Treat em Mean proving keen to take all the honours in the ring

He beat a huge entry of 47 other ex-racehorses to win the Tattersalls and Retraining of Racehorses thoroughbred show horse championship.

“I’m over the moon about Hickstead,” said Lizzie. “We’ve only had him just short of a year. He won at Ryedale, his first ever show, last year to qualify for this final when we’d only had him for 20 days.”

The 10-year-old was in training with Carl Llewellyn but did not prove to be successful on the race track. He was then bought by Katie Hill, a neighbour of the Richmond’s near Ripon, and was spotted by Lizzie in the collecting ring when she was taking part in a competition at the Yorkshire Riding Centre at Markington.

“He’s the most beautiful mover and the sweetest horse to deal with,” said Lizzie, who persuaded Katie to part with the horse.

Treat em Mean was the winner of the 11-year-and-under Retraining of Racehorses class, and third place went to last year’s winner, Vicky Smart’s Chivola.

This season is proving to be a golden one so far for the Richmond family. The part-bred Cleveland bay filly, Hawlmark Classic Twilight, has continued her success in hunter classes from last year when she was shown by her owners, Nigel and Sue Cowgill from Ripon.

This season she has added wins and championships, shown by Peter, at Otley, Hambleton and North Yorkshire County shows. The filly was overall Supreme In Hand and Best Yorkshire Bred In Hand Hunter at the Yorkshire Sport Horse summer show. The Richmonds also qualified Joanne Rook’s four-year-old former Cuddy finalist, Highlane Riley, for the heavyweight hunter class at the Royal International Horse Show at Hambleton on the horse’s first outing under saddle.

Steve Pullan’s two-year-old Jaguar Moon is also continuing after a successful 2010 season when shown by Steve, by winning at Otley and the North Yorkshire County and was the champion In Hand Sport Horse at Lincoln County Show. Ros Croft’s Arndilly Water won the four, five and six-year-old Ridden Sport Horse class at the North West Sport Horse summer show on only her second outing and qualified for the final at the National Hunter Supreme Championship in September.

Next week the Richmonds will be competing close to home at the Great Yorkshire Show in numerous classes. Lizzie, in particular, hopes she will be riding Treat Em Mean in the racehorse class.

Another ex-racehorse in the limelight this week is The Last Rambo, owned by Helen Scott from Richmond. As we reported two weeks ago, Rambo was in the final of the the inaugural Retraining of Racehorses Heart Awards. And this week Helen,17, learned that Rambo had won the Biggest Heart Award.

Helen nominated him for his courage in recovering from a serious leg injury and for his fighting spirit. Now fully recovered, Rambo has started doing some eventing with Helen, who is delighted with the award. “I didn’t think we stood much of a chance and I’m really pleased,” said Helen.

Revived Baron wins plaudits at Royal meet

THE former police horse, Baron Bruni, whose story we featured recently, was on winning form at the recent Royal Tournament.

After a short-lived career as a police horse, Bruni found a new home with Tracey and Paul Brown,who are both officers with the mounted branch of South Yorkshire Police.

He has become a great all-rounder, competing in eventing, showjumping and dressage with Tracey and in tent-pegging competitions with Paul.

This involves riders picking up small tent pegs with a hook while galloping.

At the Royal Tournament he won one competition and was placed fourth in another in the Skill at Arms section with Paul.

The points gained took them to the top of the league and resulted in them being selected for the British team to compete against South Africa at Bodney in Norfolk at the end of this month.

Tracey competed with Bruni in the showjumping with fellow police team members Julie Bradshaw and Debbie Renwick.

After being drawn to jump first, the team finished on four faults which kept them in the lead to win the competition.

Piggy French led from the start to win the test eventing competition for London 2012 at Greenwich Park in London.

Riding DHI Topper W, she finished on her dressage score of 34.7 to take the top spot. The current world champion, Germany’s Michael Jung, finished second and Pippa Funnell was back in third place.

Tina heads to Harrogate with her in-form Promised Land

STILL on a high after her amazing win at the Hickstead Derby, Tina Fletcher and Promised Land will be heading for Harrogate and the Great Yorkshire Show next week with the Cock o’ the North Championship in their sights.

Tina has twice been runner up in the testing Derby competition which includes the famous bank.

This trophy is one she has wanted to win all her life and this year she achieved that ambition after an exceptional performance with Promised Land.

It was a proud moment for all the family and particularly for Tina’s husband Graham.

He said: “It’s a class I’ve always wanted to win but second was the best I could manage.”

Now retired from competing, the former Olympic rider jumped clear on Buttevant Boy but was beaten in the jump-off by Harvey Smith.

This year’s Great Yorkshire Show has attracted record entries of over 2,000 for the broad range of equestrian classes.

“Entries have exceeded all our expectations, especially in some of the classes,” said chief equine steward, Linda Brudenell.

Those with particularly large entries include the ridden hunter classes, the ladies side saddle and the Mountain and Moorland section, for which there are a total of 264 entries.

One of the most popular is the new Ridden Mountain and Moorland class which is a Horse of the Year Show qualifier.

Coveted prizes include the Cuddy Supreme Championship and the new TopSpec Ridden Championship where judges will have a tough time selecting winners from what promises to be some very high quality entries.