Alex Hua Tian’s event horse has been put down, following complications with lymphangitis.

Very, very ill

The Chinese rider, who is now based in the UK, had ridden Magenta since 2008, when they finished 11th at Samur. The following year they came 12th in the CCI*** at Blenheim and since then the pair had gone from strength to strength.

In 2010 they won an advanced at Aston-le-Walls, came seventh at Hartpury CCI*** and finished a very respectable 26th at Badminton. It was Alex’s first time around the tough course – and his first four-star completion – but the honest mare gave him a great clear round.

Magenta started out with up-and-coming eventer Abi Walters, who took the mare to advanced and two-star level, before she came to Alex.

According to Alex the 13-year-old had been having “lots of little issues with soundness” since Hartpury in 2010. She then picked up colitis in September last year, and was hospitalised for two weeks.

“She was very, very ill and we thought we were going to lose her and then she got better,” Alex told H&C.

Generous and genuine

However, ‘Maggie’ never fully recovered and a bout of lymphangitis led to a lamnitus, which is a commond secondary condition of the disease. “Once she got that there wasn’t much we could do for her, poor thing,” said Alex.

The mare was put to sleep on Sunday (19 August) and will be sadly missed by Alex, who said she was the “most generous and genuine horse you could have”.

“She was very calm and unassuming and could have been a beach donkey,” he said. “She had narcolepsy, which only happened when the yard was warm and quiet. You’d hear a scuffle from her stable and she’d be on her knees with her bum in air and fast asleep.”