'Perfect' mare delivers

Young horses are in the spotlight as two British senior squad riders showcase future stars, while an experienced horse and a teenager cement their partnership

- PIPPA ROOME

A MARE nicknamed “Little Miss Perfect” took The Howden Way national seven-year- old championship for rider Tom Jackson.

“My team call her that because I always come in and say she was perfect – she just tries her hardest and that’s a big attribute in our sport. The horses don’t have to be the most talented if they have the right brain,” said Tom of winner Midnight Endeavour. “We backed her as a four-year-old and every time she steps up she keeps delivering.”

Hugh and Pam Jarvis’s Irish Sport Horse – by Future Trend – was one of only two horses to finish on their dressage score in this CCI3*-S. “She’s a little dinger across country – she absolutely loves it and I just sit and steer,” said Tom, who also won this class when it ran at Thoresby in 2020, on HH Moonwalk.

Yasmin Ingham and Gypsie Du Loir established a clear lead with their 21.9 dressage and held it with 4.8 time-faults across country, but the final fence down dropped them to second. Both Gypsie and 10th-placed Goliath Du Loir joined Yasmin as five-year-olds from the same French stud as Yasmin’s world champion Banzai Du Loir.

Kitty King led throughout the 105-strong six-year-old championship, run at CCI2*-S level under The Howden Way banner, on Kantango, owned by Penelope Holley, Joanna Jones, Jane Tolley and Kitty’s mother Jane Boggis. The rider knew she could afford a few seconds over the showjumping time and delivered with just 0.4 of a time-fault to add to her 22.7 dressage score.