‘I was with her to the end’: sadness and gratitude as Badminton top-10 eventer dies aged 29

The rider of a five-star eventer who has died at the age of 29 said it was the end of an era – but she is just grateful the pair were part of each other’s lives.

Georgie Dalton (neé Davies) lost Fachoudette on 22 November after the mare had enjoyed a long and happy retirement.

“I was with her right to the end,” Georgie told H&H. “She was lovely and fluffy and warm, and I sat and chatted to her after she’d gone. It was a lovely evening and I stayed till it got dark. I thanked her, and gave her the biggest cuddle.”

Georgie got Anglo-Arab “Chewy” as a seven-year-old, and said she did have high expectations for her.

“She was very strong across country; an absolute machine,” Georgie said. “I was 17 or 18 and it took a while to find the right bit; I’m sure there were some pretty hair-raising moments when we were younger! But it was apparent pretty quickly that she was immensely talented. Once you found the buttons, off you went. She knew the job.”

Georgie and Fachoudette came 10th at Badminton in 2008, in their last season competing, having finished third at Luhmühlen in 2007. They won the Burnham Market and Bramham three-stars (now four-stars) in 2007 and 2006 respectively, and completed Burghley in 21st place, also in 2006.

“Her round at Badminton was the most fun round I’ve ever had,” Georgie said. “It was the only time we got there and you don’t really expect to have a really lovely time! The pressure’s on and they’re whopping courses but I genuinely had the most fun. I’ve got so many pictures where I’ve just got the biggest smile on my face; I forgot I was riding round Badminton and just had a lovely ride. And she just skipped round Luhmühlen; she made everything feel easy. As long as I could sit in the right place and steer the right way, she knew what to do.”

Georgie said Chewy never felt tired, even coming through the finish, and would always land and be looking for the next fence. But on the ground, in her heyday, she was “quite a madam”.

“You had to watch the front end as she was a nibbler and she didn’t like fuss or cuddles,” Georgie said. “It was very much ‘Leave me alone and let me do my thing’. She loved going to competitions and always had her ears forward.

“She mellowed a bit; my kids used to go out in the field with her. I’ve got videos of them playing tennis in lockdown, and her watching, or once when they had a bubble machine and she wandered over and was watching the bubbles. Nothing took her by surprise and she was quite happy with life. We used to joke that she’d go on for ever.”

Georgie said she had shared a picture of Fachoudette looking “a million dollars” 24 hours before she went.

“I’d found the Badminton footage a couple of days before too,” she said. “I hadn’t seen it since the year I went but happened to find it on the internet. I sent it to a friend and said ‘Look how awesome she was’, because you forget, and she said ‘It will be the end of an era when she goes’. I said I’d like to think of not being sad, but being grateful I had her in my life as long as I did. Then 24 hours later, she was gone.”

Georgie brought Chewy in for a good groom on 21 November.

“I was joking to her, saying ‘You’ve got your granddaughter coming to live with you next week’,” Georgie said. “She’s by a Connemara, with my children in mind, and I said ‘You need to teach her everything you know’. We said she heard that and said ‘I don’t want to deal with that, thank you, I’m out of here’! She picked a beautiful sunny day and said ‘I’m done’. She was classy to the end.”

Georgie said Chewy was fine that morning but then by the afternoon, her body language was different, and she was showing signs something was not right.

“The vet said her heart was packing up,” she said. “It was quick and relatively pain-free; bless her, she made the decision and off she went.

“She’s unique. She’s been through so many phases of my life; from a 17-year-old kid, through getting married, having children; she’s watched it all. It’s quite something to have been around that long.

“I feel like she said [after the groom on Monday] ‘Thank you for that’, then chose a day when I was there; it was so nice it was a sunny day and I could be with her, and it was very peaceful.

“We’ve got our heads round it now and the main feeling is gratitude, for having her so long. I’m so grateful she was part of my journey and I was part of hers.”

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