Hickstead crowd bids farewell to Adventure De Kannan

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Adventure De Kannan took part in a special retirement ceremony just before today's Al Shira’aa Derby.

Together with Ireland's Trevor Breen, 'Addy' has won most of Hickstead’s biggest classes, including the British Speed Derby, the Eventing Grand Prix, the All England Grand Prix, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the British Jumping Derby.

He continued to compete at the highest level despite an operation to remove his right eye in 2013.

Addy took centre stage in the International Arena for one last time, just before this year's Hickstead Derby - a class he won in 2014 and has been placed in many times.

The horse was given a garland of apples and carrots, while his owner Karen Swann was also presented with a gift. Then Trevor unsaddled Addy and led him out of the arena where he made his name.

"Without a doubt I owe a lot of my career to Addy, he has been by best horse for the majority of my career," said an obviously emotional Trevor.

"He won classes for me week in, week out, year in and year out. We'd go to any show in the world - Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Hickstead, Dublin, and he always tried his best - and that's all I could ask for.

"He is an absolute gem of a horse in every possible way, it just shows his heart, his attitude. For one single horse to have all those skills to win all those different classes is incredible, he has a will to win."

"He's unbelievable and I'm going to miss him."

Watch the video of the retirement ceremony here.