Phillip Dutton

Phillip Dutton is a US event rider who has ridden at seven Olympics and won at five-star level.

Phillip Dutton and Z at the Tokyo Olympics.

He was born in Australia and represented Australia at three Olympics, winning two team golds in 1996 (on True Blue Girdwood) and 2000 (on House Doctor).

Phillip moved to the USA in 1991 and in 2006 changed nationality to represent his adopted country.

“I turned up in this country with a couple of thousand dollars and a horse, but if you show that you’re committed, it’s a great country for people to help you,” he says.

He has now ridden at four Olympics for the US and won his first individual medal, bronze, at the 2016 Games in Rio, riding Mighty Nice, one of a number of horses found for him by Irish sport horse agent Carol Gee, who uses the prefix Fernhill.

“Carol’s been great to me and very fair,” he says. “Looking at horses is very time-consuming, so having somebody who’s always on the lookout and knows what you want is a huge advantage. They breed a lot of event types in Ireland and are always modifying what they breed to try to satisfy the modern demands.”

Carol found Mighty Nice for Phillip as a six-year-old, even putting up part of the money herself and letting him pay her back when he had the funds.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice claim individual bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Phillip has been placed at five-star multiple times, including at both Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials, and has won once at the top level, at the Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2008 on Connaught.

He has also won two Pan American team golds with the US squad and individual silver in 2007 on Truluck.

Where is Phillip Dutton’s farm?

Phillip splits his year between his main home – an 80-acre farm in Pennsylvania – and a 30-acre base in Aiken, South Carolina, where he spends the early part of the year. This pattern is popular with US event riders and lets them take advantage of better weather and earlier competitions in the south.

Phillip has been a mentor and trainer to numerous event riders in the US, including fellow Australian-turned-American Boyd Martin.

Do Phillip Dutton’s daughters ride?

Phillip and his wife Evie have twin daughters, Mary and Olivia.

Olivia events and competed Phillip’s former five-star horse Mr Medicott – who was also an Olympic team gold medallist with Frank Ostholt and ninth at the London Olympics with Karen O’Connor – before he retired in 2018.

Phillip also has a stepdaughter Lee Lee, who suffered a serious brain injury when a horse she was cantering at home bucked, slipped over and landed on her.