaign.

The campaign, “Britain: You’re Invited” forms part of the tourist board’s £100m initiative to promote tourism in the wake of the royal wedding and run up to the 2012 Games.

Alex was selected due to his prominence and achievement in sports.

“Alex is an ideal ambassador for many reasons,” said Travis Qian, country manager for China.

“He has such a high profile in China, and is competing in such a thrilling sport. His connection with Britain through being based there to prepare for 2012 Olympics and through his Eton schooling makes him a very articulate and compelling advocate.”

Alex said: “I am hugely honoured to introduce the best that Britain has to offer, especially eventing. This sport is deeply engrained in British culture and society and takes place in front of some of the most beautiful stately homes and showcases the glorious British countryside.

“London 2012 will be unique in so many ways. Greenwich is the most magnificent site right in the heart of London. This will be the sport coming home to Britain, where a quarter of a million people can come together to enjoy one day’s sport!”

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Last season’s H&H blogger Alex Hua Tian has landed his first international victory.

The Chinese event rider, 21, rode Furst Love into first place in the CIC* at Barocca d’Alva, Portugal — beating 91 rivals in the process. The pair scored the best dressage mark of 72.1%, and were never headed.

“I am so proud of his performance,” said Alex. “It was a very competitive field, with many successful two-star horses using the event as a warm-up for the two-star next week.”

The nine-year-old Fuerstenreich gelding is owned by his breeder Jacke Mathieson and Edwina Qu Ye, and is being aimed at the Olympic test event at Greenwich this summer.

Furst Love — stablename Fred after cricketer Freddie Flintoff — is the first horse that Edwina has owned, and Barocca was the first competition she has attended.

Jacke said that she “always knew Fred was special”.

“I am speechless,” she said. “Alex and Fred have achieved so much in such a short time. I’m really looking forward to their exciting future together.”

Alex is seeking Olympic qualfication this year, and has entered two horses — Magenta and ESB Irish Fiddle — for Badminton.

For a report on how British riders fared at Barocca d’Alva, don’t miss 17 March issue of Horse & Hound magazine

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British-based Chinese event rider Alex Hua Tian will be on Channel 4 tonight (Tuesday 1 February) celebrating Chinese New Year.

21-year-old Alex will be on at 7.55pm, straight after the news.

During the 5min piece Alex will be talking about Chinese New Year, his passion for the sport, his pride in competing for China, his goals for the Year of the Rabbit — including his hopes for qualifying for the Olympics.

“When Channel 4 invited me to talk about my experiences of Chinese New Year I jumped at the opportunity to bring the sport to a wider audience,” Alex told H&H.

Alex was H&H’s online blogger during 2009 and 2010. To read his blog visit: https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/alexhuatian

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After five weeks of relentless three-days I was hoping to enjoy the relatively quiet aftermath. Not so, unfortunately by the time the prize-giving finished at Blenheim, we’d thrown the remaining gear in the lorry and left it was past six. Home by eight, just to swap horses, Fiddle (ESB Irish Fiddle) for Rodney (Willows Accent)!

To qualify for the seven-year-old championships at Le Lion d’Angers in France, Rodney needed one more intermediate qualifying result. Pontispool the next day was one of the remaining intermediates and with an early morning dressage Flora Harris very kindly offered us a stable for the night. So with a fast turn around, quick unpack and repack, we found ourselves motoring our way back down the M4 on our way to the West Country. After a seemingly endless trip heads didn’t hit pillows until two that next morning.

The beep of the alarm at seven was not a welcome sound! However, we made it to Pontispool with plenty of time. Quick run round the course, change and warm-up we found ourselves in the white boards of our dressage test. Rodney did a nice test but with a lot of improvements to come. After a good score of 30.5 penalties, it’s nice to know that with a bit more work and time, it could be significantly better.

The great thing about Pontispool, which makes the trip worthwhile, is the fact that the showjumping is on an allweather surface. The course itself seemed to be causing carnage but Rodney warmed up spectacularly, turning everyone’s heads in the collecting ring so I felt confident. Rodney jumped his nicest and most polished round with me to date! A clear round to add nothing to his good dressage score.

The cross-country really suited Rodney. Big, bold and galloping with an intense section in the second half of very technical fences. With orders to open up in the galloping sections but to be careful at the technical fences we set off with business in mind. We finished clear with just 7 time-penaties, enough to put us into 5th place! Rodney’s been 8th at his first intermediate and 5th at his second, so far so good. So it looks like another trip to France next month.

Maggie (Magenta) and Fiddle are thoroughly enjoying their holiday out in the field. With the autumn weather setting in and their winter coats growing it won’t be long until they look like two shaggy New Forest ponies. Jeans, after his injury at Luhműhlen a few months ago had his first day out in his little pen so is also over the moon. Also I have a new addition to the yard, Fred or Furst Love, owned by Jacke Mathieson, a stunning Oldenburg bay eight-year-old. But more about him next week.

Alex

Full report from Pontispool in H&H on sale now (23 September issue).

Alex Hua Tian’s website

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now