Emily King

Emily King is the daughter of eventing “royalty” in Mary King and a successful event rider herself.

Emily King and Valmy Biats at Aston-le-Walls in July 2021.

What age is Emily King?

Emily’s date of birth is 26 January 1996.

Who is Emily’s mother?

Emily is the daughter of Mary King, who won Badminton Horse Trials in 1992 and 2000 and Burghley Horse Trials in 1996. She is also a six-time Olympian and winner of 13 senior championship medals.

Mary also has a son, Freddie.

What championships has Emily ridden at?

Emily completed her first affiliated event at the age of 12 and represented Great Britain for the first time when she was 15 years old at the 2011 junior European Eventing Championships in Vale Sabroso, where she finished seventh individually with Mr Hiho.

Emily clinched her first individual European medal at the 2012 junior European eventing championships in Strzegom where she won silver, once again with Mr Hiho.

She was also a young rider team gold medallist in 2015 in Strzegom, riding Loxley.

Has Emily ridden at five-star?

Emily made her top-level debut when she finished fourth at Pau Horse Trials 2015 in the south of France with her faithful campaigner Brookleigh.

They followed that with their first Badminton in 2016, where they dazzled the dressage judges to sit in second place after this phase, just 2.4 penalties behind eventual winner Michael Jung.

Sadly her competition came to a premature end when the pair fell at the second to last fence, the second element of the Rolex Crossing, following a strong round. It later transpired that Brookleigh had picked up an injury.

Emily rode Dargun at Badminton in 2019 but fell across country.

The young rider also started at Badminton in 2022 on Valmy Biats, but after a good dressage test, the pair had a fall towards the end of the cross-country course. In 2023, Emily pulled up Valmy Biats on the cross-country at Badminton as she felt he was tiring in the heavy going.

In 2024, Emily finally broke her Badminton duck when she finished fourth with Valmy Biats.

Emily King riding Valmy Biats during the cross-country phase at Burghley in 2023.

Emily also completed her first Burghley Horse Trials and Luhmühlen Horse Trials in 2023 with Valmy Biats.

Where is Emily King based?

Having initially been based on the family yard, Emily is now based with her boyfriend, Sam Ecryod, in Cheshire.