Uthopia

IT’S not an exaggeration to say Uthopia was the launchpad to Britain realising, after a medal drought, that team gold was within reach. He and Carl Hester stepped up to top level in 2010 and, just a year later, won the grand prix at the European Championships with 82.5%.

Until then, British gold was a pipe dream. Such has been Britain’s subsequent success that it’s hard to remember just how unlikely it seemed for so long. And that’s thanks, in large part, to a small black stallion who bounces like a pogo stick – even today, aged 20.

“Uti” was bred in the Netherlands and bought as a rough-and-ready three-year-old with a chewed tail by Dutch young horse producer Ivonne Lawrence, who’d gone to view another horse.

“There was this miniature horse looking at me with his beautiful face,” says Ivonne. “Uthopia was very small and had only been under saddle five times, but I sat on him and in my whole life I’ve never felt a horse like it. He had so much suspension it was like a trampoline, and cantering felt like shooting off to the moon.”

Based on that feeling,