Equestrian world ‘shocked to the core’ by death of rider Georgie Campbell

William Fox-Pitt, a two-time Badminton winner who announced his retirement after 40 years in the sport earlier this month, said: “I knew her as a very competent, thorough, ambitious and accomplished rider who did everything well. She wasn’t someone you’d worry about [being a risk]. If you were wanting to learn, she was a good one to watch. She was very organised with her riding.”

After five riders were killed in British eventing in 1999, the sport has made huge strides in safety and horse welfare. Body protectors are now mandatory and previously “solid” fences are now held up with frangible pins, which means they collapse when hit hard.

Fox-Pitt, who spent a fortnight in a coma after a fall in France in 2015, added: “The fence she fell at has been there five years and jumped hundreds of times, I should think almost without incident. It asks a horse a very fair question and it was unbelievably unlucky it didn’t work out but, for whatever reason, horses can occasionally misjudge the simplest of fences.”

Last year, Zazie Gardeau, then the reigning European champion young rider aged 21, was airlifted to hospital after a fall at a different fence at Bicton left her with head injuries. She eventually returned to France, where she is still in recovery.

The measures taken to try to avoid serious injuries in eventing