Louise Harwood has paid tribute to Mr Potts, the home-bred half-draught horse who completed 12 five-star events, conquering the biggest cross-country tracks in the world, who has died aged 24.
Louise and Mr Potts, named in jest after the vet who had to pull him out when he got stuck being born, completed Badminton, Burghley and Lühmuhlen multiple times in 11 seasons of international competition, after which he spent his last years with Fran and Tom Bird.
Louise told H&H she was overwhelmed by the hundreds of comments on her Facebook post announcing he had had to be put down owing to gastric issues.
“That’s got to be a special horse that people remember, isn’t it?” she said.
Mr Potts, instantly recognisable with his big white blaze, was a member of a home-bred dynasty; Louise rode his grandmother Gerfuffle, a thoroughbred who point-to-pointed, and took her to the national championships. Gerfuffle was the dam of Bit of a Barney, with whom Louise contested her first top-level event, and Mr Potts’ dam Much of a Muddle, who was by an Irish draught stallion, and whom Louise also evented.
“Mr Potts is about half draught and he never looked like a five-star eventer!” she said. “He always looked a bit chunky, and he had a big old head and loads of bone. He was always very sound; the only time he was lame was one Burghley trot-up for a couple of steps, because he used to move quite close together and he knocked himself. We had to go again and he was fine, but that was the only time he ever took a lame step.”
Louise and Mr Potts at Burghley 2014
(Image credit: Lucy Merrell)
Louise added that Mr Potts’ life was memorable from the very start.
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“The first drama was trying to get him out of his mother when he was born!” she said. “He got stuck, so we rang the vet. He had to pull really hard to get Mr. Potts’ head out of there and my mother announced: ‘He’s an ugly bugger, I think I’ll name him after you, Graham’!
“This was Mr Graham Potts and it was always a joke he was named after him. Even Graham sent a message the other day saying how sorry he was he’d died, ‘Even though you called him an ugly bugger after me’. He used to come and help wash him off at Burghleys and Badmintons, he was very proud of ‘his’ horse.”
Louise said Mr Potts was not the flashiest mover, and was prone to spooking; he would “jump on top of banks” out hacking, and fence judges were terrifying.
But as he moved up the levels and there were fewer fences to look at, things became simpler as he knew which ones were for him.
“He was just something else”
“He always jumped to the left, so I could do amazing tight turns left; there was a something up at the Rolex at Burghley the one year, where you jumped and went off to the left, and holy smokes, that was fine. But things to the right, you’d have to sometimes add an extra stride!
“But he was so scopey. Warming up showjumping, he’d knock every fence down; one year we were at Lühmuhlen and the British team people came over to watch and they walked away in disgust because he knocked everything down. Then he went in and jumped clear, and the Lühmuhlen showjumping track was massive, that Sunday.
“He was just something else, that’s why you remember him for ever, because he was so different. You’d never say ‘Look at that awesome, beautiful horse doing amazing high jumps’; he’d be skimming over them and doing this and that – but then he jumped round Badminton and Burghley. He absolutely loved his jumping.”
After he retired from the top level, he did some lower-level competing, and was a fieldmaster’s horse for a spell – and became known for jumping out of fields, Louise said, thanking the Birds for their care of Mr Potts in his last years.
“He jumped some of the biggest cross-country tracks in the world with such honesty and boldness,” she said. “Such a character, he adored attention, yet only on his terms and so only a certain amount of super cuddles were tolerated. We will all miss him terribly.”
Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
