Ben Maher

“BE careful what you wish for,” says Ben Maher, reflecting on a tumultuous 2020. “I went from getting on a plane 50 weeks of the year, wishing I could get a day off at home, to suddenly being at home for 50 weeks!

“I now know that isn’t what I like to do, but maybe there’s a compromise.”

Ben chose to ride out the viral storm from his base in Florida and attended just a handful of North American shows last year.

But not even a pandemic could halt the meteoric success of the Olympic gold medallist and his wonder horse, Explosion W (Ginger), as he won the world’s richest prize, the $500,000 (£369,032) AIG grand prix in New York in September.

But this was in stark contrast to the previous year when Ben, who turns 38 this week, competed at more than 40 different shows in 16 countries across three continents. It’s little surprise that this