Natasha Baker hails ‘practically perfect’ horse after winning dressage bronze

Six-time Paralympic champion Natasha Baker likened her horse to fictional nanny Mary Poppins after returning from pregnancy to win bronze in rain-soaked Versailles.

The 34-year-old blew a kiss to son Joshua at the end of her performance in the grade three individual dressage event, having given birth last year and spending 12 months out of the saddle.

American Rebecca Hart subsequently grabbed gold, with Rixt van der Horst of the Netherlands snatching the silver Baker won three years ago in Tokyo.

The British rider, who was competing on Keystone Dawn Chorus – also known as Lottie, said: “If you’d told me that I was going to even be selected for the Paris Games over Christmas, I would have absolutely laughed in your face.

“I was very naive going into the whole pregnancy, coming back from it and everything.

“I don’t think you really know what’s gonna happen until you’re in that situation. And my pregnancy was harder than I imagined it would be.

“I knew it would be a challenge physically. But obviously it’s such an unknown.”

Baker posted a score of 73.167 on a grey morning in the grounds of the former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV to win the ninth medal of a Paralympic career which began at London 2012.

“Getting back on it took me a lot of time, but Lottie’s got so much movement, she’s got so much power,” she continued.

“Even when I first got her, when I was fit, it took me a year to be able to sit to her trot, so I knew that coming back it was going to be a challenge.

“But I knew that if I could get back, then she was the one to get me back to this position.

“She’s the best girl, she trusts me implicitly, I trust her and she’s just awesome. I call her Mary Poppins, because she’s practically perfect in every way.”

Georgia Wilson added another bronze in the class two category, emulating her achievement from Tokyo.

Sir Lee Pearson won gold in the event back then but was unable to defend it after being suspended by British Equestrian amid an ongoing investigation ahead of selection for France.

Wilson registered 73.414 on Sakura in the penultimate ride, before Denmark’s Katrine Kristensen leapfrogged her into second spot as American Fiona Howard took Pearson’s title.

“We like Lee but he’s not here,” the 28-year-old said of Pearson.

Great Britain has topped the equestrian medal table at each of the last seven Games, with Pearson winning 14 golds between 2000 and 2021.

Asked if the world has caught up, Wilson said: “I think it has. I knew coming in it was very rare that I was going to get a medal maybe and hard work if I was to get one.”