Tales from Somerford: ‘The vet said that if the melanoma had been any bigger, he would have been in trouble’

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National dressage championships Hawklands Echo Heather White
Heather White and Hawklands Echo at the National Dressage Championships 2021
(Image credit: Kevin Sparrow)

Heather White made her Lemieux National Dressage Championships debut at Somerford Park Farm, Cheshire with her pure-bred Irish draught gelding Hawklands Echo. They scored 64.4% in the Andrews Bowen advanced medium silver championship exactly seven years to the day from when she rang to find out more about a three-year-old gelding for sale.

“I had a lovely three-quarter Irish draught mare who was on the point of retiring and I was looking for a three-year-old chestnut filly when I had a phone call from Rita Jennings, who stands Echo’s sire Avanti Amorous Archie, telling me about this youngster,” said Heather, who has brought Echo up the levels with the help of Claire Ballantyne. “I fixed to go and see him in Bude in Cornwall. I live quite close to Somerford so it was an overnight stay, but I looked at him twice and bought him.”

Jo Prestwich
Jo Prestwich
H&H freelance reporter