“If someone had told me last year that in 2018 I’d be winning a four-star grand prix, become double European [young rider] champion, jump at Aachen and then in a jump-off at the Globals, I wouldn’t have believed it!”

So said 19-year-old Harry Charles after a momentous three days competing in the London leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour (GCT). Not only did the talented young showjumper secure several good placings at this five-star show, he made it through to the jump-off for the prestigious grand prix, where he was competing against the likes of Ludger Beerbaum, Peder Fredricson, Michael Whitaker and victor Scott Brash. With just one fence down against the clock, Harry and ABC Quantum Cruise finished a very creditable sixth. Here, he relives this unforgettable experience with H&H.

“I only had about a week and a half’s notice that I was going to London, so that didn’t give us much preparation time,” said Harry. “But luckily my horses were up and running as we’d come off the back of shows at Aachen and Hickstead.

“I didn’t come to the show with high expectations — I’ve never even been to a GCT show, although I do watch the streaming from the shows every Saturday night, studying these big, careful courses,” said Harry. “I thought I might do OK as my horses had been jumping well, but certainly not as good as I ended up.

“The format of the grand prix really suited Quantum Cruise because the more he jumps, the better he gets,” said Harry. “He’s been close at the last two five-star grands prix he’s jumped at, both at Aachen and Hickstead and there I said to my groom, Dan, ‘I think he’s going to jump clear next week [in London]’. I was very happy to be proved right!

“The way he jumped in the grand prix was like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” said Harry. “To qualify for the grand prix was my goal so to jump clear in it was unbelievable. I pretended it was like any other class but in the back of my mind I was going in to a jump-off against Ludger Beerbaum and Scott Brash!

“We all watched Scott’s round as he was first to go in the jump-off and everyone’s jaw just dropped,” said Harry. “I just made a mistake with an extra stride where he faulted [at the penultimate fence], but he exceeded all expectations.

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“He’ll do one more show then he’s going out in the field,” said Harry of the nine-year-old, whom he only started riding at the end of last year, taking over from father Peter. “We know what we’ve got for next year and that’s a proper grand prix horse and possibly one for the ‘super league’ Nations Cups.

“It’s been the year of my life,” summed up Harry.

Don’t miss the full report from the Longines Global Champions Tour of London, including exclusive comment from John Whitaker, in this week’s issue of Horse & Hound, out Thursday 9 August.

As a Cheltenham Gold Cup and dual Champion Chase-winning jockey, Nico de Boinville has been fortunate enough to ride — and win — aboard some of the most eye-catching racehorses, including the Nicky Henderson-trained duo Sprinter Scare and Altior.

But on Sunday (26 August), he swapped a jockey hat for a bowler to be on the judging panel at the Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) Goffs UK National Championships.

A self-proclaimed “amateur judge learning the ropes”, Nico judged the supreme champion alongside his wife, Serena, a Connemara pony breeder, and experienced judge and showing breeder Jonathan Geake.

The trio adjudged 15-year-old former hunter chaser What Of It, ridden by Hannah Horton, as the winner of the coveted supreme champion of the show, to reserve champion Jack The Giant, who was shown in-hand by Clare Poole. Their show ring rivals included the 2016 Gold Cup victor Don Cossack, ridden by Louise Lyons.

“As soon as the horses entered the arena, you could see straight away how much presence What Of It had,” said Nico, whose showing background saw him ride at Horse of the Year Show and the Royal International as a youngster.

“He stood out from the start. We hadn’t seen them stripped beforehand, but his way of going was impressive — he looked exceptional.

“Judging is very subjective, ultimately you are comparing horses to each other and deciding which one you like best,” said Nico.

“There were some lovely horses on the night, but What Of It caught the eye from the start and fortunately all of us on the judging panel agreed!”

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For any racehorse, going under the lights in an arena is a totally different environment to what they are used to when in training, but how important is temperament in the show ring?

“Manners are still important, after all it is called the ‘retraining’ of racehorses,” said Nico. “As a judge, you like to see them trained appropriately — particularly when being ridden under saddle. The in-hand veteran Jack The Giant, who was our reserve champion, was certainly showing his enthusiasm of old, but minor things like this can be forgiven I think.

“As a jockey, I ride a lot of different horses and I would not say I have a particular stamp of horse that I favour,” added Nico. “Although, I do like horses with a classy and intelligent head, who have a nice way of going — a horse that is nice to look at!”

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Caroline Moore, former four-star eventer and British Eventing national under-18 coach and junior team coach, explains how you can use this exercise to develop your horse’s hoof/brain co-ordination

The aims of the exercise are to improve:

• Hoof/brain co-ordination
• Accuracy
• The hind-leg through the transition
• Rider posture
• Preparation

This is an exercise I regularly use when warming up for jumping or I teach it to a young horse to help the elevation in its work and to also improve the hoof/brain co-ordination.

To show you this exercise, I’m using dressage boards to trot over, distanced one metre apart from each other, but you can also use raised poles. Around 10-12m away, I have an area where I’m going to ask the rider to ride a transition, so there is a lot of preparation to work on. We can use the energy created from riding over the dressage boards to help the hind leg with the walk and halt transition. We then move on to some boards out of the exercise again — this is all about the transition forward into trot and gaining balance and rhythm as early as possible to successfully negotiate the second half of the exercise.

You can see with the first horse in the video, who is four-years-old, how this exercise encourages her to use her eye, and you can see that she is raising her toes just enough. This helps improve the core stomach muscles and raising the shoulder, so it’s a great exercise for a young horse — it’s like taking them to the gym.

Then in the downwards transition, you want to get four-five good steps of walk with the horse staying relaxed — it’s important to prepare this transition as early as you possibly can. Then move forward back into the trot and this is where you really have to work at regaining the energy to ride through the second set of boards.

This is a fairly difficult exercise but a really useful one. This exercise also shows how important it is to look where you’re going and stay in symmetry with the horse so that you stay in perfect balance, allowing the horse to soften.

Next we will make a downwards transition to halt, so you will need to do a bit of preparation using some half halts and thinking forward into the transition. Think of riding forward from behind so that you finish the halt off square.

Then you will ask the horse to move forward into the trot and it’s really important to get activity here. This is quite tricky to do because if they’ve halted, they often just relax a little bit, so it’s very important to ride forward here. The poles or the boards afterwards help with this because it focuses the horse on going forward.

Points to be aware of:

• Maintaining rhythm
• Energy levels
• Fatigue
• Praise and reward

More expert training advice from Caroline:

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

The birth of a rare zebra at a British zoo has been described as a “miracle” by staff and academics.

The healthy filly is the only surviving Hartmann’s mountain zebra female foal to be born in the UK since 2002.

She is also the sole healthy foal of either gender to be survive since her brother Jabali was born in 2015.

The filly, named Wakanda after a fictional country in the Marvel comics, was born overnight at Blackpool Zoo on 5 September.

Her arrival is crucial to the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme as there are only 9,000 individuals left in the wild and 235 in captivity. Of these, 11 are housed in four zoos across the UK.

Her dam Helene and sire Fernado are the most established breeding pair in the country.

Assistant head keeper Johnpaul Houston discovered the newborn foal when he arrived for work on 6 September.

“We knew Helene was pregnant but with stillbirth rates high in this species we never quite know if the pregnancy will result in a healthy foal,” he said.

“So imagine my joy when I first saw this gorgeous little one contently feeding from Mum on a rainy September morning.

“Of course, once we established that the youngster was healthy the wait was on to see if we had a girl or boy and it wasn’t long before we could confirm the news we had all been waiting for — a baby girl!”

He added Helene is an experienced mother and is doing an “incredible job” of looking after the filly.

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“[Wakanda] is a massive cause for celebration as she is the only surviving female foal born in the UK since 2002,” said Mr Houston.

“After a fantastic summer here at Blackpool Zoo this momentous birth means we have all ended the season on a huge high.”

Hartmann’s mountain zebras are native to Namibia and are most commonly found in the Kunene region in the northwest of the country, which experiences harsh environmental conditions.

Studies indicate that numbers could decline by more than 10% in the next 25 years due to increased hunting and loss of habitat to agriculture.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday

The government is to address “best practice” on tethering following a debate at parliament yesterday (20 February).

MPs raised concerns about the risk of neglect and welfare issues in tethered horses at the adjournment debate in the House of Commons.

MP Luke Hall, who opened the debate, said as tethered horses can be moved quickly it is “virtually impossible” to monitor their welfare.

“This debate follows the Break the Chain campaign run by the excellent HorseWorld trust, a leading equine rescue charity in the southwest, just next door to my constituency,” he said. “The Break the Chain campaign aims to amend the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to include restrictions on the tethering of horses.

“We are seeing horses being tethered all across the country, potentially leaving them open to neglect, cruelty and abuse, and potentially posing a danger to the people around them, too.​

“Tethering is not deemed enough of a breach of the Animal Welfare Act to allow horse charities to intervene. A tethered horse also does not have the freedom to interact with its own species, as the Act says it should. Leaving horses isolated has been shown to increase stress levels and stress-related hormones, which can cause them to display stereotypical behaviours that cause physical and psychological harm.”

Mr Hall added that long-term tethering is in “direct conflict” with legislation.

“In many instances authorities have not felt that the Animal Welfare Act is strong enough grounds to rescue [tethered] horses, despite the obvious suffering. It is therefore my belief, and the belief of the charity that initiated this campaign, that the Act needs to be amended to state explicitly what constitutes inappropriate tethering,” said Mr Hall.

Parliamentary under-secretary for Defra David Rutley responded to say the aim of the government’s work in this area is to “hightlight that tethering should be for the short term”.

“I should clarify that tethering is not a banned activity, as there are circumstances in which tethering may avoid a greater risk of harm arising—for example, if a horse strayed into a place of danger,” said Mr Rutley.

“The 2006 Act is backed up by a number of statutory codes of practice, including the code for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids. The code provides owners and keepers with information on how to meet their animals’ welfare needs and includes a specific section on how to tether horses and other animals covered by the code.

“Although tethering is not prevented or illegal under the code, the code does include detailed specific advice on tethering and how it should be done properly. It details which animals are not suitable for tethering and provides advice on a suitable and appropriate site—for example, a site should not allow the horse access to a public highway or public footpaths.

“The appropriate tethering of horses is an important issue that the government is taking action to address. We have put a number of protections in the 2006 Act, the code for the welfare of horses and the 2015 Act. The strong arguments made today and the concerns that have been raised mean that I shall call for a meeting with key stakeholders in the months ahead to see what more can be done in sharing and documenting best practice on horse tethering and ensuring that messages on best practice are more actively disseminated to horse owners.”

Tethering to be debated in parliament as charity highlights risks of ‘severe’ suffering

The charity received more than 5,000 complaints last year about tethered horses

Bright future for injured filly found tangled in twine

The youngster has returned to World Horse Welfare’s Penny Farm Rescue and Rehoming Centre to continue her education

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HorseWorld fundraising and communications manager Stephen Poole told H&H the debate marks a “major milestone” in the charity’s campaign to end the practice of tethering a horse for long periods of time.

“It’s significant progress and the best possible outcome from this adjournment,” he said.

RSPCA equine welfare expert Mark Kennedy said: “We are pleased to hear the government plans to hold a round table with key stakeholders to discuss the issue further and consider options, and we look forward to contributing to this.”

A livery yard and competition centre has re-opened to the public seven weeks after it went on lockdown owing to strangles.

Richmond Equestrian Centre in North Yorkshire announced on 13 August that all upcoming events, including its British Eventing fixture (30 August to 1 September) were cancelled. The centre reopened yesterday (3 October).

Co-owner Abigail Turnbull told H&H five of 26 horses on livery at the centre were diagnosed with the disease.

“Within 10 minutes of receiving the first diagnosis, we went on lockdown,” she said.

“Two days later a second case was confirmed. We have five different yards which we isolated; we knew which horses had been in contact with the initial one and sure enough they were the ones who went down with it.”

Abigail said all horses at the venue are now clear of the disease.

“It’s been quite intense and we’ve been really belts and braces about it,” she said.

“One horse was no longer showing symptoms of strangles and looked fine to the naked eye, but we did a guttural pouch procedure to make sure he had definitely got rid of the infection and it took multiple procedures to get rid of it. Had we not done that he would have turned into a carrier.”

Abigail wants more people to be aware of the facts around strangles.

“It’s about educating people who don’t understand it,” she said. “People can take simple steps like when they go to a competition, giving the temporary stable a quick spray down with disinfectant and not grazing at venues – it’s common sense things, but they’re so important.

“Since having strangles we’ve learnt so much and people need to realise how easy it is to get the infection. Some think if a horse has had it once they can’t get it again – but they can. Or if a horse has had strangles and looks over it, but the owner doesn’t realise it can still become a carrier.”

Richmond Equestrian has taken the Redwings’ pledge to ‘Stamp Out Strangles’. The campaign asks owners and yards to make an online pledge showing their commitment to prevent the disease by taking good biosecurity practices and agreeing to communicate openly about the disease. Richmond has also joined the SRUC Veterinary Services Premium Assured Strangles Scheme, an initiative for yard owners, gaining gold status which means they agree to testing all horses at the yard for the disease annually.

“We’ve been quite vocal about having strangles and have gained respect for doing it that way and for taking a stance. What’s been difficult is the amount of people who said we should have covered it up which I’m gobsmacked at,” said Abigail.

“If we’d opened to the public and let horses come and go the disease is so highly contagious it would have spread like wildfire. Financially it’s been a huge loss, but we’re trying to turn a negative into a positive now.”

The centre is holding an unaffiliated hunter trial on 19 and 20 October with classes from 70cm to 100cm. Entries cost £30 with a starting fee of £10 – discounted for owners who make the Redwings pledge.

“We’ve decided to reduce the start fee from £10 to £5 if people take the pledge and bring their certificates with them. We will also be collecting money for Redwings in donation buckets and hope to make it an annual event,” said Abigail.

“We can’t wait. We’re building cross-country jumps and getting the course ready. All the classes are sponsored and we have £800 in cash prizes.”

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Abigail said public support for the centre had been “massive”.

“We announced on Facebook we were re-opening and the comments have been brilliant. We’ve been inundated with people offering to volunteer at the hunter trials,” she said.

“People are glad that we’ve been honest – it’s horse welfare at the end of the day, it’s not always about making money. We’ve also had fantastic support from our vets, Redwings, the British Horse Society and the British Equestrian Veterinary Association.”

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Ireland’s Paul Kennedy and the home-bred Cartown Danger Mouse (Maddy) scored a breath-taking win in the Equerry Horse Feeds Bolesworth grand prix on the final day of Equerry Bolesworth International Horse Show.

This combination had already scored a brilliant four-star victory in the Watts Commercial Finance competition earlier in the week and when they produced a foot-perfect first round clear in a sharp time to earn pole position, the odds considerably shortened for a grand prix win.

Chasing fast times set by next placed Billy Twomey (Kimba Flamenco/38.65) and John Whitaker (Cassinis Chaplin/40.07) Paul soaked up the pressure like a sponge to bring the daughter of Harlequin Du Carel home in 38.56.

“Maddy has jumped well all week and although she has her own style, she has a massive heart and tries for you.

“I knew just what we had to and didn’t feel any pressure coming down the tunnel, but when I saw the time flash up on the scoreboard, I wasn’t sure we had won; it was so close.

“This is a day I’ll won’t forget in a hurry, as I never thought I would be standing ahead of two of my idols Billy Twomey and John Whitaker,” said Paul, who is based with Dave and Sharon Quigley in nearby Whitchurch.

Billy Twomey was also delighted with Kim Barzilay’s home-bred Kimba Flamenco, a nine-year-old who is by Billy’s former top ride Je T’Aime Flamenco.

“The course proved difficult enough and tested jumping ability and scope. I’m disappointed not to win, but Kimba is just stepping up to this level and he performed really well,” said Billy.

John Whitaker was also moving up Cassinis Chaplin up a gear and was delighted to post one of their best results.

“He’s a big, strong horse with plenty of power,” said John.

Kelvin Bywater set a suitably testing 13-fence first round course which included lots of committed distances and a couple of lines offering riders a choice of strides.

Apart from the 16-jumping-efforts required to post a clear round, the time allowed also proved a stern test with seven combinations finishing over the 68 seconds limit.

Frustratingly, four of those had jumped clear to incur a single time fault, and four of those combinations producing first round clears had run it close by finishing less than one second off that time allowed.

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More news from Bolesworth:

With the rules of the competition dictating the top 25% of the 41-strong field, or all clear rounds qualify for the next round, two of the fastest carrying a single penalty did progress to the final round to compete alongside the nine combinations finishing clear.

Two other riders also produced double clears, William Whitaker (Illusionata Van’t Meulenhof) and Pedro Junqueira Muylaert (Prince Royal Z MFS) filling fourth and fifth places.

Good second round clears secured sixth and sevenths place for Ireland’s Richard Howley (Dolores) and Mexican rider Eugenio Garza Perez (Pappa Ante Portas 2) who finished on one time fault apiece.

Don’t miss the full report from Equerry Bolesworth International Horse Show in next Thursday’s Horse & Hound, on sale 21 June 2018.

The Warwickshire’s team chase has been cancelled due to the severe impact the extended dry spell has had on the course.

The fixture was scheduled to be the first of the 2018 autumn season on 2 September at Watergall (not pictured), with the exception of the arena team chase at Lands Eventing.

The cancellation serves a further blow to the 2018 British Team Chasing calendar, which suffered a much depleted spring fixture list due to ice, snow and heavy rain.

But the organisers have pledged to turn the disappointing news into a positive, using the time to improve the course and hedges for 2019.

The committee made the tough decision after walking the course last week following “fears regarding the ground”.

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“As a result of the extremes of weather that we suffered last winter and have endured this summer, the ground has taken an absolute battering,” said a statement from the organisers.

“Despite being really good, reliable old turf, the drought has really sapped all life out of the course and caused large holes and cracks to appear in front of the hedges and sporadically around the whole track.

“The committee discussed at length the different options that we had regarding the condition of the ground, but ultimately it was decided that the safety of the competitors and horses must always come first and may be put at risk if we were to run the event.”

All entries will be refunded.

“Everyone is absolutely shattered by the decision but we will endeavour to use the year off to improve the course, lay new hedges and let our existing hedges get bigger and better for 2019.

“We hope that you enjoy the rest of the team chasing season as there are many other events on close to Warwickshire.”

The next fixture in the British Team Chasing calendar is the Belvoir at Garthorpe on 9 September.

“Please go and support them and British Team Chasing, it is a great event,” added the statement.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday

“What a day, what a mare and what a rider – sometimes everything just comes together at the right moment and that’s what dreams are made of,” so said Northern Ireland’s Joanne Sloan Allen after her chestnut mare Suma’s Zorro won showjumping’s richest prize, the $1million CP International presented by Rolex on Sunday (9 September) under Egyptian rider Sameh El Dahan.

“Fourteen years ago, a little chestnut filly was born who believed nothing was impossible, and luckily three months later, fate made her cross my path – another stubborn chestnut mare who believes nothing is impossible and dreams are made,” said Joanne. “Then seven years from that, a revolution in Egypt made the triad complete – Sam [El Dahan] came into all our lives and our journey to this started.”

The scene of this great triumph was the Spruce Meadows Masters in Canada. Sameh and Zorro, an Irish-bred mare by Ard VDL Douglas, produced three foot-perfect rounds to clinch victory in what is considered to be the “world’s toughest grand prix” over fences standing at 1.70m.

“The feeling is indescribable – I need to take a few days to make sure everything sinks in and then I can believe it actually happened,” said Sameh, 33, who studied medicine at university in Cairo but moved to Northern Ireland to concentrate on showjumping.

Zorro was bred at the Suma Stud in Co Kilkenny by Marily Power and Susan Lanigan O’Keeffe. Joanne and Sycamore Stables bought her as a foal.

“She jumped a five-bar gate when she was six-months-old, so they knew she had a jumper!” said Sameh. “Joanne did an amazing job with her – until the mare was seven she mostly rode her, and then I took over the ride. She really trusts us and believes in us.

“She’s very chilled at home and likes her own space – if things are noisy, she will stand in the far corner of her stable with her ears back until it quietens down. Her only real quirk is that she hates the clippers – you cannot get near her legs with them – and if she recognises the vet, she will put her ears back and do tiny jumps in her stable. Other than that, she’s great to do everything with. Joanne does most of the riding on her – I just do the jumping, so I have to thank her for doing such a great job.”

Joanne describes the mare as “an example of all that makes the Irish horse great — a mixture of heritage, breeds and blood and a fighting spirit instilled in our horses down the generations”.

“Zorro, today you have proved that giants truly do come in all sizes,” she added. “You may be small in stature but today you proved to the world you are a champion. To everyone who has ever dreamed, let this inspire you – work hard, dream big and never give up.”

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This success comes just two months after Suma’s Zorro and Sameh El Dahan received a standing ovation for taking a five-star victory in the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Paris.

The winning pair now head for the World Equestrian Games (WEG), and then will concentrate on trying to win more legs of the Rolex Grand Slam.

You can read the full story of their success in Calgary in this week’s H&H, out Thursday 13 September.