Innholdsfortegnelse for 11-Aug-2022 i Horse & Hound

THE first young people in a programme to help those from diverse communities into racing have graduated as the industry hopes to build on its success. The Riding a Dream academy, which involved a residential course and day sessions, was inspired by 2019 Magnolia Cup winner Khadijah Mellah. Its ethos is to remove barriers to the sport, and it is one of several initiatives driving change. Riding a Dream director Naomi Lawson told H&H it has been a “transformational year”. “We’ve had the most amazing group of young people, and one great thing is that everyone has come on so much,” she said. “We had a mix of people, some who didn’t know about racing, but all knew about Khadijah and had been inspired by her. “We’ve been able to…

PUPPY LOVE HOW can it be 15 years since I took over as the Fitzwilliam Hunt branch of the Pony Club mini camp mum! But my enthusiasm has not waned – in fact, we attempt bigger and better fun every year. This year, for example, we made and launched our own rockets and held a mini puppy show, which brought the hunt and Pony Club together in such a fun, educational way. Our camp is for children 10 years and younger, but fullsized hounds can be too big around four- to six-year-olds, so our huntsman’s idea to invite puppy walkers was inspired. The children took it in turn to walk them around an arena and they had to answer questions about their puppy. The walkers agreed it did the puppies…

For the last month of preparing yearlings ahead of the sales I don’t sleep very well, it’s a tense time. It’s pretty full-on because you have this certain window to get these horses – which a) are very valuable, and b) you’ve been really excited about – there without injuring themselves. It can be quite hairy at times. These are young, boisterous animals. The main focus when my business partner Mimi Wadham and I initially set up our commercial stud farm WH Bloodstock in 2018 was on preparing yearlings for the sales and pinhooking them (buying them as foals and selling them as yearlings). We also now have our own broodmares, so half the year is spent on the breeding season and then we consign a lot of horses at…

PRESSURE is a funny thing. For some, great sportspeople included, it can be crippling, a fast track to uncharacteristic mistakes or clouded judgement. But for others, it brings out the very best in them. And in Herning, pressure or even lack of it, proved a key element as the grand prix played out in dramatic fashion. For the Danes, riding high on their European bronze in 2021, then Nations Cup victory earlier in the summer at CHIO Aachen, and of course as the home side, the pressure coming into this World Championship was immense. “In the past couple of months, every time I would open my Instagram or my Facebook, there had been a photo of our team from Aachen, saying, ‘Can the Danes win?’” said team member Carina Cassøe…

AS a legend of the eventing world, with five Olympics under her belt and four World Equestrian Games, it seems odd to refer to Ingrid Klimke as one to watch. But this was the first time Ingrid has competed at a major championship in dressage. She proved she was far from making up numbers, posting a plus-75% personal best and finishing 14th on the grand prix leaderboard with Franziskus. “I must say I was really a bit excited,” said Ingrid about riding on the world-renowned German dressage team. “I thought now everybody will see me for the first time in dressage, and will be expecting that I do a good job. In the cross-country, I was sometimes first, sometimes last and have been in nearly every position. But this was…

A FEISTY 15.1hh out-jumped his rivals to land the Corinthian Cup on his dressage mark. Iwan (pictured), ridden by Amy Barlow, scored 29.8 to lie fourth after phase one. When the trio ahead, led by Holly Allan and Ray Of Light W on 26.6, lowered rails, the eventual winners took the lead in this TopSpec national restricted novice championship for grassroots riders. Amy, who events full-time, hopes Iwan will be the horse to take her up the levels after persevering with his ebullient character. “I bought him unbroken for £2,000, and all I did was fall off,” she says. “Everyone said, ‘Why are you persevering? All you do is get concussion’. But he is so talented, with so much jump.” Ellie Healy finished both second and sixth. Her runner-up, Balladeer…

Brook Farm Area Festival, Essex A YEAR after bilateral stifle surgery, Sophie Chatwin’s seven-year-old mare Katharina-Trix Us scored a double win – claiming the elementary silver straight and freestyle, the latter with nearly 79%. “It was almost like a fairytale,” said Sophie, who trains with Adam Smyth and Rui Campeao. “She’s my little superstar.” Following a long rehab process, Trix bounced back and this year finished sixth in the novice silver at the national championships. After her double triumph, Sophie added: “She can be a bit tricky and either says ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but this was definitely a ‘yes’ day. Everything just came together; she felt phenomenal. I’m glad I stuck with her. I’m just enjoying the moment – this is a nice ascent.” New Forest gelding King Of The…

NAF Five Star south silver and bronze league semi-finals, Chard Equestrian, Somerset JUST 0.94sec separated the top five finishers in a hotly contested silver league semi-final, where Imogen Yule and her established partner Blonde Ambition IV came away with the top ticket. Twenty competitors vying for seven Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) passes made the third round, where 13 produced treble clears. Jumping from seventh-to-go, Imogen and the 14-year-old mare managed to find a 0.11sec advantage over early leaders Emma-Jo Slater and Kimba Flamenco. “Emma-Jo was second to go and she is always a good marker of where you need to aim,” said Imogen, who bought Blonde Ambition from the Bothams as a five-year-old. “I had so many good people coming behind me I knew I’d have to give…

JORGI CRAIGIE, 11, and nine-year-old Rhencullen Rockette gained their first HOYS ticket in the M&M 122cm open working hunter pony division. The pair won the section after producing one of four clear rounds. Jorgi and Rockette, or Mrs Brown as she’s known at home, first partnered in 2019 and headed to Malvern after Hickstead, where they gained a third place in the same class. “Mrs B always aims to please and is very honest,” said Jorgi’s mother Caroline Casey. “Jorgi is mainly into workers, but also spends time hacking and they love a gallop on the beach and going cross-country.” FIRST HOYS TICKET…

AN FEI vet who gave a horse a banned substance has been suspended for two years from his FEI roles and fined thousands. Roberto Gottarelli, national head vet of San Marino and a member of the Italian equestrian federation, injected jumper Halo with anabolic steroid stanozolol, the FEI Tribunal heard. The mare failed a dope test in Spain (29 September-4 October 2020), where she was competing with Italian rider Giuseppe de Luca. A letter from Mr Gottarelli said the treatment was for “a fragility” of the cartilage in Halo’s left hock. “To physiologically stimulate the activity of cartilage cells, I proposed to Mr de Luca the utilisation of Sungate – stanozolol by means of intra-articular injection – three times a week, for a total of four injections,” he wrote. “I…

AS a veterinary student in the late 1970s I don’t think I encountered veterinary overtreatment. To the contrary, I was constantly encouraged to think about the correct way to treat one’s fellow vets and clients. Among other things, I learnt that when dealing with cases where euthanasia was an obvious (although often unspoken) choice, one was to be entirely honest in discussing all possible options with the client; to be sympathetic but not offer false hope; always to give the option of a second opinion or referral when the animal’s condition and time allowed; and, most importantly, to do nothing that would promote or prolong an animal’s suffering. This last admonition is in full accord with part of the oath which is taken by veterinary graduates on admission to the…

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GOLD NUGGET (pictured), a racehorse who failed to fire in three starts, is excelling in his new career. He landed the Retraining of Racehorses/National Trainers Federation retrained racehorse championship, finishing on his dressage score of 31.7 after two showjumping rounds sandwiching the cross-country. “He’s a game horse who just wants to do his job,” said rider Andrew Downes. The class format required the top-10 after the first three phases to return for a second round of reverse-order showjumping. Tom McEwen’s ride Dream Big, the leader throughout, tapped an early rail, handing victory to Nick and Jane Moss’s Nugget. This class was run at intermediate novice, and both the winner and runner-up are competing at four-star, but two rounds of showjumping is a challenge. “He’s a thoroughbred so he can jump…

FEI dressage European Championship for juniors and young riders, Hartpury, Glos GREAT BRITAIN’S junior team put up a stellar performance to claim bronze with 216.879. The team of Annabella Pidgley (Espe), Myles Graham (Nibeley Union Hit), Sophie Wallace (Rosalie B) and India Durman-Mills (Escade) was pipped by the Germans, whose score of 222.243 saw them take the top podium spot, while the Netherlands’ 218.576 was good enough for silver. The British bronze was even more momentous considering that the last time Britain won a junior team medal was at Hickstead in 1998 – before any of this year’s team members were born. It was Annabella who led the team to victory, calling on her past championship experience to pull off one exceptional performance after another. Her eight-year-old mare, Espe, was…

MILLENNIUM gelding Matteo continues to impress at medium, taking both classes at Cherwell Competition Centre, Oxfordshire, with Rob Trobridge. “While he has all the flashiness he needs, we’ve been encouraging him to become more relaxed and rideable,” said Rob, who was third in the novice gold with Matteo at last year’s national championships. “He used to be very sharp, but we’ve recently started to turn him out overnight and he has really settled. It has completely changed his attitude; we’re now getting the work in the arena that we produce at home.” I OWE IT TO……

MONICA HEISE and her 13-year-old Gaul Wood won the Retraining of Racehorses bronze league final, collecting their second rug in two weeks as they also won the 1m championship at the Royal International. “We’ve qualified for the class for the last four or five years, but never won it before,” said Monica, who teaches riding and works as a dog-groomer. She has owned the gelding since he came off the track as a five-year-old. “He is like a big dog and is everyone’s favourite on the yard,” she said. RACER IN THE RIBBONS…

TOWERING grey gelding Ilord made his first win a significant one when he headed the area trial at Heckington, Lincolnshire, for Jenna Palmer Evans. The 18.2hh nine-year-old jumped one of only three clears in the first round, going on to leave the fences standing and win the jump off. “I’m so happy, I can’t really believe it,” said Jenna, whose mother Sarah Evans bought the horse as a three-year-old. Because of his size, Ilord was produced carefully but stepped up this year. “I didn’t start riding him until the beginning of his six-year-old year, and he didn’t really do any proper shows until then,” Jenna said. “We always used to call him a useless novice because we couldn’t win anything because he was so slow. “This is the first class…

New Forest and Hampshire County, Brockenhurst, Hants A HOME-BRED novice New Forest gelding, attending his first-ever county show, joined an elite few when taking both ridden and in-hand best Forest-bred titles in the same year. Fittingly, New Forest ponies filled the West Ring on the second morning and, after intense in-hand competition, Rohays Gray’s Picket Post Polo emerged triumphant with handler Richard Shaw. Later the same day, Richard reappeared aboard Polo to win the open novice ridden class and add his second Forest-bred title. The free-moving grey gelding, by Lucky Lane Rolo, was valued at only £10 as a foal. “He was the last one out of the family’s mare, Picket Post Petal, so Rohays wanted to keep him and give him a chance,” said Richard, who backed him at…

DISCUSSIONS around making cross-country safer without removing the challenge continue, as new data highlights where risk could potentially be reduced and where there is scope to create course risk profiles. In a newly published FEI-funded study, researchers at the universities of Glasgow, Bristol and Nottingham Trent aimed to identify cross-country fence risk factors using data from FEI eventing competitions between 2008 and 2018. Fences including corners and trakehners were identified as having increased odds of a horse or rider fall, compared to square spreads – and fences featured later on course, those with an approach and/or landing downhill or into water, and combinations, also had increased risk. The researchers said it “should be considered” whether it might be possible to design around the “more challenging” fences, and suggestions included ensuring…

BRITISH DRESSAGE (BD) has clarified its youth policy after heated comments on social media. After the British success at the youth Europeans (p52), Claire Moir, who hopes to be BD chair, posted on Facebook. Having praised the results, Ms Moir said BD had had a “major review” of its under-21 teams “as we were not getting the results”. She cited costs of sending teams, adding that BD has to “make sure we are sending a competitive team, not [using] members’ money to send riders ‘to practise’.” She said Britain had not won a junior team medal since 1998, and BD’s processes have “encouraged riders to up their game”. The post sparked backlash from others, citing those who have come through the young rider programme – “where teams were sent without…

WHEN competing in any sport, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the pursuit of glory. But one horseman who keeps his feet firmly on the ground, when he’s not scaling fences, is Scottish show producer and event rider Richard Telford, whose talent and calm disposition in the saddle has seen him maintain a status as one of the country’s most respected equestrians. Richard runs his operation from Ayton Castle on the Scottish Borders. The set-up is glorious. The 25-box yard is set around an old-fashioned courtyard and the calm atmosphere undoubtedly trickles down to the four-legged residents. “The horses seem to relax instantly when they arrive,” confirms Richard, who has been connected to Ayton Castle since 1988, the majority of his working adult life. But however picturesque the location,…

THAT some veterinary undergraduates and many small animal owners cannot identify the harms of overtreatment is understandable; cases featured in the media and which promote new techniques seldom tell the complete story. Such acts are almost always hailed initially as “lifegiving breakthroughs” and “heroic successes” and worse – as acts of profound kindness. However, the miserable deaths of many of these animals are not reported, and so are not discussed on social media. This leaves the public – including animal owners – with a severely distorted impression of “success” and forms the basis of false and misinformed hope. One example is the use of prosthetic limbs in large animals, such as cattle and horses. There have been cases of such prosthetics being fitted to young animals, with repeated surgery required…

WE came to Denmark with the main aim of qualifying for the Olympics, for which we had to finish in the top six. There was a point when we started to think maybe we could squeak a bronze medal. Then, as the competition developed, we thought maybe we could get gold. It was so close, and you can’t be disappointed with silver after that. It is exciting going forward with Paris 2024 to have a team which is really competitive again. The initial disappointment of Carl Hester being missing from the team has been lessened by him doing a sterling job both as team trainer and commentating. He seems to relish both; we might have to convince him to get back on a horse. Richard Davison’s Bubblingh was nervous. He…

LOCAL rider Tom McEwen extended his stranglehold on the Evelyn Partners British intermediate championship, winning for the third consecutive time. His partner, Martin Belsham’s Luna Mist, was fifth after dressage and moved up to second following one of just six fault-free showjumping rounds in this class. Although Tom was initially given too-fast penalties after an immaculate cross-country display, these were rescinded. “I’d only just scraped inside the time – no one makes the time here, so it would have been freaky if I’d been too fast,” says Tom, one of a trio inside the target, after completing on 29.9. Tom highlighted the nine-year-old’s “huge potential” after finishing 0.4 of a penalty ahead of Oliver Townend and Crazy Du Loir. “She made it feel relatively simple,” he said. “She was faultless…

FEI eventing European Championship for young riders and juniors, Hartpury, Glos ISABELLE COOK followed in her mother Tina’s footsteps as a British eventing medallist, when she landed junior individual silver and led the NAF-sponsored British squad to team gold at her first-ever championship. Riding Tina’s 10-year-old home-bred mare Mexican Law, Isabelle pulled off two faultless rounds to finish on her dressage score of 26.6. “It’s been the most amazing experience at my first championship,” she said. “I felt a lot of pressure going in after watching all my team-mates go so well, but I somehow managed to focus on the job and pull it off. I was very, very nervous, but my mare is a really good jumper and I had faith that she would jump well. I just had…

TO be competing at the European Championships was a remarkable feat in itself for British team debutante Sophie Wallace, let alone to score 71.77% for ninth in the junior individual and 72.37% for 12th in the freestyle. It was only eight months ago that former showjumper Sophie took over the ride of Ursula Bechtolsheimer and Laura Tomlinson’s former grand prix mare Rosalie B, a Westphalian by Rubin Royal out of a Newcastle mare. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” said Sophie of her team’s bronze medal. “I never imagined I’d get selected for my first Europeans in my first season of dressage. I’m so thankful to Mrs Bechtolsheimer and Laura Tomlinson for letting me have the ride on Rosie. It’s been an amazing experience.”…

FEI European Championships for Ponies, Strzegom, Poland AN all-conquering Ireland scooped team gold and all three individual medals in the jumping championships – the first time one nation has achieved this in 40 years. Ireland reigned from day one, taking team gold on a zero score. All five members jumped clear on day one (scores counted towards the team total) and three of them produced team double clears to command gold. But it went to the wire. James Derwin had to jump clear on Rincoola Babog as France breathed down their necks on four faults – one mistake would force a jump-off. France took silver with the Netherlands in bronze on 12, and Great Britain finished fourth just one fence adrift. Poppy Deakin (Armene Du Costilg), team first-timer Sophie Evans…

DETERMINATION paid off for Taylie-Rae Owen, 11, who headed the 128cm silver league final with Hardwickview Yen Man. Shortly before Pony of the Year Show (POYS) in mid-April this year, Taylie went down with appendicitis and needed time off following an appendectomy. “She was adamant when she came out of hospital that she’d be riding tomorrow, but I said it was a bit soon!” said her mother Leigh. Taylie got “Max” on loan from Kimberly Bailey just after POYS, but he also needed to return to fitness after a couple of seasons without a jockey. Taylie prepared for the show and this year’s HOYS qualifiers, where she just missed out, by training with Jade Gerken. “She’s been working so hard with Max and she so deserved that win; I was…

SMALL proved mighty for secretary Chantelle Dorton when her home-produced gelding, Farriers Firefly, headed a field of 18 in his ridden breed class to earn the pair’s first HOYS ticket. Although he is now 10, last year was Firefly’s first affiliated season and this was his first-ever open attempt here. “I broke him in at four, but he was very backward so we just had fun for a few years,” said Chantelle, who juggles work with looking after her ponies. “He loves representing the small Foresters – he’s only 12.3hh – but he’s usually the underdog so it was such a shock to win; I honestly did think this was out of our reach.” The pair enjoy a range of activities and qualified for eight finals at last year’s NPS…