Dressage star Nicola Tustain may not have had the best of starts to her BeijingParalympics preparation but her fortunes now seem to be on the up.

The North Wales rider – who can boast three gold and three bronze medals from Sydneyand Athens – has been plagued by bad luck.

First, her horse, Prinz Heinrich, went lame and then she fractured her coccyx. But, with qualifying events looming on the horizon, her medal campaign seems to firmly back on course.

A frantic worldwide search for a new horse has hit upon Rivaldo of Berkeley. After being trialled at the Tustain family farm in North Wales, the 30-year-old believes she has struck gold with the nine-year-old Oldenburg.

And as a further coup, a sponsor– The Berkeley Group – has stepped in to fund the purchase of her new star horse:

"I’m extremely grateful to The Berkeley Group for their generous ongoing support to me, and am very honoured to have them as my principal sponsor. They have once again given me the opportunity to compete at international status and hopefully achieve my dreams once again. I’ll certainly feel very proud and look forward to competing under Team Berkeley in forthcoming events," explains Tustain.

The partnership between Tustain and The Berkeley Group – a leader in urban regeneration - goes back to 2003 when they then purchased Prinz Heinrich. Managing Director Tony Pidgley explains:

"We really admire Nicola’s tenacity and determination and we’re delighted to be supporting her in purchasing a second horse. Nicola’s commitment is commendable and she is a tremendous role model. We look forward to continuing our partnership with her."

And Rivaldo of Berkeley is settling in well too:

"He is bringing something new and special with every training session. He is a pleasure to ride, shows great enthusiasm in his work and gives me more and more confidence every day. He has a great character and has certainly become a popular member of the family!"

Now, she is hoping that together they can earn ParalympicsGB team selection:

"He is a very special horse with very nice paces and I very much hope that, with his talent and my Paralympic experience, we will have the potential medal combination for Beijing."

She now faces a gruelling set of selection qualifying events up and down the country. It all kicks off next week at the Vale View Equestrian Centre in Leicestershire (16 March).

"This will be my first Para-Equestrian Dressage competition with Rivaldo of Berkeley and my aims are to obviously to ride to my best ability and produce a good solid test and achieve a good percentage."

"As a Para-Equestrian Dressage rider, I am fortunate to be part of British Dressage. It enables us to compete alongside the able bodied competitors, so we have more competition choice and, therefore, we get more experience. But it does mean I have a hectic schedule so I’ll have my work cut out with getting Rivaldo of Berkeley in tip top condition for the rest of the selection trials."

For more information, please contact Jane Williams of Disability Sport Wales on

029 2033 8274