Mulberry Lane lands first supreme for Kiddier

Craig Kiddier lifted the Winston Churchill Cup today for the first time, riding Susan Tennant’s nine-year-old gelding Mulberry Lane, winner of Friday’s Saracen Horse Feeds Supreme Working Hunter Championship.

The pair had finished in the overall reserve position in the Barberstown Castle Supreme Horse final 12 months ago, but today Craig went all out to impress in his individual show – which included jumping the famous Cornishman fence and producing an effortless gallop along the long side of the International Arena. It was enough to seal the deal with the panel of three judges Frances Youngs, Joy Hall and Philip Hilton, who gave them 28 points out of a possible 30.

“I was speechless, and I’m not normally! I am so excited because he is owned by Sue Tennant and she is so loyal to me. We have a standing joke because I call her Smiling Susan because she’s not particularly smiley, but today, surely she is going to smile!” said Craig.

Sue had bought the son of OBOS Quality at Dublin Horse Show as a three-year-old. “She sent him to me and was actually unsure what he was going to be. He was just such a big raw frame of a horse, but his limbs were always very correct. He was just broken when he came to me and I’ve had him ever since.”

Having won the RIHS Working Hunter two years running, Craig was delighted to land the overall supreme. “To me, he’s like a working hunter should be – a show horse that jumps – and that’s what makes him so special,” he added.

In reserve was Oliver Hood and Catherine Dickens’ Carter’s Top Gun, who had just picked up their ticket to the supreme when winning the Surrey Envelopes BSHA Supreme Cob Championship earlier on Sunday.

The pair had won the cob championship at the 2023 Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby Meeting, but this was their first time winning the tricolour at the Royal International. “He is a little bit older now and bigger and stronger,” said Oliver. “He just enjoys his job, he’s always up for it, and that makes it easier for me.”

In the Supreme Products Supreme Pony championship, two ponies from the same show producer got exactly the same score of 26, and had to ride off for honours. After some deliberation, the judges decided to award top prize to Reise Shakespeare on Elizabeth Gribbin’s six-year-old Rosscon Copycat, winners of the Enablelink Supreme Show Hunter Pony Championship.

Reise, 19, is in his final year of Show Hunter Pony classes. “What a way to finish!” he said. “I planned my show before I went in, and he did it exactly as I wanted, he was just superb. It was quite tense, waiting for the marks to be read out!”

In reserve, also from the Team Jinks yard, was the Peter & Pip Baker-Beall BSPS Supreme Mini Pony Champion, Newoak Midnight Blue. The six-year-old part-bred Dartmoor is owned by Charlotte Mennie, and ridden by Violet Mennie.

Earlier in the day, four-year-old Rhos Equinox belied his years to take the Enablelink Supreme Show Pony Championship for Molly Hendy, 11. The pony, known as “Jasper” at home, is owned by Jill Godden and produced by Essex-based Elliee Stunt. “I’ve not been riding him very long, I have only ridden him at five shows. It feels very good to win on a four-year-old."