Tales from Somerford: ‘I found him flat out on the floor – I thought he was dead’
Grade II winner Julie Payne on Divinity at the National Dressage Championships 2021
(Image credit: Kevin Sparrow)
“We didn’t quite hit our best, but to even be here is a win,” said Julie Payne after winning the Niagara Equissage grade II para final at the Lemieux National Dressage Championships with Divinity.
A couple of months ago the eight-year-old Don Frederico gelding was at Bourton Vale Equine Clinic with a mystery bacterial infection.
Thankfully, Divinity pulled through and has made it to the National Dressage Championships, where he and Julie scored 67.01% to triumph.
“He’s had to step up to the plate earlier than I expected as my mare retired,” explained Julie, who has had the gelding for two years. “I was looking for a replacement, but with limited funds I was getting nowhere. I heard of one near Waregem, Belgium, when I was competing there, and then one was flagged up to me back in the UK in the south.
“Even driving there I was thinking, ‘I’m going to look at a horse I can’t afford’. I organised the vetting with the same thoughts, and we’d already looked at getting a loan. Then on the morning when I had to make a decision, I had two phone calls from people offering funds, and in the end my long-time friend Cornelia Cook stepped in and bought him for me.”
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