Paris 52, who represented Britain with Georgina Somerset at the 2005 Junior European Championships and 2007 Young Rider Europeans, has been put down after breaking his leg.

 

Georgina and the 15-year-old 16.2hh Hanoverian stallion by Prince Thatch had recently won two young rider classes at the Under-21 Addington International and were eligible for selection again this year.

 

Georgina’s mother and Paris’s owner Sara Somerset of the Longdean Stud in Sussex said: “The vet thinks he might have had a stress fracture. He was a little tight in the back after Addington, so we took him for a check up. We were at the vets lungeing him when it happened.

 

“Not only was he a talented horse, he was such a pleasure to own: so kind, gentle, generous as well as a character. It was ‘Georgie’s’ only advanced horse and it is her last year of young riders. I have been proud of her many times, but I have never been as proud of her as I am at the moment, the way she is dealing with his loss.”