Localrider Magazine
SHOWJUMPING • DRESSAGE • EVENTING • SHOWING www.localrider.co.uk
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November 2018
We meet Inspirational Amateur Rider
Katie Preston Interview with International Course Builder
Scott Brickell
www.localrider.co.uk
Show Reports & Local News, including... ● Horse of the Year Show ● Sunshine Tour Championships ● Iberian Performance Show ● Coakham Bloodhounds Beach Ride...
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November 2018 • VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 7
Plus
and lots more!
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SPOTLIGHT Katie Preston and Templar Justice competing at Burghley 2018
Katie Preston
Katie Preston lives every day to the full, riding and competing three horses whilst working as a Veterinary Surgeon at Milbourn Equine Vets. This year has seen her complete both Luhmuhlen and Burghley four-star events with results that even professional riders would be proud of. Katie likes to produce her horses herself, buying them from the field when they are young, or as in the case of Dreams Come True aka Tia, breeding them herself. Fiona Rafferty spent a wonderful evening in the late summer sun meeting Katie and her horses to find out more about this inspirational rider and her home produced horses. espite having non-horsey parents, Katie developed a passion Right: Katie and Dreams Come True competing in the CIC* at Firle International Horse Trials Below: Katie and her promising fouryear-old Templar Juno won an Arena Eventing competition at Petley Wood
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for riding from a young age, when she discovered a Shetland living in the field next to her parents’ house. Rides around the paddock led to her parents enrolling Katie at the local riding school and lessons continued when her family moved to Holland with her father’s work, before eventually returning to live in Cranbrook, Kent. When Katie was 10 she had her first pony on loan, before her family later bought one of Debbie Strang’s homebreds. Despite being only four-years-old, Debbie reassured Katie it was quiet and would be perfect for her. Debbie’s words proved true and Katie had great fun attending the Romney Marsh Pony Club rallies and camp.
Having discovered her love of eventing a schoolmistress called Balaness arrived, who Katie competed up to Novice level and also in Pony Club competitions, qualifying for the Pony Club Championships. Katie said: “We had a really good group who qualified for the Champs including Georgie Strang.” During her A’ level years Katie competed a horse called Playboy Prince, taking him from Novice to two-star level. He also joined her on her gap year at Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks’ yard in Wiltshire. A year during which Clayton won a silver medal at the World Equestrian Games with Ben Along Time and Lucinda won Burghley with Headley Britannia. Katie admits to learning a lot during this time, adding: “It made me realise what to look for in a young horse and the quality of horses that are out there. Lucinda recommended selling Playboy Prince and using the money to buy a nice young horse.” Whilst Katie didn’t act directly on Lucinda’s words she did discover that the first year of vet school and keeping an event horse fit weren’t entirely compatible and she sold Playboy Prince the following year.
Qualifying as a vet Katie graduated from the University of Liverpool School of Veterinary Science seven years ago, following five years of studies,
Pics by Nigel Goddard and Spidge Photography
Love of eventing
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three of which were spent in Liverpool City and the last two at the Veterinary Hospital on the Wirral. It was during the latter stages of her course, that Katie’s mother, who sounds a wise sort, suggested she bought a couple of youngsters, with a view to them being ready to compete when Katie graduated. Katie’s family have a field opposite their house and while Katie’s mother doesn’t ride, she said she would be happy looking after the horses in the field. She suggested Katie should find two, as one would be lonely on its own. One of these youngsters was Templar Justice aka TJ. The now 11-year-old is by Welton Justice out of Emily Baldwin’s former Advanced mare, Welton Vivat. The mare had won the covering as a prize for being the top mare in the BE rankings.
A good attitude Katie said: “I bought TJ as a yearling in September 2008 directly from Amanda Rolfe of the Templar Stud. I looked at all the yearlings and two-year-olds and I liked him the best. He didn’t have a big trot, but he was bold, had a lovely canter and attitude and I liked the way he was bred.” TJ has always found everything easy, upgrading to Novice as a five-year-old, even winning at Aldon at the end of that year. He went one-star as a six-year-old and finished his seven-year-old season competing in the Young Horse Championships at Le Lion in France. The following year he jumped double clear in the Eight and Nine year-old class at Blenheim, just adding time penalties in both phases.
Katie and Templar Justice jumped a beautiful clear around Burghley A delighted Katie leaves the show jumping arena after a great weekend at Burghley
A worrying time Their 2016 season was on a roll with good results at Chatsworth CIC***, Bramham CIC*** and The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe, until Blair. Katie explained that TJ had two very unusual stops towards the end of the course before pulling up lame. The lameness was due to worsening of severe pastern arthritis that Katie had treated for years, which was secondary to a bone cyst that had been identified when he was just five-years-old. He had an MRI to diagnose a bruised pedal bone he sustained out hunting and at the same time they identified a bone cyst. At the time Liz Barr of Bell Equine advised the best thing she could do, was keep working him. This time treatment involved surgery to totally fuse the pastern with pins and plates which Matt Smith at Newmarket Equine Hospital performed.
Winning times Katie said: “We missed Blenheim that year, but Matt said we would be back for Blenheim the following year.” TJ recovered well and whilst the goal for their first CCI*** had been Blenheim they were ready for Bramham CCI*** in July, where they finished in 19th place. The aim was still to end their season at Blenheim, but unfortunately TJ struck into his boot during the cross-country at Barbury and although he jumped a fantastic round, Katie didn’t feel he was quite right. Following time spent at the water treadmill at Angley Stud, Katie re-routed to the CCI*** in Boekelo. A prep run at the South of England Horse Trials proved rewarding when they won the CIC** amongst a line-up of top international riders. Katie was back at Ardingly this year (2018) in preparation for her first four-star at Luhmuhlen in Germany. This time though she was jumping in the 1.30m at the South of England Show. Katie had gone to give TJ some experience of jumping at an event with a bigger atmosphere, there was certainly that, especially when TJ heard the hounds.
Cross-country machine There was little to worry about at Luhmuhlen and with his usual cross-country style TJ galloped up the leaderboard on cross-country day from 45th to 11th. With a few show jumping penalties to add they finished in 18th place, with Katie feeling confident for Burghley, where yet again they made it look very easy. Talking about Burghley, Katie said: “It was amazing. He gave me a great ride and it did feel very easy, which is ridiculous to say.” TJ is currently on holiday, a decision he isn’t very happy about as he loves to be in work and he makes his feelings very clear to everyone around. However, it won’t be long until he is back in work, there is lots of training planned for the winter and if everything goes to plan he should be entered for Badminton next spring.
A dream horse TJ’s holiday has given Katie more time to work her delightful four-year-old mare, also from the Templar Stud called Templar Juno. Whilst TJ and Tia are no nonsense, let’s get on with business horses, Juno likes nothing more than to be loved and groomed. Her wonderful temperament comes across in everything she does, and Katie said: “She has been so easy, everything has been easy with her. She was happy to have the saddle and bridle on. She had only seen coloured poles a few times and she went and jumped a course, and she has been the same with cross-country.” Juno’s talent combined with her beautiful attitude saw her finish eleventh in the Young Event Horse class at Barbury and ninth at Gatcombe. She scored 75% and won her first dressage test and recently won an Arena Eventing competition at Petley Wood. At the time of writing, she was ending her season with a one-day-event at Bonfleur before having a break over the winter with the aim of starting her eventing career next spring. With Juno now backed and ready to compete it has meant that very reluctantly Katie has advertised her home-bred Dreams Come True aka Tia for sale, as it is difficult to compete three and do everything that goes alongside that while working full time. The seven-year-old mare by Wish Upon A Star went Novice as a fiveyear-old and did her first one-star at Chatsworth as a six-year-old. Katie thinks she would make a perfect under 18s horse, but if she doesn’t sell she will hunt her over the winter as she is such fun.
Inspiring amateur rider Katie’s results consistently prove that anything is possible with hard-work, determination and a dose of talent. Her horses all live out with access to stables if they want to go in and whilst she has good hacking with direct access to Bedgebury Forest, she did all her schooling in her field until last year, when she had a school put in. Katie puts a lot of emphasis on her training, working with Cindy Llewellyn, Leanne Wall and Francis Whittington. Francis will often walk courses with Katie and was at the end of the phone giving her advice at her first four star at Luhmuhlen. Katie said: “At Burghley Francis was there doing things for his sponsors, so he kindly warmed us up before the dressage, walked the cross-country course with me and was on the phone Saturday morning with last minute tips.” This dedication to her sport has seen Katie receive support from Norbrook Equine, Balanced Horse Feeds and Annabel Goldie-Morrison of Goldmor Veterinary Physiotherapy. As we go to print Katie is waiting to hear the results of the Horse & Hound Pikeur Amateur Rider of the Year Award for which she has been nominated. Whether Katie wins or not, we know she will inspire many amateur riders who combine their riding dreams with the time constraints of a full-time career. NOVEMBER 2018 Localrider 11
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