Road to the BSPS summer champs: Connemara bounces back to winning form after laminitis diagnosis
One home producer has endured more than most in her quest to hit the show ring this year.
Fourteen-year-old Abbie Roseberry and her Connemara gelding Crazy Horse — also known as Oscar — are set to compete at the British Show Pony Society (BSPS) summer championships at Arena UK later this month.
Abbie was first aquainted with 14-year-old Oscar in 2018 when she got the former Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) and Olympia finalist on loan.
“We then bought Oscar as a surprise for Abbie for Christmas,” says Abbie’s sister Megan. “We haven’t done a great deal with him yet. We bought him to bring my sister into the world of qualifiers. He is such a lovely, safe guy although he can live up to his name — Crazy Horse — at times.
“Before we got Oscar we’d not really done much affiliated showing so it was all pretty new to us. Sadly, in early 2019 he went down with laminitis meaning the whole show season was a write off.
“We had been to a clinic — two days after Abbie officially became his owner — and the next day he was a little off. We originally thought he had pulled something but after a few days of rest we still weren’t convinced so got the vet out who confirmed laminitis.
“We had lots of help from Nicola Suttleworth from TopSpec and we have a great farrier, AnnMarie Robinson, who guided us through his shoeing; we went down the route of Glueshoes and then brought him back into work slowly as we wanted to be confident everything was back to normal.”
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The duo were able to take back some of last year and contended some BSPS Area shows as well as the Equifest championships.
“They were working so hard over winter ready for the 2020 season, but then Covid hit,” continues Megan. “Though Abbie has kept up the work hoping and praying the season can go ahead somewhat. We went to our local training show back in July and Oscar and Abbie come away with a win and a reserve champion in the young riders; it was great to see her efforts paying off.
“We will be heading to champs for the first time to gain some experience and we hope 2021 has no setbacks.
“Abbie can’t wait to start the qualifiers and the dream is to have him qualify for HOYS or Olympia. We would love to watch him in those rings with Abbie as we know he would totally look after her.”
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Born and raised in the Lake District, Alex has grown up on the showing scene. She has qualified and competed ponies at the Royal International, Horse of the Year Show and Olympia and has first-hand knowledge of the current issues in the showing world as well as the horses, ponies and riders who compete in the sport. Alex joined H&H in January 2018 as showing editor, cementing its place as the leading equestrian publication for both showing reports and current showing news in the UK. She moved on in October 2024 to pursue other opportunities, but continues to write for us on a freelance basis.