‘We went to Italy for 24hrs, tried her and saw the Colosseum’ – chance buy leads to national Hickstead title

A whistle-stop trip to Italy to buy a pony paid dividends for Lauren Wilkins, when two years later, the partnership took the Oakley Coachbuilders’ winter JC title at the Longines Royal International Horse Show, Hickstead.

Lauren’s mother had spotted the mare, Eloclea Ro. Del Colle San Marco, for sale on an advert on Facebook and took a gamble to fly Lauren out to see her.

“She didn’t have a picture with the advert or anything,” Lauren said. “It just said ‘potential 1.30m pony’.

“We flew out there, I tried her and liked her straight away, and then we did some sight-seeing!”

The bay mare has been jumping 1.20m this year and has also qualified for the Foxhunter final at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), although she has potential for bigger tracks.

“I think she’ll be a great pony for next year,” said Lauren, who is in her final year of ponies. “We’ve jumped some 1.30ms with her. She’s incredible.”

The nine-year-old mare was the fastest of four jump off clears in the winter JC final, which they won with a comfortable 1sec in hand.

Only five had made it through to the second phase round a demanding track, where seven riders from 25 starters had been eliminated.

“The oxer at fence eight was causing a few problems but she didn’t mind it at all,” Lauren said. “I had a chance to see what was causing problems and rode a bit more forward to some of them.”

Lauren moved the mare on well across the ground to get up on the clock in the jump off, smoothly executing an awkward turn to the last to claim victory.

“Some weren’t getting it smooth but I knew my plan and I showed her the line so she knew we were jumping the last oxer,” Lauren added.

Second place went to Imogen Rome and her eye-catching Dutch driving pony Eden Ace, who was originally bred for a career in harness by Robert Bowman, brother to four-in-hand legend George.

The nine-year-old, 148cm gelding has shown himself to be a definite talent in the show jumping ring since he started his career in March 2022, also qualifying for two finals at the Royal Highland and for the newcomers and Foxhunter finals at HOYS.

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