Working wonder wins twice in a row

Craig Kiddier partnered Susan Tennant’s nine-year-old gelding Mulberry Lane to a back-to-back triumph in the Saracen Horse Feeds Supreme Working Hunter Championship.

“He is incredible, I will never have a horse like him again. He was second yesterday in the Middleweights and then went champion today. They just don’t make them like him,” said Craig, who was making his debut jumping at this show when he won last year.

“It was a lot of pressure,” he said, “but he is quite hard to beat if he jumps clear because he is so true to type. You’re always aware anything could happen but he went out and did it.”

The working hunter track was missing some familiar elements, with ground affected by the previous days rain, but remained a fitting test, although it posed no problems for the OBOS Quality gelding.

“It didn’t have the ditches and hedges like last year because of the ground conditions, but it took some jumping and there were still some questions,” Craig said. “It was easy to think you were going clear but then you had quite a skinny vertical downhill to finish, so you weren’t clear until you were home. He is bred to jump — he is just a legend, there is nothing more you can say about him.”

Craig added that claiming the sash in Hickstead’s atmospheric International Arena remained “just as special this time as it was last time”.

“I had a few horses leave me at the start of the year and I was a bit down about everything and then you get on him and he wins for you,” he said. 

Last year’s Amateur Riding Horse champion Sophie Openshaw and her mother Lynn’s eight-year-old mare New Illusion went one better to claim the De La Hey Family Supreme Riding Horse title.

“Winning the amateurs was insane but winning the opens is a whole different kettle of fish,” said 24-year-old Sophie. “I couldn’t stop crying earlier!”

Sophie and her mother Lynn bought 'Lily' two years ago when she came up for sale at producer Jack Moore’s yard in Cheshire. “She was in production with Jack as an Intermediate. They were selling her, and we were selling our hunter, so we jumped at the opportunity to buy her and it’s paid off,” she said.

“She’s such a consistent mare, you couldn’t ask any more of her. She always goes out and gives her all. We just trusted that it would get recognised today. She has that charisma and that sparkle, that look at me factor, you can’t ignore her.”

Sophie, who is based in Mottram, Cheshire, runs her own business providing facials and skin care. “I train people to do those too, so I am very busy, so Jack is the guy to applaud, he’s the works day in day out with her,” she added. 

For results click here.

Watch the daily highlights video here. 

Tickets for the Agria Royal International Horse Show (24-28 July) can be bought online or at the gate. Watch the livestream at Hickstead.TV