Connemara gelding Spinway Colm and Hartpury University student Daisy Beards shone the brightest in the 2024 SEIB Search For A Star supreme championship at Your Horse Live. The pair led the ridden supreme field before being called forward to lift this year’s overall supreme crown.
Colm, a 12-year-old pure-bred Connemara gelding, is owned by Stoneleigh Riding Club member Daisy and her mother Fiona. They qualified for the supreme after winning the first-ever British Riding Club show horse or pony final.
The pair are relative newcomers to the show ring and have thrived in multiple disciplines during their partnership, including in dressage and eventing.
Daisy, 17, is studying agriculture and she qualified for the SFAS finals at Vale View EC. Remarkably, this season was the first she has competed in the show ring.
“Aside from a few local shows when I was a child, I’ve never done any showing,” confirmed Daisy. “My sister saw the new SFAS riding club class on Facebook and while I was a bit dubious, we decided to give it a go. To our surprise, we qualified for Your Horse Live on our second go.”
Colm has been based with the family since he was a four-year-old.
“We’ve learnt and grown together,” Daisy continued. “He’s made me into something I am quite proud of.”
Daisy’s most-loved discipline is dressage, and the pair are regulars at the winter and summer championships.
“He always brings home sashes and rugs,” Daisy said. “While I love dressage, Colm loves jumping and we’ve done British Eventing for the past few years. He’s even been hunting with my sister. He really is a true all-rounder. At home, he’s cheeky and his life revolves around food. Though he’s a legend. He’s utterly bombproof, probably because he lives on a farm. He takes everything in his stride and while it’s taken a while for him to get to grips with it all, and he’s still learning, once he picks something up there is no stopping him.”
Daisy aims to “take showing a bit more seriously” after her 2024 SEIB Search For A Star supreme triumph: “It’s been daunting as it’s completely new, but everyone has been so helpful and supportive. I’m still in shock that we won. I forgot my number so when they called us out my reaction was a bit delayed. It was so overwhelming to be chosen as supreme as the standard was so high.”
The SEIB Search For A Star in-hand supreme sash was scooped by Claire Crerand leading her 10-year-old part-bred mare Tambrook Prayer In C, winner of the in-hand plaited ponies.
“Lucy” is sired by coloured stallion Roquefort out of Copybush Catchlight. Claire’s mother, Julie Richardson, bought Lucy for Claire as a birthday present in June.
Prior to her joining Claire and Julie, Lucy bred a foal and she’s only ever been lightly shown as a hunter pony.
“I bought her to eventually become my next ridden horse,” said Claire, who runs her own rosette business and is also a commercial HGV lorry driver. “We bought her by chance; we went to see another horse at Nicola Taylor’s yard and he wasn’t suitable, but we tried Lucy – who had arrived earlier that week – and she was perfect.”
Claire last rode at Your Horse Live in the veteran final three years ago on her late Arab.
“She really was Miss Dependable and we’ve been looking for a replacement ever since we lost her,” Claire continued. “We hope Lucy will be a small hack, though we’ve been told by judges that we should put her back in foal and compete her in-hand again next year. We’ll see how she settles back into the ridden job over winter and then decide on our plans. She can be a typical mare and she knows she’s very pretty, but she’s got a good temperament.
“I couldn’t do this without Mum,” Claire added. “Mum does the horses everyday, and I go up to ride three or four times a week.”
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