Innholdsfortegnelse for 9-Nov-2023 i Horse & Hound

PHOEBE PETERS would have been about 10 years old when I first interviewed her at the national dressage championships at Stoneleigh. She was the talk of the show – being such a lovely rider at such a young age – and a media favourite with her bubbly personality and eloquent responses. Thirteen years on, there she is in the Netherlands, riding World Breeding Championships star Everest for the esteemed Van Olst Horses, alongside world champion Lottie Fry. Phoebe is experiencing the superb training from Anne van Olst, and the access to incredible horses bred by inimitable breeder Gertjan van Olst, that has helped Lottie achieve greatness. Having had championship success as a pony rider, this might not be too surprising, but as Phoebe tells Polly Bryan (interview, p18) she almost…

IN THE NEWS RIDDLE MASTER Canadian eventer Rebecca Howard’s Olympic ride, owned by Blithe Hill Farm, has died aged 22. They were 12th at Badminton and 11th at Burghley in 2013, and 10th at Rio. HARLEY STREET Hilary Mactaggart’s small hunter has died aged 23. He won at HOYS and Windsor, plus three small hunter titles at the Caledonian Championships. CHALDEAN The 2000 Guineas and Dewhurst-winning Frankel son, trained by Andrew Balding for Juddmonte, has retired aged three to join his sire at Banstead Manor Stud.…

▲ CONFIDENCE To a show, where a tiny rider was warming up. Her coach asked: “What are you doing?” Without missing a beat, the tiny bellowed back: “I have no idea!” You speak for many of us, young lady. ▲ SCAMMERS This week’s award to the seller of a 15.2hh, who’s done jumping, dressage… It sounded so good until the potential buyer asked the horse’s breeding. “Welsh section B,” the seller replied. So close. ▲ CALLS OF NATURE Caught on dashcam, a horse raising his tail higher than the tailgate, and getting all his poo on the road rather than in the trailer. Now just to train them all to do that… ▼ EVENTING A jumping-bred foal has become outraged at all the puddles, and every morning takes minutes to…

Email to hhletters@futurenet.com Name and address must be included. Letters may be edited. @ horseandhound instagram.com/horseandhound facebook.com/horseandhound POSITIVE LESSONS I DID enjoy the article about why children should hunt (feature, 26 October). My daughter spent many happy days being mentored by Dawn Wofford (née Palethorpe) with the Worcestershire Hunt. She now shows mountain and moorland ponies, but the lessons she learned out hunting have stood her in good stead – she can cope with a busy go-round, can ride on any surface or gradient, and is aware of everyone else. She is polite and respectful to stewards and judges, as learned out hunting. But to me the best skill she learned is to look after others, and she is often seen mentoring a nervous or novice rider. Thank you so…

● Check out a potential loan home thoroughly; it’s fine to ask for and check references and it’s important to visit a potential new home before making a decision. ● Be honest and transparent about all veterinary, management and behavioural issues. In the right home, a horse should thrive, but the same horse could be a disaster with the wrong one. ● Be clear about what happens next when the horse reaches an age and stage where it can no longer be ridden, and keep regular communication lines between owner and loaner. “You have to be totally upfront about what happens if it goes wrong – who is paying the vets’ bills?” says Aurora Eastwood. Often the owner pays for existing, chronic conditions, while the loaner covers new ones, plus…

HIGHLIGHTS 23–29 October oscar.williams@futurenet.com @oscarw_dr Kings Sedgemoor EC, Somerset FRANKISSE II continued a remarkable comeback after fracturing a femur in February, scoring both bronze and overall advanced medium wins. It was just a week after winning at the winter Area Festival that Helen Beaton’s 10-year-old warmblood gelding sustained the injury. “We weren’t sure if he’d ever be back,” said Helen, who started dressage with the former showjumper in 2021. “He’s a quiet horse and took to four months’ box rest without trouble. We hope to do our first prix st georges in a fortnight.” Tyler Bradshaw claimed a high-scoring novice double with Mexx, the six-year-old gelding she bought unseen on Facebook as a yearling. “He’s by Uphill and I like the bloodline,” said Tyler, whose grand prix ride Igor VIII…

jennifer.donald@futurenet.com @jen_donald DO YOU WANT TO BE ON THIS PAGE? HAVE YOU WON A CLASS? Email jennifer.donald@futurenet.com within 24 hours of your event and please include a contact telephone number CHARLIE DAWSON picked up three 1.30m wins at Arena UK with her 10-year-old speed mare Iloma (pictured), heading two opens and the Halloween accumulator. “She likes to go fast, that’s her forte,” said Charlie, who has produced the 16hh mare from a three-year-old. “As long as I am on the right stride, she won’t touch a pole. “If there’s ever four faults on her record it’s because I’ve had them down with my leg where I’ve turned her too tightly! She can just drop and turn and go full gallop to a fence.” Iloma was successful in age classes and…

HORSE&HOUND GOODNIGHT IS it just me or does the opening meet come around faster every year? Ours follows a timehonoured formula, representing a wonderful continuity that is strangely comforting in our fast-changing and sometimes confusing modern world. It is hosted by a family who own a large portion of our country. The host’s father was master and huntsman of the North Northumberland – it was essentially their family hunt – before they amalgamated with the College Valley in the 1980s. But beforehand there were two teenagers to get up and out, and onto their horses. Mary was taking Issy, who has shrunk as ponies tend to do over the summer. Alec was taking my horse while Jack and I were ground control. I’ve said this before but there is no…

Share your news story Call 0330 390 6386 Email eleanor.jones@futurenet.com @ jones_eleanor_ THE US is breathing a sigh of relief after securing a showjumping ticket to Paris 2024 at the 11th hour, as the final team places for next year’s Olympics are now decided. The Pan American Games, and the eventing and showjumping Nations Cups, were the last chance this autumn for countries to collect team tickets to Paris 2024. There is one outstanding dressage team spot, which H&H understands is likely to be allocated to the highestranked country not already qualified. The US, which has won six showjumping medals over the past five Olympics, had missed qualification via Nations Cup finals and the 2022 World Championships. This meant that the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games was the final opportunity…

IN THE NEWS BLING COBSBY Vicky Smith’s lightweight show cob has been retired from the ring aged 15. The gelding won at HOYS in 2018, was Royal Windsor champion in 2021 and also won many other titles. SUPER GUUS The Fjord who competed at the Netherland’s highest level of national dressage with Jolanda Adelaar, and appeared at an FEI World Cup leg in 2006, has died aged 30. TAHIYRA The Dermot Weld-trained four-time Group One winner has retired to the Aga Khan’s broodmares after finishing third in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day.…

Olympic team gold medalwinning eventer Tom McEwen married his “biggest support and best friend” Harriet Fettes on 3 November. Olympic gold medallist Jane HoldernessRoddam has joined the British Eventing Support Trust as trustee. The trust said she has “incredible experience” . Classic-winning jockey James Doyle is leaving Godolphin after nine years to ride for Wathnan Racing. James said it is a “tremendous honour and amazing opportunity”. The International Olympic Committee has elected CHIO Aachen’s Michael Mronz. He shares the “vision of creating a better world through sport”. Austrian Olympic eventer Lea Siegl is recovering from broken ribs and a head wound sustained in a fall with DSP Fighting Line at Pau.…

oscar.williams@futurenet.com @oscarw_dr THE British Dressage (BD) AGM was broadcast live from the High Profile show at Aintree, which is well worth a visit for riders of all levels. It’s an iconic setting, with great facilities and you get a good bit of adrenaline hacking through the racecourse to the well-decorated arena. There was a great atmosphere on gala night. Changes are afoot with new tests on the way for July next year. I’m looking forward to these, as some of the current tests were in use at the start of my career. I’m pleased to hear some will have the paces mark co-efficient reduced as collective marks make no sense to me, equating to double counting, and were dropped by the FEI years ago. I’m also glad the number of…

I was a London child. When I was five, I was in the car with my mother driving round Belgrave Square when I spotted some riders. I said, “That’s what I want to do.” I started going to a riding school on Hyde Park Corner, riding around the sand track in Hyde Park. When I was seven, my parents bought a house in Kent. I began riding there with Lady Spens, the mother of showjumper Mallory Spens, at weekends. I did a bit of Pony Club, lots of hunting and just wanted to go as fast as possible. I thought dressage was for sissies. When I lost my nerve jumping, flatwork became more interesting. I went to Molly Sivewright at the Talland School of Equitation and rode her grand prix schoolmaster…

ONE of my favourite tricks was the Ben Hur act in which I stood on the back of two moving horses while other horses passed between them through my legs. One day it was being filmed and at the end I had to jump off the horses, run to a camera and shout “Hail Caesar!” Trouble was that the horse passing through my legs raised its head at the wrong moment and brought tears to my eyes. I half jumped and half fell off the horse and rushed as best as I could to the camera and shouted “Hail Caesar!” with a very high-pitched and squeaky voice. Fortunately we were able to record that bit again when I had recovered. That’s horses for you, never absolutely predictable.…

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BB was not always the paragon of virtue he would become. Impeccably bred by Oscar – sire of Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle winners Lord Windermere and Rock On Ruby – BB was tailedoff in his only race under Rules. Living up to his Weatherbys name Breaking Barriers, he bursts the bolts on any stable if he’s left alone. And when Georgy Armitage got on him after his first summer holiday as a leisure horse, he promptly decked her. “Before I knew it, he went bolt upright, spun round and deposited me through the back door, oops!” says Georgy. “That was a lesson in how sharp he was – and still is at the age of 20.” Since this inauspicious start, BB has subscribed to the Berkeley, Buccleuch and Bedale,…

“I’M a convert, although I won’t give up on KWPNs just yet,” laughed Anna Bostrand-Daly after her Spanish PRE Talavante De Agui (Dante) scored an elementary win at Sheepgate Equestrian, Lincolnshire. “I bought him five months ago for a client and when she decided he was too big, I kept him. I fell totally in love. He’s awesome – one of the most trainable horses I’ve sat on.” ONE TO WATCH Anna imported the six-year-old gelding’s sire, too. “I thought that if I buy the dad, I can make some,” she said. “They’re the modern Baroque type and both super-trainable, focused and willing. Dante had a six-day journey here from south of Madrid and arrived as cool as a cucumber.”…

Parwood EC, Surrey “I’VE spent a year trying to calm him down and keep a lid on it, but we’re now channelling that power and energy and he’s loving it,” said Cerys Broom of ebullient 17-year-old gelding Mr Q, who scored medium and advanced medium silver section wins. “He’s tricky and super-hot and definitely keeps me on my toes.” It was a first advanced medium for former showjumper Cerys, who started competing Mr Q a year ago. “He’s always been part of the family,” she said of the Quadrigo-sired grey, who also competed to that level with Jamie Broom. “His tempi changes are his party trick. He’s been great to learn on, and has taught me a lot.” Harriet Ford won both elementaries outright with According To Archie, the 17-year-old…

SUE EMSLEY-SMITH SUE has died, aged 76, from throat cancer. Sue was born in Bradford and brought up in Rawdon. Her family moved to Hessle when she was in her mid-teens and she completed her schooling at Beverley High School for Girls, followed by a degree in textiles. Sue was actively involved with British Riding Clubs when she lived around London, and horses were her life. She adored her thoroughbred Treasure and was a keen rider. Although less interested in competing, she very much enjoyed being involved in competition; she was a regular writer for the Harewood Combined Training Group (HCTG) weekday dressage, which she took over running. “Sue did so much both for our club, and British Eventing [BE], where she was a huge part of the organising team…

SALLY CORSCADDEN has left her role as high performance eventing director for Horse Sport Ireland (HSI). HSI said both parties “part on amicable terms”, and that it “appreciates her dedication and hard work, especially in securing team and individual silver medals during the World Equestrian Games in Tryon”. “We are grateful for the contributions that Sally has made to high-performance eventing,” said HSI CEO Denis Duggan. “We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.” Ms Corscadden said: “I want to express my gratitude to all the people who have helped and supported me as high performance director over the past six years and to the riders and owners I have worked with [during that time]. “The highlight of my tenure has been team and individual silver medals in…

jennifer.donald@futurenet.com @jen_donald I AM often asked why on earth I have been doing what I do for so long and primarily it stems from my love of jump racing and all that it entails. My enthusiasm for the sport remains as strong as when I started out. But you cannot beat having a winner and seeing how the owners react to that, as shown when The Kemble Brewery won the bumper at Cheltenham two weeks ago. The celebrations in the paddock and in the pub that night made great viewing and Cheltenham Racecourse even posted it on their Instagram account. A group of friends headed by Phil Andrews decided it would be good to have a horse and name it after their favourite Cheltenham pub, The Kemble Brewery. They called…

HORSE&HOUND IN THE SPOTLIGHT Need to know BISHOPS QUARTER Age: 16 Breeding: Irish Sport Horse by Obos Quality out of Ballydunne Beauty (by Cavalier Royale) Rider: Commandant Geoff Curran Owner: Minister For Defence and Maurice Cassidy Breeder: Ger Murphy Greatest achievements: first CSI3* puissance HOYS, first puissance Mullingar, second puissance Dublin 2022; first CSI3* puissance HOYS, first puissance Dublin, joint first puissance Royal Windsor 2023. RIDER COMMANDANT GEOFF CURRAN “PEOPLE always say to me ‘You must be very brave,’ but there are far braver people – I’m just very well mounted. Bishops Quarter has all the scope and he’ll never say no. He can be strong in the early rounds of a puissance, but when the wall gets bigger, he focuses, and it never feels like you’re jumping that high…

IT is a great shame that you rarely see horses, or any other animal, in circuses these days when they were the focal point not so long ago. It’s unthinkable that we may never again see the wonderful training of the Althoffs, the Rosaires and many others with equestrianism in their blood. My own favourite was Albert Schumann, what a dynasty of beautiful horse training is attached to his family’s name. It could be said that horses brought us circuses; are we never to applaud them again?…

RED-LETTER DAYS "I just had to point and go" Ginny Elliot "EVEN though it was a very long time ago, those are memories that will last forever,” says Ginny Elliot, who considers herself lucky to have had, in her stellar career, two standout rides that she’ll never forget. One was on Priceless the year they won Badminton in 1985, the other with Master Craftsman at the Europeans at Burghley in 1989, when they won gold. “It was rather like going along a railway track,” she says. “They were both so smooth and focused. Nothing went wrong; they did their job and all I had to do was point and go. It was quite extraordinary; they were so zoned in. If you look at the relationship that’s built up over the…

TORONTO & NORTH YORK HUNT 23 September catherine.austen@futurenet.com @cfausten123 Toronto & North York Hunt, Creemore, Canada THERE is an odd mix of the familiar and the strange to a day’s hunting in Canada. When I walked down to the barn to help plait the horses, cold, distant stars peered down at me, hounds were singing mellifluously in the kennels, and I could have been anywhere, preparing for a day with any pack. But the music belting out of the radio in the barn was pure country and western, and away in the inky darkness coyotes were yipping. On the drive north from Toronto the previous afternoon, the country rose and fell in undulating ridges, each successive ridge a little higher than the one before, each valley deeper and wilder. The…

HIGHLIGHTS 1–5 November jennifer.donald@futurenet.com @jen_donald Wetherby Racecourse, Yorks IRISH raider Gentlemansgame was heralded home as the victor of the Grade Two bet365 Charlie Hall, after a relentless duel with defending champion Bravemansgame. Paul Nicholls’ King George VI winner lost nothing in defeat, with the trainer underlining that Kempton on Boxing Day will once again be the bigger target. But when Mouse Morris sends over an inexperienced seven-year-old in only his third race over fences, it signals once again the relentless might of the nation’s dominance in the sport. IMAGE OF THE WEEK Frankie Dettori and Inspiral at the Breeders’ Cup The two horses eyeballed each other as they thundered home in this three-mile contest, with Bravemansgame seemingly travelling strongest. But the crucial final fence played a significant role and Bryan…