A five-year-old gelding belied his lack of experience to land the 2018 Ruckleigh School Supreme Pony of the Year in the closing evening performance at the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS).
Charlotte Read’s Carmens Novello, a part-bred Arab ridden by his producer Lucy Glover gave a neat and tidy show under judges Jeff Osborne and Mark Tamplin to top a strong field of pony champions, which included the 2017 supreme pony Thistledown Van-Der-Vaart, who produced a challenging show — featuring a rein back — with jockey Lily Richardson and handler Sharn Linney
The young leading man Novello has been lightly shown this term and his tally includes championships at Midland County, Nottingham as well as overall supreme at Royal Norfolk.
Charlotte bought the pony after HOYS last year, where he competed in the show hunter pony ranks and Lucy has since produced him as a show pony.
“I’m so pleased with him; he’s not done a lot this year and has only been out about 10 times,” said Lucy after her part-bred win. “He has the most amazing temperament.”
Charlotte’s son James will take the ride next season. Novello also competed in the Kathleen Wood Children’s Riding Pony of the Year earlier in the week where he took fifth place.
Also in the mix for the supreme title were Miranda Wallace’s two intermediate stars Mexican Summer (show hunter type) and Forgelands Hyde Park (show riding type), the latter producing a foot-perfect show with canter transitions and a flawless rein back.
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Gwen Rae’s Fell stallion Greenholme Emblem also gave a delightful show for his producer Kirsty Aird, who had ridden the eight-year-old to land the overall mountain and moorland working hunter pony championship on Thursday.
While the pre-judging saw superbly strong quality, several of the combinations attempted rein backs during their individual shows but failed to pull them off.
Full report from HOYS in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale Thursday 11 October. For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday