Cornishman V
WHEN a 20-year-old Mary Gordon-Watson arrived in Mexico for the 1968 Olympic Games, it was from the sidelines that she would watch her 17hh gelding navigate the treacherous conditions to win team gold. On board Cornishman was Richard Meade; a final-hour substitution after his intended rider Ben Jones had clashed with the horse at Burghley. Mary had been in hospital with a broken leg after a fall from Cornishman when the selectors, desperate for a sound, high-class horse, asked her father to lend him for the Olympic team.
“I remember being very stressed about the flight because he had never really been away from us at home,” says Mary. ”To put horses on an aeroplane in those days was quite an ordeal.
“And I was full of apprehension watching someone else riding Corny. It was all very last minute, and I couldn’t believe it was happening. Our
