Wilma Hellström and one-eyed Cicci BJN are shining in Europe

Wilma Hellström and Cicci BJN jumping at the FEI Jumping European Championship Milano 2023 — 204 - Wilma Hellström (SWE) & Cicci BJN - First Round Qualifier - FEI Jumping European Championship Milano 2023

(Image credit: Benjamin Clark Photography)

“I’ve never had a horse like this – it feels like we are one.”

Meet the one-eyed mare who nearly bucks her rider off in the warm-up, who loves jumping and has to think it’s all her idea – and who is “a family member”.

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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.

‘She’s almost bucked me off!’ Meet the ‘spicy’ one-eyed wonder horse shining at the Europeans

Wilma said the 12-year-old Swedish warmblood, who lost her eye in a freak accident five years ago, is “a very spicy girl when she wants to be”.

“She almost bucked me off in the warm-up today; it was very close!” she said.

“It’s got worse since the accident, because when she gets a bit excited and can’t see, she kicks out to the right.

“But at home she is the laziest horse you can ever find. She won’t do anything. She will not move. So it’s actually only at shows. And she loves to be at shows.”

It was at a competition that the accident happened; the mare rolled in her stable and hit her head on the wall, and her eye could not be saved.

After she recovered, she came back into work slowly but surely, and the pair have progressed up the levels to their first senior championship.

“It’s only since last year that both of us are actually jumping at this level,” Wilma said. “It feels like we are one; I’ve never had a horse like this, I can ride her without reins basically. It’s like I just think, she does.”

Wilma Hellström said she cannot try to tell the mare what to do, but has to let her do her thing.

“If she starts, I just drop the reins and pat her and then she’ll go whenever she feels like going. She’s the boss – she’s a family member.”

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