Showjumping Graham Fletcher
Nicola Barry heads the newcomers second round to land her first HOYS ticket
South View Equestrian Centre, Cheshire NICOLA BARRY claimed her first ticket to Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), when her father Jim Barry’s Be Caprivi (Leo) won the Connolly’s Red Mills newcomers second round.
“We knew the last round would be pretty testing, so we hired Weston Lawns a few days ago to try some bigger fences and that did the job.
“You needed a careful horse here and Leo is brave and supercareful and he didn’t waste any time,” said Nicola.
Leo, a Balloon six-year-old who was bred by Shane Breen, was bought last September and he proved in great form by jumping clear every day for Nicola in Bonheiden, the pair finally winning the six-year-old grand prix this spring.
The 72 starters in the first round took on a good course set by Raf Suarez, with 19 clears and nine reaching the final round.
Triple clears were slow in coming and it was Nicola and Leo who produced the first of them
from seventh draw.
“The plan was to go clear again which would earn a ticket to the newcomers masters at the national championships, but the win took us straight to Birmingham,” concluded Nicola, who owns Buckaroo Equine and spends most of her time saddle fitting.
Just one other rider maintained a zero score to take the next ticket to HOYS, lastdrawn Elizabeth Forrester, who produced a super-cool clear from Furst Bismark (Codie).
“Codie has a textbook style of jumping and he is a clear round specialist,” said Elizabeth, who bought the Canturo eight-yearold stallion from Addington’s Brightwell sales five years ago. “He has confidently stepped up to this level and I can’t fault him. I have all the confidence in the world in him as he does everything he can to get me out of trouble. He also has a fabulous temperament, as he served three mares last night and then came here and took everything in his stride,”
ON A HIGH
IN the Equitop Myoplast Foxhunter second round, only the top two produced double clears to claim the HOYS tickets.
Six combinations went through to the jump-off, in which Derek Morton and KBS High Quality were the first to maintain a clean sheet.
Derek and Zoe Snedker’s OBOS KBS High Quality sevenyear-old were still on a high having earned a team gold medal at the FEI veteran championships in Germany two weeks before.
“We missed two qualifiers while we were away, so this had to count and, apart from nearly going the wrong way at one point, everything went to plan.
“This horse has an incredible amount of talent and I have yet to ride to a fence I didn’t think he could jump,” said Derek, who also has High Quality through to the grade C final.
The long journey north proved worthwhile for Nicole Pavitt who, despite a stumble after the third fence, rode the only other double clear, on Edinburgh (Eddie).
Although Nicole first started riding Carol Littlehales’ Canturano nine-year-old at the beginning of the year, the pair have only done a handful of shows due to Nicole dislocating her shoulder in May.
“I was going for a turn into the double, but missed it because of the stumble, but it didn’t unsettle Eddie at all,” concluded Nicole.
The biggest money earner of the weekend was local rider Emily Ward, with a winning double in the 1.35m and national 1.40m riding Millioninmind.