Team Khoja in the spotlight

Names: Amelia & Khoja

Discipline: Driving

Horse’s breed: Caspian

Khoja is a prolific Caspian horse who competes with resounding success in driving trials around the UK. From the day Nichola Waddicor took Khoja under her wing his life changed completely as he revealed his surprising hidden talent. ‘Team Khoja’, which consists of Nichola, her daughter Amelia in the driving seat, Morag Patrick on the backstep and Khoja himself, have since had many victories on the driving circuit with wins all over the country.

Where it began………

Purchased from the local riding school two years ago for just £50, Khoja was Amelia’s 17^th birthday present from her mother, Nichola. Little Caspian Khoja had no experience of driving before launching into his new career. It soon became evident that driving was in fact Khoja’s thing! After winning their area league with 5 wins out of 6 events, Team Khoja qualified for the British Indoor Championships for the Novice Pony and came 6th.

Their first outdoor event was at Windsor Park in April this year where they won the pre-novice class; this was followed by a 2nd in the Novice pony at the May meet; a win at Cricklands in the Evolution class meant qualification for the British Carriagedriving Nationals to be held at Cirencester this September. A 1st at Royal Three Counties in the cones competition has kept the red rosettes coming.

The British Young Driver Championships at Sandringham recently produced a 1st in their age group and 3rd overall (after 6th in dressage, 2nd in marathon and 2nd in cones). He might be small but Khoja is certainly mighty and has earned the nickname ‘The Ginger Ninja’.

Check out Team Khoja’s hat cam footage from the British Young Driver Championships held at Sandringham this year. Click here to watch.

‘Team Khoja’ will be at HOYS this year 4^th – 8^th October at the NEC Birmingham forming part of ‘The Story of the Caspian Horse’ display kindly put together by The Caspian Horse Society. They will be performing every day at HOYS including two performances on Saturday and Sunday – once in the daytime performance and once in the evening performance.

See you at HOYS!