Posted: 26th September 2018 | Back to news feed
The Shearwater Young Horse Finals took place over the last weekend of September at the LeMieux National Dressage Championships. As always the popular classes drew big audiences to watch the top ten four, five and six year olds from around the country come forward to be judged by Ulf Möller, Maria Colliander and Eva Möller.
The top four in each age section headed to Sunday’s final where they were then ridden by ride judge and international dressage rider Eva Möller who commented that the horses in each of the sections were of a very high standard again.
The Four-Year-Old Final belonged to the Hawtins Stud who claimed both first and second place with Hawtins Lirica and Hawtins Fianello. Hawtins Lirica is a chestnut mare by Lemony’s Nicket out of Elite Hawtins Delizia by DimaggioBrentano II. She took the top spot in the class ridden by Lucinda Elliott. Hawtins Fianello is a gelding by Floriscount out of Hawtins Cardinal Virtue by CardinarWerther and is ridden by Bryony Goodwin.
About the mare Lucinda commented “I am absolutely thrilled with her, she just takes everything in. She is definitely very special, she has a great brain and engine and is also very trainable.”
The Six-Year-Old title also went to a Hawtins mare, the very special Hawtins San Floriana, who has previously won both the Four and Five-year -old title and was ridden by Charlotte Dujardin. Charlotte explained that she had spotted the mare a few years ago but it had taken her a while to be able to buy her and she is now jointly owned by herself and Carl Hester.
The expressive mare is by San Amour out of Elite Hawtins Floriana by Florestan. Eva commented after the ride that “the horse is beautifully trained with fantastic scope. She feels very elastic and has everything you would wish for in a future horse.”
Described by Charlotte as a “Rolls-Royce” to ride she also went onto say that she is a mare who loves her work and is always enthusiastic and expressive. On the Shearwater classes themselves Charlotte said “they are great for the younger horses and it is good to have classes for both 4,5 and 6 year olds. Having someone else ride them is perfect to highlight how they actually go and help work on their training.”
The runner up place in the Six-Year-Old Final went to Sara Gallop on BKS Fantasia who was described by Eva as “a very willing horse who likes to please the rider.”
An elated Kerry Mackin won the Five-Year-Old Final with last year’s Four-Year-Old runner up Izonik. Kerry was having her final ride on the striking stallion by Zonik x Jazz as he has now been sold to Rowan Bryson to take over the ride. Kerry was thrilled to hear Eva’s comments after her ride this time as she really felt he had come on in the last year. It was an emotional win for Kerry who described Izonik as a ‘real pleaser’. Eva went onto say about the exciting young stallion “I remember this horse from last year and he has matured on. He is a good strong horse with elasticity and I like him a lot.”
The second place slot went to Nikki Barker riding Iwan, a gelding by Charmeur who also impressed Eva with his nice forward attitude and uphill paces.
Shearwater are thrilled to continue to support these important and educational classes which have seen many champions graduate from.
Full results
Four Year Old Finals
1st Lucinda Elliot on Hawtins Lirica
2nd Bryony Goodwin on Hawtins Fianello
3rd Dan Greenwood on SJL Baks Zacco
4th Matt Frost on G Star
Five Year Old Finals
1st Kerry Mackin on Izonik
2nd Nikki Barker on Iwan
3rd Mathew Baker on Kiss and Tell
4th Amy Woodhead on Hero Sean
Six Year Old Finals
1st Charlotte Dujardin on Hawtins San Floriana
2nd Sara Gallop on BKS Fantasia
3rd Amy Woodhead on MSJ Zonetta
4th Alice Oppenheimer on Headmore Bella Ruby
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