Veteran four-star event rider Bruno Bouvier of France was killed in a fall during the cross-country phase of the Barroca D’Alva CIC** in Portugal at 3:30 p.m., Western European Time, today.

Bouvier, 60, and the 10-year-old gelding Arcilloso III had a rotational fall at fence 5, a triple brush, which resulted in fatal injuries to the rider. The horse, who competed up to the CCI** level with Spanish rider Carlos Diaz Fernandez in 2010, was uninjured in the fall.
  
Event director Nicholas Melbourne Hart and ground jury president José Miguel Mexia de Almeida expressed their profound regret in a Fédération Équestre Internationale press release, saying, “On behalf of the whole sport, we would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Bruno Bouvier’s family and to all his friends in the equestrian world.”
 
A police inquiry into the accident has been launched.

Bouvier was one of France’s most experienced international event riders, and with his longtime partner Harry he contested both the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton and Land Rover Burghley CCI****s in England five times each.

Bouvier was based in Mareau aux Bois, south of Paris, and had previously completed one FEI event with Arcilloso III, a CIC* last fall. Throughout 2011, between his eventing careers with Fernandez and Bouvier, the horse competed as a show jumper with rider Maicke Bleuze.