This is the 10-year-old Lorentin I mare’s first championship, but Gareth was delighted with how she performed, despite adverse weather.
“I’m so pleased with how she coped with the atmosphere, and her way of going,” he said. “She could have perhaps shown more expression in the medium trot, but this is her first really big show. We have only done one show since the regionals.”
Gareth has ridden Hannah Lebon’s mare for 18 months, having taken the reins while Hannah was pregnant.
“She’s very laid-back and generally a very nice person,” he added. “The plan is now to keep training her through the levels. We’ve made lots of progress in lockdown, like getting her changes established. She is very talented.”
‘This was my Tokyo!’
Sir Lee Pearson filled the novice silver runner-up spot with his Tokyo Paralympics hopeful, Breezer III. The home-bred and produced nine-year-old is by Bacardi, out of Sedona L, the same mare as Lee’s World Equestrian Games silver medallist Styletta.
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“I’m just over the moon with him. He freaked out a little warming up indoors, but I was very pleased with the test,” said grade II Paralympian Lee, who posted 69.82%. “It’s been hard to do very much this year so it’s great to get him out. This was my Tokyo for 2020 – it’s like getting the silver medal!”
Kirstie Clarke finished in third place riding the Furst Kiss x Dramatic eight-year-old Powered By Furst Impression.
Keep up with all of the action from the NAF Five Star Winter Dressage Championships on the Horse & Hound website via our H&H Plus service with full reports from each winter championship class, plus a gallery of winners from the Petplan Equine Area Festival Championships.
Alan Davies, super-groom to Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, has ‘become a proud new Dad’
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