The first championship of the 2015 Horse of the Year Show has gone to Chloe Vaughan’s Carnsdale Dreamcatcher, who claimed the hotly contested Irish Gateway small hunter title.
Produced by Melanie Booth, the gelding has previously been campaigned as a show hunter pony and a riding horse, but seems to have found his niche as a small hunter.
Small he may be, but he did a bit of giant killing en route to the top of his class at Birmingham, for which 28 had qualified. Among those he vanquished were Hello Dolly, who had landed the supreme honours at the British Show Horse Association Hunter Show last month, and Pearl Underwood’s consistent campaigner, Mr Socks.
Sally Ann Cowley’s Miracle Mickey, a former intermediate hunter champion at HOYS, was second, with Hello Dolly third.
“Dreams really do come true,” said Vaughan after her win, while producer Booth added: “I’m in total shock. He went mega — huge well done, Chloe.”
Another popular win was that of Lisha Leeman’s Kellythorpes Strike A Pose, who headed the pony section of the Cuddy in-hand supreme. “Phoebe” is out of Meacham Mambo No. 5, whom Leeman lost to colic last weekend. Leeman’s Kellythorpes Ooh-La-La was runner-up in the horse section to the Wood family’s Romanno Royale.
Image: Carnsdale Dreamcatch in the small hunter class at the Horse of the Year Show, by ES Photography, courtesy of the Horse of the Year Show