Priceless, the horse that gave Ginny Elliot the first of her record three successive European eventing titles, has been put down aged 28. He was in retirement at the Elliots’ Oxfordshire farm when he suddenly began to “go downhill”.
Priceless, bred by Diana Scott by Ben Faerie, never had a single cross-country jumping penalty in the whole of his career and won four team gold medals for Britain.
He won the first of Ginny’s five Burghleys in 1983 and, the following year, Olympic team silver and individual bronze at Los Angeles. In 1985 he won Badminton and the European Championships, at Burghley, and in 1986 team and individual gold at the world championships in Gawler, Australia.
After that he was retired and was hunted for five seasons by Louise Bates with the Pytchley.
“He was a horse of a lifetime and a real character,” says Ginny.
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