An Blog Entry By Our MD, Ashley On One Of Her Favourite Equestrian Events:
One of the highlights in my calendar is the Horse Of The Year Show. If I can combine meetings/work with a trip up to this iconic show, I always try!
This year I had a number of sponsored riders competing there, including show riders Loraine Homer who is sponsored by one of my brands Aloeride, Verdo Horse Bedding’s ‘fan of the brand’ Jo Bates, and dressage riders Matt Hicks who is associated Childéric Saddles and Michael Eilberg who is sponsored by Shadow Horse.
Verdo Horse Bedding and Timothy Foxx Clothing were also in the shopping village, so yesterday was a great excuse to have a wander around, browse and catch up with press and riders.
As well as seeing some of the UK’s finest show riders in action, I also bumped into a couple of familiar faces doing a spot of retail therapy including show rider Katie Jerram and top dressage rider Spencer Wilton, both of whom were competing at the show.
I got chatting to Spencer and in conversation I asked him how his horse was coping with the main arena and he said that he was doing really well and that it was a real eye opener for a dressage horse whose first experiences of miniatures and scurry driving were yesterday!
It really made me stop and appreciate just how well these show horses are trained to cope with the huge amount of distractions and yet perform (mostly) foot perfect under pressure. Not only do their riders put a massive amount of preparation into their performance under saddle, but also to prepare any horse for the big crowds and the even bigger atmosphere in the main rings is a massive credit to the riders and trainers.
In the Mount St John Future Elite Dressage Championship, Matt finished fifth, Spencer was placed third and the winner was Michael Eilberg. Fingers crossed now for Loraine and Jo who will be competing over the next few days! Good luck Ladies!
