THEY are set to be the stars of next summer’s Olympics.
But the cream of Britain’s equestrian talent found themselves in the depths of a Huddersfield winter.
The stars were in town to film a special video for a Meltham business.
In a far cry from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Team GBR braved the cold of Holmfirth’s snow-capped hills.
The showjumping and eventing champions went to Meltham-based Equi-trek to help promote their luxury horse vans.
The team, who are usually in fierce competition with one another, took a brief break from their tough training regime to promote the vans as ‘the choice of champions’.
British Eventing Champion Nicola Wilson came from North Yorkshire to film the video and said she was hopeful of a place in next year’s Olympic games.
She said: “Preparations are under way for next year. We know that it will be a very exciting year and we hope we can be a part of it. We are not due to be told until May whether or not we have got the call up, so we will just have to keep working very hard until then.”
Former Huddersfield eventer Oliver Townend and local showjumpers Michael Whitaker, John Whitaker MBE and Robert Smith also came along to the event.
John had only recently returned from Sweden after winning the Grand Prix Class at The Stockholm International Horse Show, where his son Robert took home the bareback puissance prize after clearing 2.12m.
International showjumper Robert Smith said: “We have been entering a lot of competitions, for example I was in Salzburg last week and have just spent two weeks competing in Olympia, London.
“Our next stage is to start training the horses for the Olympics.”
