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NotThamesWater
Stonehedge
Was having this chat with a horsey friend yesterday and was surprised to hear how the finance for dressage works for most people.
The GB rider, Dujardin, is from a comfortable middle class family in Leighton Buzzard, went to a comprehensive school and got into riding at a community pony club in Bedfordshire. She was talent spotted and a stables offered her the use of a horse for free on the understanding that if she succeeded on it, they would sell it to cash in on the increased value. This is why she's riding a new horse now. The stable owner who owned the horse she won her previous medals with sold it to a stud farm for £20m after Rio.
Anyway, apparently some of the riders do come from super rich families and learn to ride on their own horses but according to my friend (who has been riding all of her life), most riders are like lower paid jockeys....riding somebody else's horse to earn the stable money.
If anything, this makes it more fucked up for me. Dujardin's horse owner apparently spent £4m to get Dujardin to various competitions and has made a £16m profit out of it. Would hope that Dujardin had a contract clause that would give her a cut of that, seeing as she's why the horse is worth so much.
Edit: Article about the sale of her previous horse.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/double-olympic-gold-winner-charlotte-dujardin-speaks-of-the-heart-wrenching-ps20m-sale-of-her-wonder-horse-8130243.html