Linsfort Ear To The Ground

Winners of the SEIB Search for a Star finals often go on to achieve great things. Alex Robinson meets the connections of the 2019 overall champion

- Alex Robinson

OWNER/RIDER LISA SERGEANT

“I LOST my former dressage horse to arthritis in November 2016 and I was umming and aahing about getting another; I decided I couldn’t not have a horse in my life. At the time, I had a pony on loan and had taken up jumping; it was a bit of a mid-life crisis as I hadn’t jumped in a very long time.

“One evening I was scrolling through Facebook and saw this beautiful five-year-old Connemara gelding. It was Linsfort Ear To The Ground, known as Leo. He’d come over from Ireland as a four-year-old and hadn’t been broken in long.

“As soon as I sat on him, I loved him. He’d been started off so well. I even popped a jump on him, which was a massive deal for me, and he’s been with me ever since. He goes beautifully and my dressage training background means he can perform quite technical moves, such as half-pass.

“We developed our partnership and as I got a bit braver with my jumping, we did some cross-country. In 2018, we signed up for the Wobbleberry Challenge and in 2019 we completed our first one-day event.

“Our SEIB Search for a Star [SFAS] journey started when we won our first qualifier at Osbaldeston. We hadn’t done loads of workers; Leo loves being outdoors and can get a little claustrophobic inside, so we’ve always focused on cross-country.