‘My best friend is gone’: heartbroken farewell to medal-winning British superstar
Gareth Hughes and his team have paid tribute to their superstar Classic Briolinca, who has died at the age of 18.
The Trento B mare, owned by Julia Hornig and Gareth and Rebecca Hughes, suffered complications related to colic last week and could not be saved. She had retired in May, on her 18th birthday.
She and Gareth were on the team that won silver at the 2022 World Championships, and European gold a year later, and achieved wins and top placings across Europe.
“She was an out-and-out princess,” Gareth told H&H. “She was a supermodel, she’d wake up in the mornings with her mane, forelock and tail all perfect.
“She knew who she was and where her place was in the yard. She was a beautiful face to see every day, and she was part of the family. It’s been tough for everyone.”
Classic Briolinca as a young horse
Briolinca arrived as a three-year-old; Julia and Rebecca spotted her in the Netherlands and brought her home.
“I knew she was good; she looked like she wanted to be a grand prix horse from when she was a youngster,” Gareth said. “She wasn’t the biggest mover but she found collection so easy. Her highlight as a grand prix horse was the technical lines; the really hard collected ones.
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“We always knew she was special but you never really know because what makes them is their heart and their try. There’s a big difference between training a horse to grand prix and having a grand prix horse.”
Gareth said Briolinca had her quirks at the start, and suffered from nerves for a while.
“But when I went down that centre line, I knew she had my back and I had hers,” he said. “I remember Compiegne in 2019, that was when she really stepped up to being a world-class dressage horse. She got a really high score and won the special; that was when I thought she’d stepped up to the big time, and she became one of the main team horses of British dressage.”
Gareth and Briolinca were in the team that summer for the Europeans in Rotterdam, and he remembers being called up from the warm-up to the arena for his test.
“When we got to the gate, there was a hold-up of about 15 seconds, which doesn’t sound long but is a long time when you’re ready to go in,” he said. “There was no where to go but she stood like a rock. I had a plan of how I was going to go in but she just went in, and I picked up canter and thought ‘We’re good’. I knew at that point we’d be fine, and she was ‘Ok, this is important now’.
“This is what these horses do, step up and give you something extra. You’d go to a local competition to run through the grand prix and she’d be ‘I’ll go through the motions but this isn’t exciting; where are the people?’ then they step up when it’s really important – and when they do, time stops.”
A highlight in the World Championships 2022 freestyle test
Gareth picked his freestyle at the 2022 worlds, when they scored a personal best to finish fifth with a beautiful test, as a highlight.
“She had an amazing career with so many highlights but that freestyle was probably the best test we ever did,” he said. “You don’t have these moments in a championship very often but I remember coming round to my last line and having time to look at the crowd – it was a foot-perfect test, right to the music, and she felt unbelievable.
“If you’re lucky enough to have a ride like that at a championship and can enjoy it and have time to take it in, it’s the most amazing feeling. That’s what we live for. That’s a real partnership and when all those years of hard work come to fruition.”
Gareth paid tribute to Julia for her support on Briolinca’s long journey, and all the other people who loved her.
“She was a horse people fell in love with, who people wanted to meet when they came here,” he said. “It’s always sad, but she wasn’t just special to us, she was special to people who had met her and watched her compete – when you lose a horse like that, there’s a big hole.”
Classic Briolinca had her own “private PA”
Gareth also said Briolinca had her own “private PA”, in his groom Steph Sharples who looked after her all the way through.
Steph told H&H the horse she first met was a sassy youngster.
“We weren’t friends at first!” she said. “It was a bit ‘New place, new people, and I’ll decide if I like you or not’. But it didn’t take us long to become friends, and when you got her love and trust, it was even more special, as she almost let you into her gang, so to speak.
“We did everything together, went everywhere together. I couldn’t go out in the field to catch another horse without her whinnying : ‘Excuse me please, you’re supposed to come to me!’”
Steph said it is very special to be part of a horse’s journey from the start to representing their country, and winning medals, at the very top level. And she also picked Herning 2022 as a particular highlight.
“It was so emotional and I was so, so proud of her,” she said. “She could get a bit lit up with a crowd and at the end of her grand prix, the crowd started clapping on her last centre line, so she got a bit excited and didn’t do the final halt. But then to see her go in the special, and the freestyle when she tried her little heart out – it made me so proud to see her give her heart to Gareth, and that melted my heart.”
Steph said Herning was also memorable as “the world could see how special she was”.
“It gives me goosebumps now,” she said. “She and Gareth had such a beautiful partnership; seeing them in the arena, it was so harmonious; what dressage should be.
“She’s left a big hole, for a lot of people, but for me, it’s that my best friend is gone. That’s what she was.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.