Oliver Townend

Hailing from Yorkshire but now based in Shropshire, Oliver inherited his love of horses from his parents. His mother, Eve, showed side-saddle at county level and his father, Alan, competed successfully in three-day eventing. His early success was gained on Cool Mule, with whom he won a showjumping final at the Horse of the Year Show and represented Great Britain on the Pony eventing team at European Championship level.

Oliver has been a familiar face on British senior squads at European Championships and World Equestrian Games since 2005, taking European team gold medals at Pratoni del Vivaro in 2007, Fontainebleau in 2009 and Strzegom in 2017, and team silver at Luhmühlen in 2019. Last year, he headed to Tokyo for the delayed 2020 Olympic Games, where he and Ballaghmor Class helped the team to a gold medal and individual fifth place.

As of the conclusion of the 2024 season, Oliver has an astonishing 100 starts at CCI5* level and nine wins to his name – he took the Badminton and Bughley titles in 2009, Burghley 2017, secured consecutive Kentucky victories in 2018, 2019 and 2021 (the event didn’t run in 2020 due to COVID-19), Burghley 2023, Kentucky 2024, Maryland 2024.