‘To have him back is the best feeling’: coloured pony bounces back from pelvis injury to become a Royal Windsor champion

A home-produced coloured pony retained his unbeaten season form by clinching the senior ridden pony championship at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

The pony in question was Lauren Moore-Williams’ Longdon Blackjack, a 16-year-old native gelding who the family has owned for seven years.

“We’ve had him a good few years and he’s everything to me,” said Lauren, whose sister, Zoe Moore-Williams, rode Jack to win the Royal International (RIHS) in 2017 and was here to watch the duo’s successes in the Royal Windsor senior ridden pony championship.

Jack, who is known as ‘Grandad’ at home, had a year off work in 2018 due to a pelvis injury.

“To have him back is just the best feeling,” continued Lauren, who was adding this result to championships achieved earlier this year at North Somerset and CHAPS South West show, where Jack also stood supreme.

“We don’t know how it happened but he just wasn’t right, and he needed complete rest. We just chucked him out in the field for 18 months and I was planning on just hacking him for fun. I took him to a show as a companion for another horse and I decided to take him in the ring, and he won.”

Jack is currently adding another string to his bow and is training to be a therapy horse.

“My mum rides him at home and he’s so easy that we thought we’d give it a go with him. His training is going really well,” explained Lauren, who was fitting in this spin on Jack in between working her job as a social media manager here at Windsor. “It’s been a hectic week. I was at Badminton and I’ve been up here since Tuesday. My fiancé travelled Jack to Windsor for me. I was effectively riding on my lunch break; I thought I’d only be gone for an hour to do the class, but I’ve been here all afternoon.”

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