Becky Moody (born 16 March 1980 in Irvine, North Ayrshire, United Kingdom) is a British horse breeder and dressage competitor based in Yorkshire. In 2024 she joined the British dressage team at short notice to win a bronze team medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
 Moody at the 2024 Olympic Games | ||||||||||||
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| Born | 16 March 1980 Irvine, North Ayrshire, United Kingdom | |||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Horse breeder and dressage competitor | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Life
editMoody was born at 16 March 1980[1] in Northern Ireland and she first lived in Scotland until the family moved to the small hamlet of Gunthwaite, near Barnsley, when she was six.[2] She has two elder sisters. When she was fourteen she was a keen member of the Rockwood Harriers which was a branch of the Pony Club.[2] She and her horse Maximillian were identified as the British Pony Team's reserve in 1994. She and Sir Fred competed in the following year at the European Junior Riders Championships.[3]
She and her elder sister Hannah Moody ran Moody Dressage in South Yorkshire.[2] The two of them took turns to appear with the Dutch gelding Kwadraat from 1998.[3]
In 2015 she came to notice when she won the Dressage Future Elite winners at the Horse of the Year Show.[4] Her eight year old gelding horse was Carinsio who belonged to Julie Lockey and he was the son of Painted Black. Carinsio was creating high scores and with Moody the horse scored over 77% despite some errors by Moody.[5]
Moody went on to achieve several victories in the grand prix Premier League. Carinsio achieved more despite some injuries before he was retired in 2021.[5]
In March 2024 she and her horse Jagerbomb won the event at Addington organised by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI).[6] She takes credit for the ten years it took to breed Jagerbomb who is named for the alcoholic drink and because her grandfather was known as "bomb".[7]
In 2024 she went to the Paris Olympics as part of the British team and qualified for the finals. She was intended to the travelling reserve to the British dressage team of Charlotte Dujardin, Lottie Fry and Carl Hester. The team was named on 26 June 2024.[8] Moody replaced Charlotte Dujardin after she pulled out after a video was published showing her whipping a horse during training .[9] Andrew Gould was named as the new alternate.[10] Individually she did well in the dressage performing to Tom Jones' You're a Sex Bomb - a tune she had initially rejected as "too cheesy". She came eighth with a personal best score of over 84%.[11] She and the British team scored a combined 232.492% to win a bronze medal behind gold medallists Germany and silver medallists Denmark.[12]
References
edit- ^ "Becky Moody (10013657)". FEI.org. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ a b c "Becky Moody". Horse & Hound. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ a b "Becky Moody Climbing the Ladder to the Highest Rungs with Jagerbomb". Eurodressage. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ Bryan, Polly (2023-10-05). "Dressage Future Elite winners at HOYS: where are they now?". Horse & Hound. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ a b Johnson, Storm (2015-10-09). "Meet Carinsio, the only horse to beat Farouche this year *VIDEO*". Horse & Hound. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ "Becky Moody replaces Charlotte Dujardin at the Paris Olympics". Horse & Hound. 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
- ^ Westby, Nick (30 July 2024). "Paris 2024: Becky Moody launches passionate defence of Charlotte Dujardin and begins own Olympic career". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ "Dujardin eyes history as Olympic equestrian team named". BBC Sport. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ "Charlotte Dujardin: British dressage star pulls out of Paris Olympics after video emerges showing her "making an error of judgement"". BBC Sport. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
- ^ "Moody promoted to Team GB dressage trio". Team GB. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
- ^ "Becky Moody wows with Sex Bomb Olympic freestyle with a story behind it". Horse & Hound. 2024-08-04. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
- ^ Falkingham, Kate (3 August 2024). "GB defy turbulent build-up to win dressage bronze". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 August 2024.