A primary school has been following the success of showjumper Cressy Neads after she agreed to donate a portion of one of her horse’s winnings to their chosen charity.
Cressy’s three children Rafa, five, Caia, seven, and Lex, nine, attend Brookham School in Liphook, Surrey, who select a charity to support each year.
“We were at a show when my kids said ‘why don’t we give some of the money the horse has won to charity?’ — they were supporting children in India at the time,” Cressy explained.
“I agreed we could donate some of it as I thought it was quite a nice idea.”
The children chose seven-year-old Amazone Narko Z to follow, and Cressy had a fly veil made up for him to wear when he competes featuring the school’s logo.
The son of Arko, who Cressy has produced since a five-year-old, already secured some winnings for the school’s charity last year, the Arrows Group Foundation. He went on to immediate success on his first show since the Covid-19 shutdown when he topped his first ever 1.40m at Keysoe on 8 July.
“We picked him as he was one of the older ones, we have quite a few young horses at the moment and we thought he’d be a fun choice,” Cressy said.“They also liked the fact he was by Arko, who went to the Olympics, as they were following his breeding.
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“He’s been produced slowly through the age classes and hopefully next year he will be ready to step up,” she added. “We managed to get three weeks at the sunshine tour just before the pandemic hit and he was fantastic there, so we’re hoping he will be a good one.”
Cressy plans to keep the children involved by sending them videos of “Marco” loading in to the lorry on his way to shows, as well as footage of his rounds when he wins.
“They can have an assembly and catch up on how he is doing,” she said.
“Marco” will be heading to Bury Farm on Thursday (16 July) and will be aimed at Hickstead and Bolesworth in September, before hopefully going abroad in the Autumn.
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