“I’ve never met a horse who enjoys showjumping as much as me,” said a grinning Matt Sampson after extending his London International Horse Show winning steak on Thursday (19 December) with the flying grey Daniel..
The British showjumper teamed up with James Davenport’s 16-year-old stallion to win the CSI5* Christmas Pudding Stakes, building on his tremendous success in recent years and his Mini Major victory the previous day.
“We aim for the London International Horse Show all year – we’re very lucky to have this show in our country,” said Matt. “This is the best show in the world for us British riders – to get to ride here is one thing, to win a class here… Every year it gets better. I couldn’t be happier.”
Matt Sampson on winning at the London International: “Daniel makes my job easier”
Matt and Daniel rocketed round the 1.50m track set by Bernardo Costa Cabral for this speed class, soaring to the top of the leader board with a dazzling clear in 60.47sec. A high-calibre international field tried and failed to topple the British rider and in the end Matt won with a massive 3sec advantage over the runner-up, Frenchman Kevin Staut (Visconti Du Telman).
“Whether it’s 1.60m or 1.50m, Daniel always tries his heart out,” said Matt, who was joined at the ExCeL London on Thursday by his “lucky mascot”, his eight-year-old nephew Max, who hopes to follow in his successful uncle’s footsteps.
“Daniel is a pleasure to ride and he makes my job a lot easier. Today I just tried to do a round which I thought would suit him, because he’s doing the grand prix tomorrow [Friday, 20 December]. He’s not really a horse who likes to go in and do a slow, schooling round. He likes to go in and enjoy it. So I did a round I thought was comfortable for him, but without pushing too many boundaries, and luckily it was enough, it was great.
“It walked as quite an easy course but the fences came up a lot more quickly than it looked – it was a good course, there were faults in all sorts of different areas. So it ended up not being as fast a speed class as we thought it might.”
A top class showjumping horse
Daniel, a 16-year-old son of Heartbreaker, has been with owners James Davenport and Angelie von Essen since a two-year-old and Matt only started riding the flying grey last year.
“Daniel is incredible and I’m very fortunate to ride him, so thank you to James and Angelie for allowing me to have him,” said Matt.
While the flying grey is buzzy in the collecting ring and really lights up in the prize-giving with his ears pricked forward, Matt explained that he’s super easy at home and in the ring he’s just keen to get on with the job he loves.
“He gets so excited when he’s going in the ring or for the prize-giving, anything like that, but when he’s doing his job, he’s totally focussed,” revealed Matt. “He’s just a top class horse. Everything about him.
“He’s 16 years old now, so that’s just a massive credit to Davenport Stables for the way they’ve looked after him and produced him. I’m very lucky.”
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