Credit: RedBayStock.com
A five-star horse who had been due to compete at the Kentucky Three-Day Event this week (22-25 April) has been retired from top-level competition after he was found to have a heart murmur.
Canadian rider Holly Jacks-Smither’s 16-year-old gelding More Inspiration, known as Morris, was found to have the heart condition when being checked by onsite vets at Kentucky, and he was withdrawn before the start of the competition.
Yesterday (21 April) Holly said she had made the hard decision to retire her “best friend”.
“After running more tests the decision was made to end his upper level career,” she said.
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Nicola Wilson’s excellent results with James and Jo Lambert’s Bulana are well known, from winning at Boekelo and Barbury to their individual bronze and team gold at the European Eventing Championships in 2017.
But the pair’s initial partnership did not look so promising and it took time to work out the key to this feisty mare.
Nicola started riding Bulana – known as “Berry” – in 2014, when they were second in the CIC2 (now CCI3 -S) at Pau Horse Trials, their first international event together.
“She’s always been such a trier and very positive and always ready to go go go,” says Nicola, speaking in an interview on episode 40 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, currently supported by NAF.
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy win Burghley 2018. Credit: Peter Nixon
“Ringwood Sky Boy will just do whatever is in front of him, he doesn’t think much, he just does. As a young horse he was nicknamed The Bolter, that’s why I got him for next to nothing as a seven-year-old – he was a little unruly and difficult to manage.”
So says Tim Price about his Rio 2016 Olympic ride and Burghley Horse Trials 2018 winner, who belongs to Varenna Allen, Robert Taylor and his rider. He’s known at home as Ozzie.
“It was a case of bringing out his talent, but he’s now really cemented himself in our family of long-staying horses in the yard and he’s a real favourite with everyone,” says Tim, who was chatting to