Placido — Known as Angus this was my first taste of grand prix horse power, although I rode him from the age of six onwards, he was a different calibre of horse. Not really something for a young junior girl but he taught me to handle electric/crazy-sharp horses and that was more valuable than just winning U21 medals. We did come second in the freestyle at the junior Europeans in Saumur but as the marks were accumulative from the previous tests we missed out on a medal. He retired too young due to a tumour on his tendon that kept growing. He is still in the field at home
