Back by popular demand! Crowd favourites Oliver Townend and Geoff Billington are teaming up for Your Horse Live 2024 (8-10 November). It’s the only place you will see them performing together this year — and tickets are on sale now.
The equestrian world’s favourite double act will appear in the main arena twice on both Saturday and Sunday. They will also be interviewed on stage and there will be meet and greet opportunities.
Oliver and Geoff have a brilliant way of being entertaining and passing on their horsey wisdom at the same time. So be prepared to laugh a lot and learn even more!
About Oliver Townend MBE
Oliver Townend is one of the world’s most successful event riders. He has held the title of World Number One on multiple occasions, including at the end of 2023, when he topped the FEI Rider Rankings table with 569 points.
Oliver was pathfinder for the British team at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where he helped secure team gold and finished fifth individually with Ballaghmor Class.
This was Britain’s first Olympic eventing team gold since 1972. As a result, Oliver and his Tokyo teammates were awarded MBEs in Her Majesty The Queen’s New Year’s Honours list for services to equestrianism.
Fast forward to 2024, and Oliver won the CCI5* in Kentucky in April for the fourth time. It marked the eighth five-star title of his career, after wins at Burghley (in 2009, 2017 and 20230) and Badminton in 2009.
In 2022 Oliver was signed up to be Caunton Stud’s official rider in a deal that replicates a Formula One and Premier League type of deal and is unprecedented in equestrian sport.
Oliver began riding when he was seven. His first success came at the age of 11 riding his pony Cool Mule at the Horse of the Year Show. At 13 he represented Great Britain on the European Pony Championships and he was stable jockey for the late Team GB showjumping trainer, Kenneth Clawson, for three years.
When Oliver set up his own yard in Leicestershire he had just a few pounds in his pocket. With a lot of hard work and determination, less than five years later he was able to buy his own farm in Shropshire, where he is still based.
About Geoff Billington
Geoff Billington has showjumped at two Olympic Games, competed in more than 50 Nations Cups for Britain and has been on the world’s top ten list for years. He has also won various medals at World and European Championships.
He is perhaps best known for riding the wonderful It’s Otto, whom Geoff describes as being one of the best horses in the world and credits with changing his life.
Otto arrived at Geoff’s yard as a novice six-year-old in 1992. Four years later, they finished sixth individually at the Atlanta Olympics.
Geoff and Otto went on to win European team bronze in 1997 and team bronze at the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Manheim.
They won another bronze the following year in Rome before heading to the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Geoff credits Otto with keeping him in the top 10 riders in the world for more than two years.
Geoff’s parents weren’t horsey. He started riding when he was nine after following a group of pretty girls to the local riding stables.
He got his first pony after 10 children — nine girls and Geoff — announced in the local newspaper that they were saving up to buy a pony.
That same day, a local man rang up and said his children were not interested in the four-year-old pony he’d bought as a surprise and if they gave £10 to charity they could have the pony.
That was only £1 each and within a few weeks the girls had either got boyfriends or lost interest — so Geoff got his first pony!
Geoff still competes and produces horses today. He also coaches up-and-coming riders and runs clinics around the UK.
Buy your Your Horse Live tickets here
Images: copyright Your Horse Library/Kelsey Media Ltd
