William Fox-Pitt gave a recent interview to the British Horse magazine in which he said that he was considering retirement from eventing after the 2012 Olympics in London, according to Horse and Hound. William has been eventing for 25 years and over that time he has won 8 four-stars (Burghley x5, Badminton ’04, Luhmuhlen ’03, Rolex ’10). Really, the only prize William does not have in his trophy case is an individual gold at an international championship. The toll of countless weekends competing away from home will eventually wear down even the most natural eventer, and William said “I want to have more time with the children and [my wife] Alice. I want to have a bit more of a life.”
Whenever William does retire, he will likely be sought after as an international team coach. But our US readers shouldn’t get too excited about the prospect of William taking the reins from Uncle Mark–most indicators suggest that William is thinking about a career training racehorses. The article quotes William as saying “Eventing will be a hard habit to break, but there are other things I want to do, like training racehorses.” [Horse and Hound] Go eventing.
