Maddie Oldfield’s cob Miss Moneypenny III might only be 15.2hh with a bushy tail and feathers, but that hasn’t stopped her tackling CIC* events this season. Standby to be inspired…
“Miss Moneypenny III (Penny) encourages the old ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ cliche. Penny is only 15.2hh on her tiptoes, her breed in her passport is ‘horse’ and she used to be at a riding school but got kicked out for bad behaviour.
“We’ve spent the past five years learning about the world of eventing together. I couldn’t fold over a fence, couldn’t see a stride, and often forgot my courses, Penny liked to add silly little strides in front of fences, and she was fat and lazy. But now we’ve completed our first one-star events this year.
“Our aim for the first one, Chilham Castle, was to finish on a sub-100 score, but more importantly to get round safely and have fun. The dressage setting and wearing a tailcoat was amazing — we performed an obedient and quiet test, just lacking a bit of pizzazz for 53.3.
“A huge and wide showjumping course left us with two poles down, but an amazing clear cross-country ended the day, although we did feel slightly out of place among the other horses with their famous parents!
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“We tackled South of England CIC* for our last event of the season and Penny didn’t disappoint — a 0.3 of a penalty improvement on the dressage, one pole and a clear cross-country. We’ve done all of our ‘firsts’ together — our first British Eventing events, first British Showjumping shows, first time hunting and first beach rides. She’s my horse of a lifetime.”
