Priceless (horse)

Medal record
Equestrian
Olympic Games
Silver 1984 Los Angeles Three-Day Event Team
Bronze 1984 Los Angeles Individual Three Day Event
World Championships
Gold 1986 Gawler Individual eventing
Gold 1986 Gawler Team eventing
Gold 1982 Luhmühlen Team eventing
European Championships
Gold 1981 Horsens Team eventing
Gold 1985 Burghley Team eventing
Gold 1985 Burghley Individual eventing

Priceless [1][2][3] was a horse ridden by British rider Virginia Leng. She competed the gelding in the sport of eventing. Priceless won four team gold medals for Britain, as well as the Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials.

In every Three-day Event in which he competed, Priceless never had a cross-country penalty (a feat considered amazing by the eventing community), and did not have a stop the whole of his career. Priceless was excellent on cross-country, being fast, careful, and a fantastic jumper, with great form and scope. Perhaps this was the reason he was never out of the top twelve in any Three-Day event.

Priceless won eight medals at international championships: four team golds (1981 and 1985 European Championships and the 1982 and 1986 World Championships), one team silver (1984 Olympic Games), two individual golds (1985 European Championships and 1986 World Championships) and one individual bronze (1984 Olympic Games). He is one of the rare horses to have held both European and World team and individual titles concurrently, in addition to Cornishman V and Toytown. He is also the only horse to have won the Burghley Horse Trials twice.

After his eventing career, Priceless fox hunted with his owners, before retiring on Leng's farm. He was euthanized at the age of 28.

Quotes about Priceless

"Partnerships like that usually happen once in a lifetime." Lucinda Green

"He's never stopped at a jump, which is quite remarkable. He's one of the all time greats." Richard Meade

"He's a bit of a legend. I'd read and heard a lot about him before I ever saw him but it wasn't until the team started training together for the 1984 Olympics that I realised quite how brilliant he was. In the flesh he looks like a very large pony, and when he wasn't fit you might have wondered if he'd be capable of Three-Day eventing. Once you study him in action though, he leaves you no doubt. Throughout the team training he stood out above the rest. He did everything that bit better. He excelled in everything he did, particularly when he had an audience. He always thought he was special and he was jolly well right." Ian Stark

"On the day of the cross-country at the Los Angeles Olympics, Ginny and Priceless set off early I wanted a shot of them jumping the Crescent Oxer which I knew could be spectacular if - as Dot had told me - they took the direct route through the centre. If they had decided to choose the easy way round the side I would have missed my picture altogether. It was a gamble, especially as no one before them took the central route and a lot of the riders seemed to be making heavy weather of the course. The gloomy predictions that no one would clear seemed to have a ring of truth. Then Priceless and Ginny appeared, heading straight for the centre of the oxer. It was the most enormous fence, but they just sailed over it. As they carried on round the course, I could hear the commentator saying. "Clear, clear, clear." and it was as if a cloud had lifted." Kit Houghton, Equestrian Photographer

Competition record

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

External links