Becky captures the glory in sister act following Hannah’s pregnant pause

And unlike her sidelined older sister, giving birth to children is not on the agenda!

Moody, 32, was the toast of Yorkshire at last month’s National Championships held at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, deputising for her pregnant sister on board Caluna to superb effect.

The 10-year-old scooped the Horse Health Intermediate II Championship but a double success was actually celebrated with five-year-old Carinsio also landing the Supreme Championship For Young Horses.

The success left two reasons to crack open the bubbly at the Moody Gunthwaite Dressage yard and very soon the champagne corks will be popping once more with Becky’s 41-year-old sister Hannah due to give birth to a baby girl on October 10.

But there are no such plans for the younger Moody sister, still on the crest of a wave after her Stoneleigh success and targeting more glories in 2013 and beyond.

“I don’t have any children and there’s no plans for that at the minute,” Becky told the Yorkshire Post.

“I’d prefer puppies and kittens and foals to children to be honest!

“But Hannah is due to give birth on October 10 and after that she’s hoping she won’t be a long time coming back.

“We’ll just have to see how it goes but I’m hoping that she might come back and say that I am able to keep the ride on Caluna!”

Becky is unquestionably the forefront glory-getter of the Moody sisters operation with Hannah more content to put together the crucial pieces behind the scene.

Yet but for impending motherhood, the ‘quieter sister’ would have been celebrating her biggest personal dressage success yet at Stoneleigh on Caluna, who has long been her own ride.

“Hannah has ridden Caluna since she was about three when we got here,” explained Becky. “She isn’t as competitive as me which has worked out quite well as she got pregnant and so I took over the ride literally for this season.

“I don’t know if she was gutted about missing the ride – you’d have to ask her that!

“But there’s not really any rivalry and we do actually work really well together and I think because she has never been as competitive as me we complement each other quite well.

“Hannah won the Medium Elite Championships quite a few years ago but she has trained several horses up to the top level such as Grand Prix and she’s had a lot of success training other riders that have done very well.

“But she quite likes standing on the sidelines more than being in there doing it.”

What is certain is that both sisters played a massive part in the recent Stoneleigh success which Becky admits has to go down as the yard’s best ever.

Becky scooped two prizes with Kwadraat back in 2001 but the younger sister admits celebrating gold with two different horses and at two very different age groups was far more special.

The yard actually sent six horses to the event with Don Angelo, Le Chiffre, Wallenstein and Andy Lykkegaard all finishing top 10 in their respective disciplines.

The Gunthwaite dressage operation has certainly come a long way since being a pig farm in the mid 1980s.

“I was really pleased with how all the horses went actually,” said Becky.

“I had six horses there with two horses doing particularly well but I was pleased with all of them. They were all top 10.

“It’s a good situation to come home from a big event like that, with good results with all your horses. It was cool.”