Don’t judge a book by its cover: cob tackles CIC* events

Maddie Oldfield’s cob Miss Moneypenny III might only be 15.2hh with a bushy tail and feathers, but that hasn’t stopped her tackling CIC* events this season. Standby to be inspired…

“Miss Moneypenny III (Penny) encourages the old ‘don’t judge a book by 
its cover’ cliche. Penny is only 15.2hh on 
her tiptoes, her breed in her passport is ‘horse’ and she used to be at a riding school but got kicked out for bad behaviour.

“We’ve spent the past five years learning about the world of eventing together. I couldn’t fold over a fence, couldn’t see a stride, and often forgot my courses, Penny liked to add silly little strides in front of fences, and she was fat and lazy. But now we’ve completed our first one-star events this year.

“Our aim for the first one, Chilham Castle, was to finish on a sub-100 score, but more importantly to get round safely and have fun. The dressage setting and wearing a tailcoat was amazing — we performed an obedient and quiet test, just lacking a bit of pizzazz for 53.3.

“A huge and wide showjumping course left us with two poles down, but an amazing clear cross-country ended the day, although we did feel slightly out of place among the other horses with their famous parents!

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“We tackled South of England CIC* for our last event of the season and Penny didn’t disappoint — a 0.3 of a penalty improvement on the dressage, one pole and a clear cross-country. We’ve done all of our ‘firsts’ together — our first British Eventing events, first British Showjumping shows, first time hunting and first beach rides. She’s my horse of a lifetime.”

Don’t miss more of your incredible stories of triumph over adversity, your personal firsts in 2017 plus your amazing photos and the new arrivals that you’ve celebrated this year in our special Reader Issue of Horse & Hound magazine, out now (28 December 2017)

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