Last year event horse Neville Bardos not only survived a fire that took the lives of several of his stablemates, but he returned to top level competition and finished seventh at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials. This month, the attractive chestnut gelding was awarded the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) highest honour, the 2011 Horse of the Year.

Neville Bardos defies the odds 

Neville Bardos is a horse that shouldn’t have lived. But he did. He shouldn’t have returned to his life as an event horse. But he returned better than ever. Trapped in a burning barn for 45 minutes, Neville Bardos made a miraculous recovery from injuries sustained in a fire that claimed the lives of six other horses at his rider Boyd Martin’s barn in West Grove, Philidelphia.

The now 13-year-old Australian Thoroughbred gelding had won the USEF National CCI3* championship in 2009 and was 10th at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games – leading the USA's effort. But his life changed dramatically in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2011 when his stableyard caught 

Boyd Martin was able to pull Neville out of the burning barn to safety, but other members of his yard were not so lucky. Neville Bardos was left with horrific injuries due to massive amounts of smoke inhalation and the subsequent damage to his throat.

Neville, who is owned by 10 members of a syndicate bearing his name, never seemed to feel as badly as he should have and he began making a miraculous recovery, with the help of his vet (Dr Kevin Keane), his groom (Lindsey Taylor) and the Fair Hill Equine Therapy Centre.

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Neville defied the odds and made a miracle trip to the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in England in September. He rocketed around the cross-country course clean and fast and finished seventh at the world’s toughest four-star event.

Braver than brave, Neville Bardos’ courage saw him through more than just a difficult cross country course it helped see Martin through the rebuilding of his own life. Shortly after the fire, Martin lost his father in a bicycling accident in Australia. Shortly after that Martin’s wife Silva lost her father to cancer. It was a nightmare summer for the Martin’s, but Neville’s success helped them find their way through it.

In 2011, he was also second at the Red Hills Horse Trials CIC three-star in March, fourth in the Advanced at the Millbrook Horse Trials in August. If Neville Bardos had lived the rest of his life in the field this story would have had a no less incredible and happy ending. But Neville was looking to make a miracle and his award was the next chapter in that mission.

Neville Bardos shares the award with the fresian stallion Sjoerd, a show horse and dressage stallion.