Colour Index won The Leeman Family Maxi Cob of the Year Championship on day four of Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), securing his place in the Ripon Select Foods Supreme Horse of the Year Championship on Sunday evening. Imogen Yates’ nine-year-old skewbald gelding has qualified for the Maxi Cob at HOYS for the past three years, but never before been placed, so to go Champion on his third attempt was reason to celebrate!
A very proud Imogen said: “I’m absolutely over the moon! He’s home produced and it’s just everything I’ve ever dreamt for.”
Imogen has competed at HOYS in the SEIB Search for a Star classes in the past, but it is Angela Lance who has taken the ride on Finn, as he is known at home, each time in the Maxi Cob. “He was wonderful in there,” said Angela after the class. “He was light and forward and I thought to myself, he knows it’s his day today.”
Imogen works Finn at home and says they have found a straightforward routine that works for him, including schooling once a week with a dressage trainer, lunging twice a week and hacking out and just having fun the rest of the time. She’s owned him since a four-year-old.
Nina Armstrong Finlay’s seven-year-old Chestnut gelding Coast to Coast claimed the Reserve Championship ridden by Ian Smeeth.
ENDS
Image credit: 1st Class Images
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