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‘He opened his mouth and the bit fell out’: rider jumps half Gatcombe’s course with broken cheekpiece

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • Andrew Downes conjured a masterful display to ride half the course at Gatcombe Horse Trials with a broken bridle at the Magic Millions Festival of British Eventing.

    He was competing across country on his first horse in the Dodson & Horrell British novice championship, Cooley Foxtrot, when the horse’s cheekpiece snapped at fence three. He continued right up to the four-part Biowave water combination at 12, where the bit dropped out of his mouth and Andrew pulled up.

    “I felt it pop after fence three – the cheekpiece just broke,” said Andrew. “I thought I should pull up immediately but it actually felt all right. So I thought I’d do one jump and once I’d cleared fence four and five, it was fine, so I decided I may as well carry on. It was like he was holding on to it!”

    “It didn’t feel perfectly normal – a bit wobbly – but the horse is very straight, so it wasn’t terrifying and he jumped absolutely fine,” Andrew added. “To be honest I forgot all about it for the next few fences until the bit dropped out of his mouth at the water, and then I did have to pull up. He must have opened his mouth and it fell out.”

    It’s surprising the bit didn’t fall out earlier given how much ground the horse covered without opening his mouth.

    “It’s a sort of hackamore combination, so there was nothing really keeping it in place, he just kept his mouth shut!” said Andrew after his Gatcombe Horse Trials broken bridle experience.

    The eight-year-old Cooley Foxtrot, owned by his rider and Jane Moss, had been jumping beautifully until the round unravelled in the water, but Andrew had better luck with his second ride, Ringfort Reve Du Moulin, also owned by Jane. The seven-year-old jumped clear with 15.2 time-faults to complete.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on dogs of all shapes and sizes. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs, one a street dog from Gambia who was abandoned at three weeks old. Now, her constant companion, whether by her feet at her desk or walking cross-country courses, is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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