British Olympian William Fox-Pitt has called time on a stellar international eventing career in exactly the way he wanted – on his own terms.
That scenario appeared inconceivable nine years ago when Fox-Pitt spent two weeks in a medically-induced coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury.
A fall while competing at the World Young Horse Championship in France also initially left him with temporary blindness and then double vision.
Remarkably, though, he was competing again six months later and gained selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics – his fifth Games after Atlanta, Athens, Beijing and London.
The 55-year-old made a farewell appearance at the recent Badminton Horse Trials – his final five-star event 35 years after he first competed there – and he will now concentrate on producing and competing young horses from the Fox-Pitt family base in Dorset.
He can look back on winning a record 14 five-star titles – eventing’s equivalent of the golf and tennis majors – three Olympic medals, six world and 11 European.
Fox-Pitt also rose to world number one, while he captured all bar two of the sport’s global five-star competitions, landing Burghley six times, Kentucky on three occasions, Badminton twice, Pau twice and Luhmuhlen once.
But in a sport where uncertainty can be the most regular and unwanted companion, arguably his biggest triumph has been to control when he bowed out.
“I have always thought that I would know the moment. I couldn’t decide or plan it, but I always believed that I would wake up one day and say ‘job done’,” Fox-Pitt told the PA news agency.
“It was in my mind at the end of last year, and then they put me on the Olympic selection long-list, which was a great incentive to have.
“But going through Badminton, it was such an amazing experience and I thought I shouldn’t try to repeat it. Did I want to come back? No, I didn’t.
“I don’t want to replace it, I have turned the page and I want to find other things now. I won’t need that adrenalin buzz, I will want something else. It is just the next stage of your life.
“Things do move on, and it is OK for that to happen. I am very lucky to have had such a good time and to have retired in one piece. How lucky have I been that my injury didn’t put me out of it?”
While Fox-Pitt’s career is studded with success, his fall at Le Lion d’Angers certainly brought things into a sharp perspective.
“I was suddenly absolutely off the radar, but I never had any doubt and always thought I was going to go to Rio. I had totally lost my sense of targets, though, I really had,” he added.
“I was just floating around. Sometimes I ate 10 times a day, sometimes I didn’t eat for two days. I became very non-everything, and I got to Christmas (2015) and had no interest in riding.
“I had double-vision, I couldn’t assess distances, my balance had gone and my riding was inadequate, but it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be fine. Having that drive for the Olympics was what got me better.
“There are little things that are still very much not me – I struggle with names, finding places, I can go the wrong way in dressage, turn the wrong way in showjumping, but that might be down to being 55!”
Fox-Pitt, meanwhile, will be at the Paris Olympics this summer in his role as trainer of the Brazilian eventing team and coach to Japanese rider Kazuma Tomoto, who finished fourth individually in Tokyo three years ago.
He is in awe of Britain’s current eventing strength – “we are probably sitting on three different British teams that could win gold,” he said – with those riders having emerged at various points through British Eventing’s strong youth framework and competition structure.
“The London Olympics were a career-high for me,” he added. “It was just amazing to be part of Team GB at a home Olympics.
“I have ridden all over the world, but to be in London, in the Olympic village, it felt very special. I kept on having to pinch myself.”