Gmail, the seven-year-old Cornet Obolensky gelding who qualified for three finals at the Horse of the Year Show, attracted a £5m offer, but his rider and owner, Leo Lamb and his mother Carron Nicol, were unable to part with him. “All the top people want to buy him but we want to keep hold of him,” said Leo. “I think Mum was like ‘We should sell this horse’; it’s hard to turn those offers down but she knows how hard it is to find superstars like him. She’s been doing this 50 years and he’s probably the best she’s ever had.”
When Times Kismet was an embryo, her breeder was told not to bother; she was too small to stick in the recipient mare. Thankfully, Peter Belshaw carried on regardless and the result, eight years later, is a mare Charlotte Dujardin has flagged as a future Olympic horse – and with whom she won the Dressage Future Elite Championship at Horse of the Year Show last night (5 October) on a score of 83.75%. “[When she was an embryo] they said it was too small and wouldn’t stick but Peter gave it a go – thank god he’s as stubborn as I am! He didn’t give up, made sure he gave everything the best chance, and if he hadn’t, she wouldn’t be here. I’m so grateful Peter’s been able to produce such an incredible mare, and so exciting for the future,” said Charlotte.
Read what Charlotte had to say about Kismet’s HOYS performance
A four-year-old bought at auction last October cemented his owners’ belief in him as he was crowned National Pony Society/Baileys Horse Feeds M&M ridden Welsh section C pony of the year at HOYS. Vicky Smith rode Kyle McClements and Christopher Tait’s eye-catching stallion Blaencila Rhodri into the top spot. The triumph was Kyle and Christopher’s first HOYS victory. Rhodri was bought from last year’s Welsh Pony and Cob Society sales. Christopher admitted that he thought the pony ‘wasn’t for him’ when he saw a photograph of him ahead of the sale: “But when I saw his former owner, Simon Charlesworth, walking him down to the pens from the car park I said to my partner [Kyle] ‘I want that horse’,” Christopher said. “I was determined to bring him home with us.”
Find out more about Blaencila Rhodri
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