This summer we saw records smashed and history made - and not just with our Olympic and Paralympic teams.
Across the board, 39 medals were won in six out of the seven FEI disciplines, with a total 19 senior, 3 young rider, 12 junior and 5 pony medals won.
Historical performances in the Greenwich arena saw dressage win their first ever Olympic medals - all three of them - with Charlotte Dujardin breaking the Olympic record in the Freestyle with a staggering 90.098%, whilst the jumping team secured the first gold for GB for sixty years in an exhilarating jump-off.
Over the challenging terrain of Greenwich Park the GB eventers pushed themselves to the max, where a closely fought contest resulted in GB winning Team Silver after a clear final jumping round from Tina Cook. A fantastic Olympics for our equestrian teams was soon echoed by a memorable Paralympics, with GB remaining unbeaten (since para-dressage’s introduction in 1996) in the team competition with a new Paralympic record, as well as exceeding their Beijing medal haul, after securing a total of 11 medals.
Outside the Greenwich Borough medals were being won on both the World and European stage. Andrew McLachlan brought home the first European individual male vaulting medal, a bronze, for Great Britain as well as pas de deux gold alongside Rebecca Norval; whilst his coaches Joanne and Hannah Eccles secured pas de deux silver at the World championships, and Joanne also retained her World Individual title.
Elsewhere junior drivers had a successful world trophy, securing 5 individual medals as well as the coveted team gold; Rosanna Walters-Symons individual bronze out at the youth European championships, and our para-driving team returned from their World championships in the Netherlands with team bronze.
Junior, young rider and pony European Championships were also successful hunting grounds for our eventing and showjumping squads, and for our endurance young riders. A total of 11 medals (4 golds) were won, including team gold for the pony jumping team who had lead a tough competition from the start.
Woodlander Farouche proved again invincible at the FEI World Breeding Championships for Young Dressage Horses, making history when she scored 9.88% - the highest marks ever recorded in the competition. She became the only mare ever to have won the competition for both age groups, having won the class the previous year, again with rider Michael Eilberg.
All this year’s medallists from the FEI disciplines will be parading at The London International Horse Show, Olympia on Wednesday 19 December 2012 (www.olympiahorseshow.com).