Horsey set rubbishes Katie Price’s equestrian dreams

When Katie Price (above left), aka the model and best-selling author Jordan, took part in the Horse of the Year Dressage Materclass event earlier this month, she announced afterwards: "Everyone here has been very welcoming, there's no snobbery." Did she speak too soon?

In this week's Horse & Hound, the bible for equestrian types, she gets a full blast of snootiness from one of the horseriding world's most famous names, Lucinda Green (above right). The six-times Badminton winner, complains: "Anybody who rides knows what she did at the Horse of the Year Show was not real dressage. Those that don't wouldn't even know if she was facing the right way."

Green is not alone. Jennie Loriston-Clarke, the chairman of British Dressage and an international judge, found herself severely offended by the model's attire, which included diamante lapels on her riding rig. She writes: "There are lots of girls in dressage who look glamorous in correct attire – we don't wish for dressage to look like a circus."

And Carl Hester, a dressage Olympian, asks: "Is she going to make the 2012 Olympics? No. She might not attract people within the sport, but she appeals to those outside it." However, she does have one supporter, the BBC sports presenter Clare Balding. "She's the best thing to happen to the horse world since hard hats. She can ride in a meringue for all I care."