Best of British recognised in breeders awards

The great and the good from the British breeding industry met in London for the British Horse Foundation’s annual awards (10 January).

Lifetime award

The main award of the evening was the SEIB Meritoire, which recognises a lifetime’s contribution to the breeding industry.

This year it went to Richard Meade, who passed away the day before the ceremony. One of the most successful event riders of all time, he provided a link between breeding and competition riding.

Richard was instrumental in developing the first breeding programme in the UK and helped set up the Supporters of British Breeding.

The Meritoire will be passed on to Richard’s family.

Young guns

In the Baileys Horse Feeds/British Breeding/BEF Futurity Certificates of Merit winners included Kirsty Millard, who took the Sports Pony Foal for the second year running, this time with KMD Dornlight. She shared the accolade with Amy Cox, who bred Pretty Picture.

In the Young Horse Awards, Sharon Bishop won the six-year-old British Eventing Young Horse Breeders Medals with Parkfield Quintessential. This was his third medal, having won the four-year-old and five-year-old titles in previous years.

River Rise Escarla took the five-year-old dressage award, bred by Sarah Tyler Evans.

Big night

It was a good night for the Billy Stud, who collected the five-year-old and seven-year-old British Eventing Young Horse Breeders Medals with Billy Walk On and Billy Cuckoo.

They also won the five-year-old showjumping award with Billy On Ice, while Billy Congo took the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) European Award for the Highest Placed British Bred Horse in Team GBR at the FEI European Championships.

Brendon Stud won the seven-year-old showjumping award for Unbelievable Lady.

The BEF Award to the Highest Placed British Bred Horse at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) went to the vaulting horse W H Bentley, bred by James Grant and owned by John Eccles.

The Sport Horse Breeding of Great Britain Special Award recognised the great eventer Opposition Buzz. Sadly only a few weeks after retiring, ‘Dodi’ suffered a seizure and was put to sleep.

Good grooms

There were two new grooms awards this year. Caroline Heard won the Haddon Training British Grooms Award, with Nicola Newman awarded the runner-up prize.

The Haddon Training Team GBR Grooms Award was for those who worked at WEG. The award went to Jessica Errington who groomed for Harry Meade, whose horse Wild Lone tragically died after completing the cross-country.

The Horse & Hound Outstanding Mare Award went to the Suffolk mare Whitton Daisy, owned by Tom and Sandy Walne. The runner-up was Purdy, bred by Graham Worrell, who was the dam of para dressage horse Purdy’s Dream and grand-dam of John Whittaker’s Argento.