Lenamore, the winner of the 2010 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials with Caroline Powell, may compete for New Zealand at this summer’s London Olympics.
The popular 19-year-old grey was retired from championship selection two years ago because his owners – Lexi Jackson and her mother Janey Mackinnon – and rider Caroline did not want to subject him to further international travel.
A decision on his availability for London had been left until after the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, where Lenamore was due to challenge to become the first horse to finish the event eight times, after seven consecutive completions.
But with the cancellation of Badminton, Equestrian Sports New Zealand have confirmed that he is now available for selection and being added to the eventing high performance 2012 squad.
Caroline Powell, a world team bronze medallist in 2010 with Mac Macdonald, said: “He will be a very good athlete for London if he is selected. He’s small and nippy enough to cope with the undulations on the cross-country course and I think he would do well.”
ESNZ high performance coach Erik Duvander added: “Lenamore has looked so great over the whole winter preparation, we were confident things would fall into place.”
Lenamore has completed 14 four-stars with eight top-10 placings. He was best of the New Zealand horses at the 2008 Olympics, when he finished 14th.
Caroline has now re-routed him to the World Cup class at Chatsworth this weekend following Badminton’s cancellation.
The New Zealand team will be announced in early July.
“I think we have the makings of a really good team for London,” said Caroline. “We just need to keep all the horses in one piece, run them in the right places and do the right thing for them all.”
Don’t miss our exclusive feature on Lucinda Green riding Lenamore in H&H this week, out Thursday, 10 May.
