What a weekend as Katie throws off bridesmaid tag

How perfectly ironic then that a landmark success at the Badminton Horse Trials should be followed by her engagement the following day.

Hardisty is still coming back down to earth after winning last week’s Mitsubishi Motors Grassroots Championships for the BE100 2012 event.

The Yorkshire teacher’s success on Croft Farm Percy had friends and family reaching for the bubbly – with an even bigger reason to crack open the champagne arriving less than 24 hours later.

The following evening, in front of picturesque Badminton House, Hardisty’s boyfriend of five years, Matt Tyrka, popped the question two days before the eventing star’s 27th birthday.

Hardisty, a teacher at Sessay Primary School, approached Badminton believing she was something of a nearly performer – always close to winning but never the centre of attention. Last weekend, in more ways than one, that massively changed.

“It doesn’t get much better than this!” an ecstatic Hardisty told the Yorkshire Post this week. “Winning Badminton – I didn’t expect it. It was just overwhelming and amazing.

“Percy has never won an event even though he’s always been very consistent and always been second or third. I always said I am always the bridesmaid.

“We had a brilliant evening celebrating and the next day we went shopping and had a nice day with our friends after which Matt said let’s go for a walk with the dogs. So off we went for a walk in front of Badminton House.

“We’d just had a nice jug of Pimm’s at the bar and we stood in front of the House when he just came out with it and asked me to marry him.

“I was just totally shocked and I had the most gorgeous ring waiting in a box. It was fab. It meant another bottle of champagne got opened and we had a nice night!

“Then on Sunday it was my birthday but I’d forgot about that.

“I was so excited and just on cloud nine with everything that had happened.”

The foundations for a truly perfect weekend were formed in 2011 when Hardisty, trained by Julie Lawson, qualified Croft Farm Percy as a five-year-old for a Badminton competition that was originally planned for 2012.

Waterlogging put paid to last year’s event but Middlesbrough-born Hardisty’s postponed Badminton appearance was certainly worth the wait.

“To be a Badminton champion is amazing, basically,” said Hardisty, a Durham and Sheffield Hallam University graduate who has progressed up to Novice level with Percy since qualifying for Badminton.

“Percy is seven now and he’s the most consistent horse I have ever had – he always does a very nice dressage test and always goes double-clear.

“He gives me a lot of confidence but I did put pressure on myself and I thought I would let it all crumble at the end. But I didn’t and it all worked well.”

Just as the Grassroots Championships worked out well for Yorkshire as a whole.

Across four different events, eight of the county’s riders achieved top 13 finishes – namely Hardisty plus Steph Robson, Chloe Bell, Deirdre Johnston, John Guy, Judith Bennett, Lucie Cawood and Sophie Blades.

Top of the pile was Hardisty, whose attention now turns to her and Percy’s first one-star competition at the Chatsworth International event this weekend.

The long-term dream is to continue onwards and upwards and compete in the three-star event at the Bramham Horse Trials in 2014. But some rather exciting times lie around the corner first – headed by a wedding that is planned to take place next July. With four horses to boast of, further major eventing highs can also be envisaged with Hardisty having announced herself on a national stage at Badminton – even if it was something of a surprise.

Hardisty revealed: “Matt later said he was going to propose after I’d finished at Badminton but he said to me ‘I didn’t know you were going to win!’

“He said he didn’t want to take the glory away from me winning.

“The whole thing was just a rollercoaster and it’s a weekend that I’ll never ever forget for the rest of my life.”