Brazil’s Dr Marcio Carvalho Jorge, who piloted Royal Encounter to a sub-30 dressage score at Mars Badminton Horse Trials this afternoon, revealed the 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse has a penchant for sleeping — even when he’s away at a competition.
“He’s always had such a nice brain. He’s very cute and will sleep all day,” said Marcio. “Even today, before we tacked him up, he was laying down sleeping. He does this every day — it doesn’t matter if he’s in competition or at home. It’s so funny, but it’s good, because he rests his body and his legs.”
Marcio is a doctor and anaesthesiologist who originally came to the UK with the mare Josephine MCJ in tow to train with Mark Todd for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
He commuted between the UK and Brazil so that he could continue to work in a Sao Paulo hospital as well as ride.
“I would spend three months here and three months there,” said Marcio, who is now based in Wiltshire and stopped practising medicine 10 years ago. “In 2016 I brought my daughters and my wife and based here to ride full time.”
High expectations
Marcio co-owns Royal Encounter with Ken, Alastair and Annabel Vere Nicholl and they bought the horse when he was five.
Marcio, who now trains with William Fox-Pitt, has produced the 17hh gelding from BE100 level and said it is the horse’s chilled attitude that helped him pull off a sub-30 dressage test today.
“To be honest, we had the expectation [of doing well],” he said. “Competition is competition and sometimes it goes right, sometimes it goes wrong.
“It’s his first time in an environment like that and I didn’t know how it would be, if he would spook or something. But he’s always trying to do the right thing — he has such a good brain.”
As well as the London Olympics, the 51-year-old rider represented his native on home turf at the Rio 2016 Games and also competed at Paris 2024.
This is his third Badminton, following runs here in 2014 with Josephine MCJ and in 2017 aboard Lissy Mac Wayer.
