Badminton winner Oliver refuses to rest

Shropshire's star equestrian 'recruit' Oliver Townend is not resting on his laurels after his Badminton three-day event win – the Ellesmere-based rider is off to France for an international competition this week, writes KATE HEALEY.

The 26-year-old is part of a strong contingent of British eventers making the trip out to the CCI three-star three-day event at Saumur in the Loire Valley starting on Thursday.

Top names as Matt Ryan, Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks, Mary King and Andrew Nicholson will be among the 70 riders in action.

Townend will ride Keith Scott's 15-year-old gelding Coup de Coeur, a ride he took on last year and partnered into 12th spot at the 2008 Badminton Horse Trials.

The horse, who has had Olympic medalists Leslie Law and William Fox-Pitt amongst his former jockeys, also won the CIC three-star Burnham Market one-day international last year, but this will be just his second run of 2009.

Townend has managed to squeeze in a trip to Aston-le-Walls one-day event in Northants, where he won a Intermediate section on ODT Sonas Rovatio, and to the Chatsworth International in Derbyshire, where he was third on the Novice ride ODT Penguin Ice, since Badminton.