His owner/rider, 49-year-old Cathi Osmond-Smith, tells the fascinating story of Pedro, a Dutch-bred gelding with a heart of gold...
Whoever said “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” clearly hadn’t met 24-year-old event horse, Pedro V. For last weekend, Pedro jumped a beautiful clear around the CCI4*-S cross-country track at Bicton Horse Trials, supported by Chedington, but he didn’t start his eventing career until he was 12.
Here, his owner/rider, 49-year-old Cathi Osmond-Smith, who runs a livery yard near Portsmouth, tells the fascinating story of Pedro, a Dutch-bred gelding with a heart of gold…
“I got Pedro when he was 12 from a friend of mine. He was being competed at a local show – I was warming him up for a friend and fell in love with him, then I found out he was for sale. He cost £6,000 and had showjumped up to newcomers and done dressage up to advanced medium as a youngster. He didn’t really like the dressage (and still doesn’t!), but he knows all of the moves and I just tell him to go backwards or sideways – I can’t do dressage for love nor money, but you think it, he does it – he’s very in tune with what I’m thinking.
“When I first got Pedro home, his character was that of a very distinguished gentleman, because he hadn’t really been allowed to be a horse and had been stabled most of the time. But I turn mine out all summer, and then they come in at night during the winter and so then he sort of started to learn how to be a bit cheeky. Then he turned the cheekiness into demandingness because as he went higher up the eventing ranks, he thought ‘well, I’m king of the castle. I think I need this and that’ and now he just gets to do whatever he wants – he free roams around the yard and goes in whichever field he wants – if he’s stood at a gateway, you have to open it so that he can go into that field, but he’s so loving too.
“I only started eventing in 2007, two years before I got Pedro, but we slowly went up the levels and I asked a professional to take him to a couple of events once we reached intermediate, but that rider loved him so much that they kept competing Pedro for a full season. Eventually I got him back and we’ve just kept progressing from there.
“I’ve only got a couple of horses and I never thought I would jump around a four-star. We did our first one two years ago as Pedro was 22 and I thought if I didn’t do it then, we might be pushing things age-wise. I picked Little Downham as I liked the look of the course photos online and I spoke to some professionals and it sounded like it might suit us did. I was so nervous – I really struggle with my nerves – and the conditions were quite slippery, so I got 20 penalties on the cross-country and a few faults in the showjumping but I didn’t mind because there’s no pressure – I was so happy to finish and I said I would never compete at that level again.
Horse & Hound Newsletter
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
“And then Bicton came up, and because I love it here and Pedro loves it here I thought, ‘let’s give it a go’. Then I heard some of the Olympic longlist combinations were going to be here, but I had already entered and it was past the ballot date, so if I withdrew, I wouldn’t be able to get my money back, so I thought ‘Oh, we’re going to have to go’.
“All this weekend, I’ve been saying I wouldn’t do the cross-country because I was so nervous – I’m not good enough and I know I’m not – I couldn’t ride around here on any other horse; the only reason I can with Pedro is because of the bond we have. I trust him and I know that as long as I get him there on a half decent stride, he will jump – he knows where the flags are and only wants to jump; he would never run out. He has been stamping his feet all day, because he knew what was coming and he wouldn’t have spoken to me for weeks if I hadn’t run him. So we started and as soon as I was over fence six, I thought, ‘we can do this’ – I took some long routes, I relaxed and we just bumbled around having a lovely time. He was full of running the whole way around.
“We’ve only just started medicating Pedro’s joints this year to give him a little bit of help. I had a complete set of X-rays taken last year and they were all clear – he passed a flexion test as recently as last week.
“That’s my last four-star; we’ll keep doing three-star and advanced classes – he’s not the type of horse that could be retired as a hacker or even to do low level eventing, and he definitely couldn’t be out in the field – he’ll tell me on-course when he wants to retire and that will be it.”
.
Read the full report from Bicton in the 17 June issue of Horse & Hound magazine
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
Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
