The last few weeks have been both busy and successful for the Knight Bridge horses – not to mention exhausting for their owners, riders and drivers!
Washington has achieved some great results recently, winning a Prix St Georges at Kingston Maurward College with over 71%, as well as being highly placed at Hartpury Premier League. The classes at Hartpury were huge for a competition of this level, with nearly thirty competitors in just one of the Prix St Georges sections, and forty in the Intermediaire I. Washington, however, rose to the occasion and produced two lovely tests for a third place in both classes. The Intermediaire I, in particular, was one of his best performances to date and he was duly rewarded with 69.2% from three well-known and respected judges, despite a mistake in the two times. He has now been officially selected for Deauville CDI3* in just a couple of weeks time, so to produce such a great test was an ideal preparation for his biggest challenge to date.
Washington’s owner, Judy Sharrock, also enjoyed success of her own with Karina, gaining a whopping 76% in their first ever Novice Freestyle to Music at the Sparsholt Festival of Dressage, beating some well-known and established combinations. Karina is an elegant horse with a lot of promise and Judy seems to have forged a great relationship with this lovely mare.
Emma Burge’s home-bred carriage driving ponies, Capitola Belle de Jour and Capitola Mr Houdini, had an outstanding win for the second year running in the Advanced Pony Pairs class at the recent Sandringham National Driving Trials. Drew and Alex divided the back stepping responsibilities between them, an experience they will be repeating next weekend at Catton Driving Trials.
Finally, there is a new addition to the yard. Benvenita (‘Benni’) is a four year old mare by Benvenuto, owned by Fay Thomas. She is a big, rangy horse with a huge engine and, along with Fay’s other mare, Suilven, is a very exciting prospect. We are very much looking forward to seeing how this impressive looking and powerful horse develops.