‘It was touch and go!’ Rider who broke her wrist straight after qualifying lands HOYS title seven weeks later

A rider who broke her wrist “straight after” qualifying for Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) has claimed the NAF Five Star bronze league championship, although her appearance at the final was “touch and go”.

Katie Benbow collected a ticket with her nine-year-old mare Latico at Northcote seven weeks ago but shortly afterwards a young horse she was hacking tripped and fell.

“I broke my wrist and it needed plating,” Katie said. “I had friends and family keeping [Latico] fit for me. I hadn’t been back on her at all til three weeks ago when I had a little hack to ease myself back into it. I needed to see if my wrist would stand up to HOYS – I only entered two days before the entries closed.”

“The surgeon has done a fab job and the physio worked wonders,” she added. “I’ve been very lucky it hasn’t given me any grief riding. I jumped at Aintree last Wednesday and Stainsby on Sunday and that was it. We completely winged it.”

Katie and Latico are no strangers to national championships, having taken titles twice previously. The mare, who she bought as an unbacked four-year-old, won the British novice championship in 2024 and the amateur 1.10m championship at Aintree last November.

Latico does have a quirk – she is not a fan of rugs in prizegivings, dumping her rider on her first championship lap of honour at Stoneleigh.

“I said to Frank [Grunnill, steward] that I was going to have to take the rug off, I can’t canter round with a rug on, I’ll genuinely end up on the floor, which wouldn’t be good just after breaking my wrist!” she said.

“He said ‘you’ve got to walk in with it’. I said that was fine but I couldn’t canter. We did the pictures then whipped it off!”

2026 bronze league final: the jump-off

Eight riders made the jump-off for the bronze league final, and all the early contenders lowered one of the last two fences.

By the final few riders, there had been just one steady clear from Martin Brake (Juduela), whose lead Katie overturned by more than 7sec. A closing bid from Anabel Cluer (Ciao bella Z) lowered the winning margin to 1sec.

“Watching the last one go was a bit nerve-wracking. She looked really fast over the first half but I think I had done two turns and I don’t think she got one of them,” Katie said.

“Buying her a quirky, unbacked horse has definitely paid off,” she added. “She is one in a million and has been an awesome little mare for me. She’s not big but has a lot of stride and is a little power pack.

“She definitely has a heart of gold and loves her jumping, especially a jump-off!”

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