What you didn’t know about… Headley Britannia

Owner-rider Lucinda Fredericks tells H&H about the little mare with the heart of a lion.

Fact file

Name: Headley Britannia

Stable name: Brit

Age: 19 (but don’t tell her)

Height: 15.3hh on her tiptoes

Sire: Jumbo

Dam: Alans Bambi

Discipline: eventing

Owners: Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks

Rider: Lucinda Fredericks

Groom: Emily (Emz) Young-Jamieson

Top results: the only mare to win Kentucky, Burghley and Badminton

Five things you didn’t know…

1 Two of Brit’s foals were born in the same year that she and their sire (Jaguar Mail) competed at the Beijing Olympics.

2 She was bred by Mike and Betty Hounsell – Lucinda Fredericks also rode Brit’s full-brother Headley Kingdom for his owner. “He was like a Rolls-Royce, whereas Brit is my Mini,” explains Lucinda.

3 Brit is not keen on water and had been eliminated in events prior to coming to Lucinda.

4 Brit likes to be first on the walker and to be ridden. If not, she pulls faces.

5 Lucinda has dislocated my thumb twice riding Brit, once when she was going cross-country and she banged it back into place on Brit’s neck while galloping round — ouch!

To read the full interview with Lucinda Fredericks about Headley Britannia see the 16 February issue of H&H

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