King William

POSTMEN in Mary King’s Devon village became accustomed in the 1990s to fielding letters addressed to “King William, Devon”. “

I suppose that there weren’t any other King Williams,” laughs Mary, 30 years on.

The fan mail had started after Mary and the 17hh gelding had won Gatcombe in 1991 and by the following year, hundreds of letters were arriving at the yard. With his prominent blaze, alert demeanour and increasingly consistent one-day event record, he was easy to recognise.

“Even my mother, who was unhorsey, could always tell which one William was,” remembers Mary.

But it was in the biblical rain and mud at Badminton in 1992 that his celebrity status was cemented. As she arrived in the 10-minute box, 38th to go, Mark Phillips delivered Mary the news that no one had