'Insane' to win Olympic medal, says dressage star

An Olympic bronze medallist who had a last-minute call-up to join Team GB said it was "pretty insane" to take her place on the podium in Paris.

Equestrian Becky Moody, of Penistone in Barnsley, was a replacement for Charlotte Dujardin, who pulled out of the games over "horse welfare" issues.

Moody said joining the dressage team at the eleventh hour meant she did not have time to get herself "into a stress" about competing.

The 44-year-old told the BBC: "I was already prepped and ready to stand in if needs be, but it's quite a big change to go from being ready to actually doing it."

Moody joined seven-time Olympian Carl Hester and Lottie Fry to score a combined 232.492% at Chateau de Versailles, winning a bronze medal.

"It's pretty insane," she told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"It's such an epic team effort to get one of these and I'm lucky enough to be the one who gets to wear it, so many people have been a part of this journey."

It came less than two weeks after Dujardin, the star of British dressage, withdrew on the eve of the games and was provisionally suspended by equestrian's world governing body after footage emerged of her "excessively" whipping a horse.

"In a lot of ways, the fact I came into it at the last minute was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to me because I didn't have time to spend weeks getting myself into a stress about it," she said.

The debutant was full of praise for her horse Jagerbomb and her support team who helped get them both ready for the games.

A surprise party was held last week when they returned from Paris, with her drinking "the odd Jagerbomb, maybe one or two", she laughed.

Moody said she was one of the older athletes competing at the Olympics but felt in dressage "the older you get, the more experience you have".

"Hopefully we've got a few more [games] left in us," she said.

The horses at the Olympics "had the best accommodation" out of all the competitors with air conditioning in their stables.

"It was almost a relief to go to the stables. It was cooler in the stables than in the VIP hospitality, that's how good it was," she added.

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