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Июнь
2021

Sir Wattie: ‘He had a heart of gold and would always bust a gut for me’ *H&H Plus*

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This feisty horse with a “sense of humour” claimed two Badminton wins and two Olympic medals for Scotsman Ian Stark. Martha Terry charts his illustrious career and busy retirement

“The bigger the crowd the better he performed,” says Ian Stark of Sir Wattie, pictured making light work of the Badminton cross-country course in 1988, when he claimed victory for a second time

IT was an ignominious start. Almost the first time Ian Stark sat on Sir Wattie, the four-year-old bucked so high that Ian was fired up into the rafters of the indoor school.

“I was airborne, and it was just luck that the horse was still there when I came down again,” says Ian. “He had a sense of humour, that cockiness and slight arrogance, and I thought this horse would either be brilliant or useless.”

Two Badminton wins, two silver Olympic medals and countless victories vindicate Ian’s first hunch. But when Wattie was a youngster, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t be the latter. Ian was at that time still working as a clerk for the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), and the horse was being kept with his breeders, Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott and Susan Luczyc-Wyhowska, but he was a handful who needed plenty of regular work.

This feature can also be read in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale date 24 June 2021

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