Alex Bragg

The former farrier is flying high after finishing third at Badminton and has just won Hickstead's eventers' challenge. He tells Becky Murray how he's nurtured the "suspicious Diva" to be a major player

- Becky Murray

THERE is no better story than one of a horse that goes on not only to surpass expectations, but to completely blow them out of the water. And that’s what the aptly named Quindiva (Diva) did in May when she was third at Badminton with farrier turned professional event rider Alex Bragg.

“At one point I didn’t think she would ever go cross-country and that maybe I was just going to have to produce her as a showjumper,” says Alex.

Alex and the Roe family’s 14-yearold Quintender 2 mare rocketed from 51st after the dressage to 10th after cross-country. Then following a hugely influential final showjumping phase where the only two riders in the top 10 to jump clear were Alex and ultimate winners Caroline Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier, Alex and Diva landed on the podium, behind Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint.

“It’s my first real big result in the UK,” says Alex. “A few weeks later I was hacking and someone stopped in their car, wound down the window and said: ‘We watched you at Badminton, well done!’ And off they went.

“This was a normal day where I was just training the horses and somebody stopped because they’d seen me on the telly. I’ve always wanted to be successful at Badminton but things had never quite gone my way. I feel like that misfortune flipped itself on its head and, all in one competition, delivered me some sort of shining star. It all came together.”

A LEX sourced Diva as a rising six-year-old from Ireland. She hadn’t done much as a youngster, and didn’t begin eventing till she was seven. “I can understand why she hadn’t done more, she was as green as grass and so suspicious of life. She was spooky and scared of everything and I couldn’t get her down one end of the arena. She wouldn’t go near a showjumping filler, so you can imagine what it was like introducing her to cross-country jumps!” says Alex.