A shell-shocked Loraine Homer took the ladies’ hunter title at Horse Of The Year Show (HOYS) on Friday evening riding Jonas O’Shannon, a horse who was having only his third outing of the season.
Originally pulled in the second group of horses to ride, the Romany JoJo five-year-old gave judge Jane Owen a superb ride to secure Loraine’s first HOYS victory.
After repeating “I can’t believe it” for at least 10 times, Loraine finally came back to earth.
“He is the most amazing horse to sit on, and he has manners to burn. I’ve always wanted to come down that centre line,” said the delighted rider, who bought the upstanding 16.3hh gelding from Ian and Tockie McKie.
The much-heralded Search For A Star series of 2011 drew to a close in the international arena as the eight section winners came before Marjorie Ramsay and Robert Oliver for the final time in the overall championship.
After giving another good account of himself, the charismatic cob Rockstar took the title for South Wales rider Paul Isaac.
“I was happy just to qualify and compete here, but to win our class and then the championship is unbelievable,” said Paul, who had little time to make up his mind on his final show.
“I thought we just had to walk, trot and canter round together,” he said.
“This cob caught the eye straight away in his class. He’s a very good type, gave good rides, and he is one that will surely go on,” said Robert Oliver.
Taking the reserve was Zoe Whittle with her winning riding horse Mettlewood Mr Fahrenheit who never turned a hair or flicked an ear in the international arena.
“He does have the most fantastic personality,” said Zoe who bought Mr Fahrenheit unbroken.
Stay in touch with all the action from HOYS on Horseandhound.co.uk throughout the show and enjoy over 20 pages of reports in next Thursday’s magazine
Friday showing results
Mobile Phones 4 Business ladies hunter of the year (Mr R Ramsay, Ms J Owen).– 1, L Homer’s Jonas O’Shannon; 2, M Lewis’s Lorenzo; 3, V Scouller’s Rebonjour.
SEIB Search For A Star championship (Mrs M Ramsay, Mr R Oliver).– ch, P Isaac’s Rockstar; res, Z Whittle’s Mettlewood Mr Fahrenheit.
