Equestrian Life December-January_20180101

Julie Norfolk bought Henry for her son,
Richard on his 15th birthday in 2015
when Henry was 8. They were told he
had never evented before and certainly
had no record either in the UK or in
Ireland. He had been a hunter and could
not even walk down the road in a straight
line. Their flatwork trainer, Alice
Beasley, said riding him felt like riding
an octopus! However, Julie said “Richard
and Henry hit it off straight away, they
were like two teenage lads rubbing along
brilliantly, most of the time getting it
wrong, but when they both got it right
they were amazing”. Dressage was a huge
issue for Henry as it totally blew his mind
and their trainer said he would do well to
get a 5 for his dressage marks as that was
the level he was at.
After lots of work they went to do their
first One Day Event at a Pony Club event
at Norton Disney in April 2015. The
dressage was around the 40 mark, but
they put in a brilliant double clear in
the 80cm, and after a very well-behaved
Henry, trainer, Maddy Moffett, said they
could go to 90cm and affiliate to British
Eventing. After campaigning for another
few events, Richard and Henry came 3rd
at the Pony Club Area Eventing Novice
section at Buckminster Park in July 2015,
finishing on their dressage of 32.5, but
just missing out on qualifying for the
championships due to how the numbers
in the section fell.
Feeling really confident, they stepped up
to BE100 at Bold Heath, a first for both
of them, and finished on a respectable
score! A huge achievement for both
in such a short space of time. After
that Richard had to have an operation on his knee, which had been
hampering him, riding such a big horse, as he needed a huge amount of
support from his rider.
After several months of rehab for Richard and with Mum, Julie
recruited in to school Henry out hacking, they put the work in to come
out again in 2016 at Stafford BE100. However, Richard said Henry
didn’t feel quite right and after further investigations, the Vet found
several physical injuries and off the scale ulcers! They were given
only a 30% chance of getting him back up to the level of being able to
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As you can imagine we
were all absolutely ecstatic!
They certainly proved to
Maddy they were on it!
compete at Novice, which was Richard’s
ambition. They have spent to last 18
months getting better under to expert
eye of Gaynor Minshull at NEH and
with huge support from Alice, Maddy
and Physio, Tamsyn Lafferty, and in
August 2017 were given to all clear to
go back out competing.
Following some massively inspirational
4* work experience with John Marsden
and Duncan Smith at Somerford over
the summer, they started again at
Solihull 90cm, then did a couple of
BE100s and Richard said Henry felt
amazing and wanted to have a go at
the Novice at Norton Disney to finish
the season. Following a discussion with
their trainer, they agreed they would
see how they went at Oasby and then
decide what to do.
At Oasby, following the best dressage
test Henry had ever done, they were
lying in 2nd place on a score of 29.5
going into show jumping with lots
of scores still to come in. Their show
jumping round was a lovely clear, and
given they just wanted to have a really
good run, it was now getting quite
exciting and nerve racking! They had
a wonderful cross-country round that
was inside the time so finished on their
dressage score.
On checking the final score board, the
top five riders were all male, Richard
and Henry were in top spot ahead of
professional riders Arthur Duffort,
Paul Sims and Oliver Townsend. Julie
commented “As you can imagine we
were all absolutely ecstatic! They
certainly proved to Maddy they were on it!”.
The following week they went to Norton Disney to do their first Novice,
a decent dressage score for Henry of 31.3 on a very windy day, when
Henry had jumping more on his mind, followed by a double clear, put
them in 6th place! An amazing achievement and such a big step up for
them. It has certainly been like a massive, wonderful dream.
Richard’s ambition when he first got Henry was to take him to
Chatsworth, his local event. A winter of hard work may bring this closer
to being a reality now! We shall see.
50 December 2017/January 2018 Equestrian Life