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Pony ‘number two’, a back-up plan and more: nine things you might not know about new young rider champion Finn Healy

Pippa Roome Pippa Roome

    • How much do you know about new eventing British young rider national champion Finn Healy?

    Brush up your knowledge about the young star, who took the Chatham-sponsored class at Bicton Arena at the end of May 2023…

    1. Finn was the individual pony European champion in 2019 in Strzegom, Poland, and won team gold too.

    2. His pony championship mount, Midnight Dancer, was produced by his older sister Ellie, who was also a team gold medallist on him in 2018 at Bishop Burton. The family bought Midnight Dancer as a four-year-old in Ireland from the Doyle brothers. He was the second of about 10 Connemaras they tried, “who were all literally just sat on and ridden away – but Ellie didn’t think ‘number two’ was an acceptable answer when she asked his name, so she called him Casper,” according to Finn and Ellie’s mother Sarah.

    3. When Finn and Ellie outgrew Casper they found him a great home with another younger rider in Charlotte Cooke, who has since won two CCI*-intros on him, at Blair 2021 and Millstreet 2022.

    4. Finn’s mother Sarah has ridden up to the current four-star level, contesting events such as Bramham, Chatsworth and Boekelo with the grey Irish sport horse MacCallum in the mid 2000s.

    5. The Healy family are based in Derbyshire.

    6. Finn Healy is currently on a gap year before he heads to the University of Manchester to study history. He plans to work with horses, but describes his degree as a “back-up plan”.

    7. His winning ride at Bicton, Treamble, belongs to Amy Hawley, a former British junior team gold (2008 on Helpful Harry II) and pony team bronze medallist (2006 on Billy Joe Bob). She phoned Finn out of the blue after seeing him in action, offering him the ride on a showjumper, with the arrangement eventually leading to him taking on the Grafenstolz daughter Treamble – who was bred by Vin and Liz Jones’ Preci-Spark operation – in the summer of 2022.

    8. Treamble is based with Amy, but Finn drives to her yard to ride her a couple of times a week.

    9. Finn’s sister Ellie still events herself – she had two rides in the young rider section at Bicton – as well as studying at Nottingham University. She also supports Finn with the administration side of his eventing such as entries.

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    Pippa Roome
    Pippa Roome

    H&H magazine editor and eventing editor
    Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
    Pippa Roome

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