Alex Bragg trots up with Zagreb at Pau 2019
Two of the top six riders after cross country at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau have something very much in common apart from both being professional eventing riders.
Australia’s Shane Rose and Britain’s Alex Bragg both pursued their passion for rugby before choosing eventing as their sporting career.
Alex gave up riding when he was younger to play semi-professional rugby for seven years, and only took up eventing when his wife became pregnant and he took over the ride on her event horses in 2004.
Shane too almost gave away the riding for rugby; as he grew up, he played rugby in the winter and rode in the summer and after leaving school he wavered for a while between rugby and eventing as a career. But he soon found out that there were side benefits to the horse riding
“I knew that every time I went to a competition there would be hundreds of girls there, all wearing tight jodhpurs and looking pretty good!”
The connection with rugby also explains Shane’s cross country colours. His distinctive blue and white stripes and the style of shirt is clearly an old style rugby shirt and has always been his preferred top (apart from green and gold!)
Shane Rose at the trot up at Pau (above) and in his rugby/cross country colours (below)
