When Kickback arrived at Alex Harrison’s, Alex was not sure he had made the best buy.
The grand prix rider had bought the three-year-old from a video, and had expected him to be rather taller than he was.
“He turned up and I thought, ‘S**t, he’s really small!” he told H&H. “I kept trying to sell him, but no one wanted to buy him, I think they thought he was too small. But he’s super now.”
Alex and the eight-year-old, who is still only 15.3hh, won Friday’s (12 May) Premier League prix st georges, at the ICE Horseboxes All England Dressage Festival at Hickstead, on 72.21% and Saturday’s inter I on 71.42%.
“I’m glad I kept hold of him, but he’s still small,” Alex said. “I just have to put my stirrups up a bit! He did his first Premier League at Myerscough [in March] and I felt he was a bit shy in the ring but then he went to the winters, then came second and third at Addington; every show he’s been better so I was keen to come here for a win.”
Alex keeps the pocket-rocket gelding without shoes as “he hates having them on”.
“Every time he had them on, he felt a bit restricted, so he’s barefoot and happy,” he said. “Most of my others have them on but he’s not got the best conformation in front and it felt like by putting shoes on, we were trying to see a straight line where there wasn’t one. So we’ve let his feet be the shape they want to be and he moves through his body better and is happy.
“He’s great fun to ride, talented, and cheap, so the whole package in my eyes – I can cope with the short stirrups!”
Kickback is working towards grand prix, having mastered everything but the one-time changes, but Alex does not plan to rush him.
Read the full Hickstead report in this Thursday’s H&H magazine (18 May)
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Superb Hickstead hat-trick for Carl Hester as his Olympic ride returns after a year out
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