Olympic eventer Alex Hua Tian this month entered his first showing classes and says he’ll be back for more.
Alex competed at the National Hunter Show at Bury Farm, Bucks, with Rosemary Penn’s five-year-old Redpath Rhyme.
The mare started eventing with Alex this season. At Bury Farm, they competed in the working hunter, ridden hunter and ridden sport horse classes, coming fourth in the latter.
“As I show horses as well, I asked if he would take one of my former in-hand horses to compete at the Sport Horse Breeding (GB) finals for her to get some ring experience, despite the fact that she is now eventing,” said Rosemary.
“Everyone was absolutely wonderful in trying to give Alex a crash course in the art of showing. He felt totally out of his comfort zone, but people went out of their way to explain the complicated nuances of the discipline,” she added.
“Only when I said I would have to shorten my mare’s tail did he go into a state of apoplectic shock. It is just not the done thing in eventing to compete without a long tail!”
And Alex said he enjoyed it.
“I didn’t realise quite how big a deal the show was when Rosemary asked me to have a go,” he admitted.
“I just thought it would be a good experience for the horse.
“Thank goodness I had some advice or I would have made some terrible faux pas – my white numnah and black tack.
“It’s a good a lesson for young horses,” he added.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (20 September 2012)
