MY EVENTER HUSBAND

BETTER known as an event rider, Kathy Staples hadn’t realised she had qualified for the prelim silver regional until she received an email from British Dressage informing her that she had done so.

The wife of Australian international event rider Brook won her biggest dressage title to date on the aptly-named 15hh pocket rocket seven-year-old, Micro Man.

“We’ve been so busy eventing that I hadn’t picked up on it and only decided to give it a whirl at the last minute,” said Kathy, who has a three-year-old daughter and runs a 25-horse yard as well as riding seven to eight horses a day on top of teaching.

Kathy has trained the gelding, who came over from Ireland just backed 18 months ago, with help from Brook.

“He won most of his competitions over the winter and excelled himself today. Brook is great at flatwork; I couldn’t have done this without him,” she added.