The coveted Pretty Polly championship at the 2023 Royal International Horse Show (RIHS) saw home-producers battle it out for the overall sash, and supreme of them all was the winning intermediate combination, Isabella Grace Worthington and her own and her mother Nicola’s Dolphins Lawyer (Raffi).
The seven-year-old gelding provided 20-year-old Isabella, who is in the throes of finishing her degree in rural land management at university, with her first-ever blue sash. While Isabella has produced Raffi since he joined her as a just-backed four-year-old, she has her mother to thank for finding him.
“He was my 18th birthday present,” Isabella explained. “He was a surprise, and I didn’t know about him until it was time to go and pick him up. Mum and I share now him. As I’ve been so busy with my studies Mum has taken him out and about to eventing camps and to some local shows.”
The versatile gelding is sired by eventing Connemara Glencarrig Dolphin out of a thoroughbred mare, and he doubles up as a riding horse; this week he finished eighth in the open small final and he’s bound for Horse of the Year Show as a riding horse in October after qualifying at the Great Yorkshire.
“He really loves his jumping and he’s bred to event; he recently ran in his first BE80, finishing fourth,” Isabella added.
Addy Fowler rode Ann Fowler’s home-bred Rhoson Shem seven-year-old Broadgrove Family Silver to the mixed height show pony class before finishing reserve in the supreme.
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