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

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Gatcombe Horse Trials broken bridle: Andrew Downes and Cooley Foxtrot
Andrew Downes and Cooley Foxtrot continue round the Gatcombe course despite a tack malfunction.
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

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.

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

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