Scott Brash

Scott Brash is one of those riders you would like to be a horse with – sensitive, always in balance and calm in the saddle in the best sense of the word. Brash retains his coolness even when it comes to the big picture. The Brit is the first and only show jumping rider ever to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping. The path to this 1.5 million euro show jumping jackpot is quickly explained: you have to win the three biggest Grand Prix of show jumping in succession, the ones in Aachen, Spruce Meadows and Geneva. It is now clear why only Brash has managed this so far and what kind of nerve this man must have. In 2014, he triumphed at Palexpo at the CHI Geneva. In 2015, he came out on top in Aachen, decided not to compete at the European Championships (which not everyone could understand) and then made show jumping history in Spruce Meadows when he actually managed to hit the 1.5 million jackpot. All this with one horse: Hello Sanctos. He has long been enjoying his retirement with Brash’s young horses at home in West Sussex in the pasture. His rider continues to jet around the world, as successful as ever. His Rolex million coup has helped him do just that.

From Scotland to the world

Until then, Brash still lived in Scotland and had to cross the British Isles by van ten hours from north to south before he and his horses could get to mainland Europe for competitions. But Brash used the money to buy a facility on the south coast and now it’s just a stone’s throw across the Channel. Brash’s business is not large. He says seven competition horses is the optimum number for him so that he can devote enough time to each one, because “the more time you spend with the horses, the more bonding and access you get with each horse,” says the two-time Olympic team champion.

For Brash, it’s not just about the fact that he has noticed that horses are willing to give everything for their riders if they feel loved and like what they are doing. He has realized for himself: “When you go to the stables in the evening and see the horses, just seeing them and spending time with them, that’s what always takes you back to the beginning, to why we actually do this: It’s the love for the horses.”

From pony club to elite sport

Brash discovered this as a young boy. His father was a jockey. The family later moved to Scotland. Scott has another sister, Lea. His father worked in the building trade and the family had a small farm. When Scott Brash was seven, his father bought him and his sister a pony, which they had to share. Later, they each got their own pony and the typical British pony club career began. Sure, as a boy he was also interested in soccer, says Brash, and if he hadn’t become a professional rider, he might have been a footballer or in some other sport professionally, Brash once said in an interview with the Canadian magazine Horse Sport. But when he watched the World Cup finals on TV and saw John Whitaker with Milton and Rodrigo Pessoa with Baloubet, he realized: He wanted to be like that! “I knew it was almost hopeless to achieve that,” he admitted in the interview. “But luckily I always wanted to do things better.”

Brash got serious. He left school at 17 and rode horses for other people. He later set up his own stable on his parents’ farm. It was difficult at first. But when the first successes came and he began to make a name for himself, he also got to ride the better horses. And then he got to know Lord and Lady Harris and Lord and Lady Kirkham, the people who still own almost all of his (Hello) horses today and with whom his career took off at the speed of light.

Common goals

In 2011, the then 26-year-old Brash, who had made his championship debut at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky the year before, won a qualifier for the World Cup show jumping competition in Toronto, Canada, on a horse called Bon Ami. Back at home, he received a phone call. On the other end: the Harris couple. They told Brash that they had a dream: an Olympic gold medal at the London 2012 Games. They asked Brash about his goals. He said: to become number one in the world. That fitted. The beginning of a wonderful friendship, which also includes Lady Kirkham (Brash: “They’re like family!”).

Brash has fulfilled his side of the bargain. In 2012, there was team gold at the London Olympics and fifth place in the individual rankings. In 2024, he won another Olympic gold medal, again with the team. Then there was the bronze medal for GBR at the 2022 World Championships in Herning, team gold and individual bronze at the 2013 European Championships, team bronze at the 2019 European Championships and, most recently, two silver medals at the European Championships in La Coruña, all with “Hello horses”. And the story is far from over.