Happy to the end: sad farewell to thoroughbred who completed Badminton, aged 33

The owner of a thoroughbred who competed at Badminton and Burghley and has died aged 33 has paid tribute to his spirit – and the loving care that allowed him to have years of happy retirement.

Tamsin Woods (neé Nowell-Smith) told H&H age finally caught up with advanced eventer Conspicuous, who also completed Bramham, this week.

“He was a bit erratic, a real redhead!” Tamsin said. “He was like a ship; he’d set sail off to the field and forget trying to stop him. He was quite something – and so lovely as well.”

Tamsin bought “Copper”, who was bred by George Coombs, as a four-year-old from Nigel Taylor, and evented him to intermediate level.

“I’ve done Blenheim and Bramhan, but on a different horse, so I was riding him, thinking ‘This could be my horse’, and then thinking ‘Oh my goodness’. I was getting 20s at intermediate because I couldn’t quite hold him or control him. I thought ‘Time to hand over to someone who might be able to!’”

Tamsin gave the ride to junior European team gold medal-winning rider Tom Robinson, with whom he came 11th at Bramham in 2002 and completed Badminton two years later.

Dominic Ruane then took the reins for the 2007 season, after which Copper went home to retire. He was still hacking out, and being ridden by Tamsin’s daughter, until about six years ago.

“I’ve got a video of her being lunged on him; I said ‘You may never ride a five-star, poppet, but you can sit on this one’,” Tamsin said.

“He was unbelievable and he lived till the amazing age of 33, but my mum, Mary Nowell-Smith, is the most amazing horse keeper and did the most incredible job keeping him happy. He had four or five small meals a day, still had front shoes on so he didn’t get sore, as he had terrible thoroughbred feet, nothing was spared. I think some people would have let him go but he wasn’t ready; we were so aware, every winter I’d say ‘If he’s not right, we’ll call it’, but he was happy.”

Tamsin added that watching her horse go to the top was ‘quite something”.

“We;ve always had horses, they’ve always been part of our lives and to have a horse at that level is so special, and to be part of that journey,” she said.”I found a video of him and Tom at Badminton going through the lake, and oh my goodness. It shows him at his best.”

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