Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics three equestrian disciplines that took place in Hong Kong. Zara Phillips, the reigning world eventing champion and granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, had been included in the squad until her horse, Toytown, sustained an injury, which meant she missed her second successive Olympics. Great Britain qualified three fencers for the fencing competition. Two of these came from the re-allocation of places by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), the governing body for Olympic fencing, after the withdrawal of other fencers. The Great Britain men's team qualified for the men's Olympic field hockey tournament after a must-win game against India in the
History of the horse in Britain strength and agility, particularly on lighter soils; in heavier soils ox teams retained an advantage, both because they pulled more steadily, albeit more slowly, and because they could work despite being fed by grazing alone. While the horse collar, which allows a horse greater freedom to pull heavy loads, had been used in western Europe by the 10th century, and may be shown in the Bayeux Tapestry of the 11th or 12th century, the use of horse teams in Britain was made possible in part because of an increase in the farming of oats, a staple food for hard-working horses.