Show producer scores first major Hickstead win since losing leg in a riding accident

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A one-legged rider and an eight-year-old mare took top honours in today’s Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby Meeting Cob Championship, which qualified them for next month’s Agria Royal International Horse Show.

Val Sheehan originally hails from Kanturk in Co Cork, but now resides in Kent, where he also serves as a joint-master of the East Kent Hunt. His win came on board the eight-year-old grey mare Red Dove.

“She’s amazing to sit on,” he said. “We’ve had her since she was a two-year-old, and taken it very slow up to this point, but I really think she’s just about to come into herself. But even as a young horse, she was special. She has a huge fan club – everybody loves Audrey!”

Val, whose left leg was amputated eight years ago after a riding accident, also rates the cob’s rideability as one of her best traits.

“I had to learn to ride again, but she’s very forgiving,” he said. “But we have to make sure she rides well and goes for the ride judge, too, and that’s an art on its own. But she wants to do the job, and she smiles through the bridle all the time.”

Her lightness of foot, too, makes ‘Audrey’ particularly compelling.

“She’s just light across the ground in all her paces. She doesn’t hit the ground heavy; she drops into the gallop and just rides real light and fluffy for a heavyweight cob. She’s just fabulous across the ground – you’d want to hunt her all day, as they should be judged,” said Val.

For the hugely experienced producer of cobs, taking a major win in the main arena today is particularly poignant after his fight back from an injury that could have been career-ending.

“To ride in the main ring, to go champion – for somebody with one leg, well, you don’t imagine you can ever do it, but anything’s possible, isn’t it?”