Rio Olympics 2016: Brazilian showjumper is an adopted Salopian
He's as Brazilian as they come, but Olympian Carlos Paro also owes his success to Shropshire.
The three-day eventer was today competing in the Rio competition with his trusty horse Summon Up the Blood. The pair, who went into today's showjumping mid table, live and train near Shrewsbury and are adopted Salopians. Today horse trainer Becky Bosworth explained how she helped turn the horse from a failed racer into an Olympic standard eventer.
Paro and Bob took part in the dressage contest on Sunday, followed by the cross-country event yesterday.
Today they will take part in the show-jumping event where Paro – and Bob – will learn of their final standing.
Becky, 38, a former pupil of Church Stretton School, bought Bob from former England and Southampton footballer turned racehorse owner Mick Channon.
"I re-school former racehorses after they retire and Mick said he had got this horse I might be interested in," said Becky.
"He was five years old when I had him. He had won three or four races at Goodwood, so there was a good race horse in there. I re-schooled him so he would be able to do equestrian.
"I knew Carlos and knew that the horse would be well suited to him," she said. "He is quite a sharp horse, he is very talented, but that talent could be mistaken for unruliness, but I knew Carlos would know how to get the most out of him. He could have easily fallen into bad hands, but Mick is quite careful where he re-homes them."
Becky, who sold Bob to Paro about three years ago, said she felt very proud seeing him perform at the Olympics.
"He did very well in the dressage, so he could well be in the running to win a medal," she said.
Paro, 36, comes from a non-horsey background and didn't begin to ride until he was about seven years old.
He recalls: "It wasn't until my grandfather bought a horse for my older brother Andre that I first took up competing, aged eight years.
"I won the Brazilian Children's Eventing Championship in 1993 and the South-American Junior Championship the following year," he said.
After a gap year training with international event rider Chris Bartle in Yorkshire, he studied civil engineering and then business studies, both for more than two years each at university, but he did not finish either course.
It made Paro realise that he wanted to be a professional event rider.
It soon became apparent that he was very good.
In 1998 he was second at Porto Alegre – a major event in Brazil.
Aged 19, Paro was the best Brazilian jumping clear in the cross country and show jumping, helping the Brazilian team to ninth place.
He competed in the World Championships in 1998 in Rome, in 2002 at Jerez, Spain, and at Aachen, Germany, in 2006.
And a major highlight was being chosen to represent Brazil at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Paro said: "It was a real turning point in my life as shortly after that I decided to move permanently to England.
"This was because there are only 10 major top class events held each year in Brazil and unfortunately they do not have many entries, so the competition isn't so hot and I wanted to progress."
