Olympic silver for Carl Hester on Jersey-owned horse

Saturday 13 August 2016

Sark dressage rider Carl Hester has won Olympic team silver on a horse co-owned by a Jersey resident.

It's Hester's second Olympic medal. He was a member of the Gold winning team in 2012 in London.

Hester was forced to find a new horse earlier this year because the Irish owners of Uthopia - the horse he won gold on - were declared bankrupt and had to auction off their assets.

His new horse, a 12-year-old gelding, Nip Tuck , is co-owned by Jersey resident 45-year-old, Miss Jane de la Mare.

Hester and de la Mare first met back in 1992 when she was working as a groom for Dr Bechtolsheimer. Carl was working there as a rider. She says because they were both Channel islanders they hit it off straight away. She returned to Jersey after 18 months, but kept in touch with Hester.

A decade later, having moved to the UK and having secured a well paid job Miss de la Mare was in a position to buy the horse that's taken Hester to today's silver glory.

Four riders compete in the Olympic team dressage with the scores of the best three being added together. Team GB were in silver medal position going into today's final round. But, despite putting in some excellent performances , they weren't able to make up enough ground on the Germans who secured gold