In 1949, the 10th Duke of Beaufort started Badminton Horse Trials with the idea of better preparing British riders for the Olympic Games after a disastrous showing on home ground the year before. His legacy is the world's oldest and most prestigious horse trials which has captured the imagination of riders from all corners of the globe and in 2024 celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary.Badminton is still an Olympic proving ground - Great Britain are the defending champions in 2024 - as well as the sport's 'Wimbledon', a captivating place where dreams can be made or shattered, and the one all riders want to win.Over seven decades, there have been legendary riders and horses, triumphs and disasters, in a sport that has managed to evolve for the twenty-first century without losing the spirit in which it was first conceived.The centrepiece remains the cross-country course, a spectacle that draws thousands of spectators and is an imposing challenge for riders, no matter how experienced they are, in an egalitarian sport in which men and women compete on equal terms and the amateur can take on the Olympic gold medallist.This book celebrates those riders, from Sheila Willcox's hat-trick in the 1950s to the feats of horsemanship by New Zealander Mark Todd who came out of retirement to win three decades after his first victory; from the golden era of Richard Meade, Captain Mark Phillips, Lucinda Green and Princess Anne, to twenty-first-century heroes and heroines, the likes of William Fox-Pitt, Pippa Funnell, Andrew Nicholson, Michael Jung, Oliver Townend and Rosalind Canter. And, of course, the great horses who shared their stories.This superbly illustrated volume chronicles the history and captures all the drama and excitement of this world-class equestrian competition.