HEREFORDSHIRE rider Leslie Law helped Great Britain to their first Olympic Equestrian medal for 12 years as part of the silver-winning three-day event team.

Law can add an Olympic silver medal to his long list of equestrian achievements thanks to a fine show jumping performance which guaranteed second position in Sydney this week.

Olympic debutants Law, Pippa Funnell and Jeanette Brakewell teamed up with Games veteran Ian Stark and were just beaten to the gold by home team Australia.

The host country, who led throughout, racked up 146.8 penalty points, ahead of the British team with 161.0, and USA, who were third with 175.8.

Stark was forced to withdraw from the show jumping competition at Horsley Park after his horse, Jaybee, fell in the cross-country event, but Law shone as Britain overcame the loss.

Law, aged 35, who was raised in Eardisley, and his horse, Shear H2O, were the top Great Britain performers in the show jumping and incurred just 10 penalty points.

However, with 11 penalty points for Brakewell on Over To You, plus 13 for Funnell on Supreme Rock, they could not capitalise on an indifferent round from the eventual gold medallists.

Law, a former pupil at Lady Hawkins School in Kington, told The Hereford Times: "It's pretty exciting. It's an amazing feeling and one of the best days of my life.

"It will take a few days to realise what we have done. It's a great day for us and I hope it's great for everybody back home. It's a long time to stay focussed and we had a big celebration."

Watched by his mother, Margaret, plus a cousin, his fiance's mother and 'an awful lot of friends', the medal gave Law's mother an extra reason to celebrate her birthday, which was yesterday.

Stark, an individual and team medal winner in the Seoul Olympics, 1988, said: "They must really celebrate. They were fantastic today. That's their first Olympics and there will be a hell of a lot more to come."

Law began his career as a member of the Golden Valley branch of the Pony Club along with his brother, Graham, and his mother is still the branch's treasurer.

Hazel Bishop, district commissioner of the Golden Valley branch, said: "I think the branch has got to be very proud of the fact that he was a member. He is an inspiration to the rest of them.

"Leslie and Graham were very competitive from when they were very little. Leslie was always very talented and he was in all the Pony Club area teams in all the disciplines. We're terribly proud of him."

Great Britain team manager Matt Straker said: "I'm delighted, thrilled to bits. For us to win our first medal since 1988 is a huge boost. They worked really hard and they got what they deserved."

n There were also celebrations for a Herefordshire vet who was involved in the set-up of gold medal winners Australia.

Graham Potts, who works at Hereford and Ludlow racecourses, accompanied the British-based Australian team horses on their journey to Sydney, where he linked up with the rest of the team.