Biography

British rider Olivia Wilmot (31) is from East Kilbride near Glasgow – with Cool Dancer  she competed at Badminton last year.

Olivia (nee Haddow) came to national prominence in 2008 when she completed Badminton with her little coloured horse Patris Filius with who she won Young Rider team gold in 2005.

Olivia and her two sisters were all members of the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Pony Club and Olivia decided she wanted to be an event rider at the age of eight. She was a member of the British pony squad with Sapphire Blue and represented GB four-times at Junior and Young Rider level.

After school Olivia studied Physiology and Sports Science at Glasgow University and graduated in 2006 since when she has worked full-time with horses and runs Haddow Eventing near Glasgow. Olivia trains with David Gatherer and ‘her hero’ Ian Stark. She is a BE U18 regional coach for the Scottish region.

In 2009 she married John Wilmot and the couple has a 20 month old son, Hamish.

Cool Dancer, owned by Carolyn Haddow and rider, is a 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding. He was bred in Ireland by Alison Corbally by embryo transfer and is by the Thoroughbred Duca Di Busted out of a mare by the Thoroughbred Arctic Que.

Olivia has produced Cool Dancer through the grades since buying him as a five-year-old from Hayley and Kevin Rose and in 2010 they won the Ballindensik CCI**. They completed Badminton and Burghley in 2013 having jumped double clear at both events.