Mark Darley

The son of Dublin-born lieutenant-colonel Denis Darley of the Dragoon Guards, Mark Darkey went on to serve in the Royal Horse Guards and, like his father, also attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Darley was a reserve for the Great Britain eventing team at the 1948 London Olympics and four years later represented Ireland because of his father’s country of birth. Also in 1952, Darley enjoyed the finest moment if his career by winning the Badminton Horse Trials on the chestnut mare Emily Little, the first mare to win the event. Furthermoe, Darley was the first Irish rider to win Badminton. At the Helsinki Olympics that year he finished 33rd individually, and in the team event, along with Harry Freeman-Jackson and Ian Hume-Dudgeon, finished sixth, one of only six of the 19 teams to have three riders complete the course.

Darley’s Badminton and Olympic horse Emily Little was purchased as a five-year-old in the early 1950s and was trained specifically as an eventer. Darley was a descendant of Richard Darley, an 18th century horse breeder who bred the The Darley Arabian, one of the three horses from which all modern-day thoroughbred racehorses are descended.