Ben Maher, the best British rider of the world

Born in January 1983, Ben Maher followed in the footsteps of his mother, who was passionate about horses. He started riding at the age of eight and had his firsts successes few years later as he was a member of the British team in his pony years. He was crowned European champion in 1997 and 1998. Six years later, Ben Maher was a very performant Young Rider. In 2004, he helped the British Young Riders to win a Team European gold medal. In 2005, he became the youngest rider ever to win the legendary and highly difficult Hickstead Derby. The following year, he made his first appearance in the Nation Cup. Since, he has become a regular member of the senior British international team.

Rolette and Robin Hood were the firsts two horses who gave him the opportunity to shine, but it was with his extraordinary Triple X that he really took off. Their first appearance together in an international competition was in Geneva in 2008. With this stallion son of Namelus R, he won many shows all around the world, among others a team bronze medal at the 2011 European Championship in Madrid and most notably a team gold medal at the London ‘s Olympic Games in 2012. The World Cup leg at the London Olympia in December 2013 was their last competition together as the beautiful stallion was sold to Torrey Pines Stable, the stables of Canada’s Eric Lamaze.

But that was not the end for Ben Maher as he was also riding the fabulous Cella, daughter of Dobel’s Cento. They were performant together since their very first competition in January 2013 in Wellington where they won CSI 2*. Few months later in Herning, he helped the British team to become European Champion and won a silver medal in individual. The very same year Cella was designated best mare of the year. She went into retirement in 2015 and she is now dedicated herself to reproduction.

Thanks to his results with Triple X and Cella, Ben Maher spent three months at the top of the world ranking from November 2013 to January 2014. Even though he was not participating at the last World Equestrian Games in Tryon, the British managed to stay in the top 10 and reached the seventh position of the Longines Ranking. He earned this position mostly thanks to his good results with Explosion W. The gelding made his first international competition at seven years old with Ben Maher in 2016 in Knokke. Then the son of Chacco Blue was ridden by several riders and went back again with the British in April 2018 in Shanghai, where they were second of the CSI 5*-GCT. Together they were very performant all along the Global Champion Tour as they won in Doha, Rome and Madrid, while the horse was only nine years old. If 2019 is as good as 2018, Explosion W might become a very significant horse in Ben Maher’s career.