
Mark Todd won his first Badminton Horse Trials 31 years ago. Yesterday, he won his fourth, ridingĀ NZB Land Vision in the 10-year old gelding’s first 4* event. At age 55, Todd is the oldest winner of the event.
Todd, who retired from eventing in 2000 after the Sydney Olympics, returned to the sport in 2008 and shows no further signs of slowing down.
With Todd being one of the most experienced riders in the competition (31 years!), he showed his skill by helping his relatively green horse navigate the tricky cross country course. It takes great skill to bring a tired horse home safely and that’s exactly what he did, in style.
Going into show jumping, the pressure must have been intense: the top 12 horses were so close together that he couldn’t have a rail down. And he didn’t.
Here’s a video of Todd talking about his cross country ride.
Some video of the Cross Country rides.
And for those of you wondering what happened Karen O’Connor and Mandiba here’s video of the fall. Although this looks absolutely horrific, Mandiba only broke a rib but it is otherwise fine, as is O’Connor.