The season’s most competitive hunter showdown took place at the 2021 Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), as six immaculate contenders battled it out for the Catplant Group of Companies Ltd show hunter of the year championship.
The top two lightweights, View Point (Robert Walker) and Glenkeeran Dance In The Deep (Camilla Stowell Davies) met with the best of the middleweights, Bloomfield Eloquence (Loraine Homer) and Mardi Gras (Aimee Stunt). The leading heavyweights, Dublins Street Fighter (Matthew Ainsworth) and Bowland Lucky Slipper (Magnus Nicholson), then completed the set.
It was a stunning display with each combination looking worthy of the championship spots, but it was Jill Day’s View Point and his trusty pilot Robert Walker who were judges Mary Low and Louise Daly’s choice for the overall award.
“Sean” now becomes one of the few horses to have won the hunter of the year title at HOYS three times during a single career; he was also the victor in 2017 and 2018.
Robert proved just what a showman he is as he made the most of his lap of honour in front of the elated crowd.
When he left the ring, he leant onto Sean’s neck and told him ‘good boy’ before jumping off to watch his 17-year-old son, Sam Walker, blow a hunting horn as a tribute to those figures of equestrian sport we have lost over the past two years.
Loraine Homer secured the reserve spot on Angie Coggin’s delightful grey gelding Bloomfield Eloquence, who shone under the spotlight and soaked up the electric atmosphere on his first HOYS appearance.
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