'We were eventing just down the road'

An Olympic eventer is rewarded with his first-ever HOYS ticket after taking a detour and a competitive mare continues her winning streak

- SARAH RADFORD

TOM MCEWEN took a detour from eventing at Chard to jump Kilcannon Mischeif round Bicton’s Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) grade C qualifier, cruising to a one-second win.

The eight-year-old mare was bought by Tom’s mother Ali from Goresbridge Go For Gold sale as a three-year-old, and had a strong eventing record up to intermediate, but switched to showjumping this year.

“She has a good jump, so we thought it was worth trying her as a showjumper,” said Tom, who jumped clear on the mare for one time-penalty in the two-star 1.45m grand prix at the London leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour.

“Being an event horse, she’s used to grass and the arena at Bicton is amazing to jump on. She has been jumping a couple of bigger classes so it was an easier one for her.”

Tom beat fellow eventer/showjumper Jess Baugh (Wellview Luxigraaf) to the win, and Alice Watson and her home-bred Extra Zest TH, by Big Star out of her great mare Billy Lemon, was just 0.64sec behind Jess to be third.