Phillips and her horse Toytown won individual gold and team silver at the World Equestrian Games in 2006, leading to her being voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
In 2004 and 2005, Desperado V was ranked the leading Arabian sire by the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), and was second in 2008 and 2009.
"The scoring is broken down into sections," explains Pippa Funnell, one of Britain's leading eventers [eventing being a three-discipline equestrian sport which includes dressage, as well as cross-country and showjumping].
In 2009, Peters and Ravel had the highest scores in all three portions of the prestigious German Aachen World Equestrian Festival Grand Prix competition, leading them to be the first American pair to be named the Aachen Grand Prix Champions.
For the four-man team from Britain, the practices leading to Saturday's match have been the equestrian equivalent of speed dating, featuring a multitude of mounts.
Varian Arabians has been ranked multiple times as one of the leading Arabian breeders of winning horses by the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), which since 2004 has ranked breeders based on points earned by horses shown in sanctoned USEF competitions.
Ms. King's teenage daughter is a top competitor in junior equestrian events, and mother and daughter have acquired one of the nation's leading collections of show horses.
Among both equestrian and pedestrian groups, a particular leader was followed as long as he was successful in leading people to food or in war.
