Big date for Rosie (From This is Hampshire)

Big date for Rosie

12:00pm Friday 10th July 2009

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Local rider Emma Kirby has qualified for the Horse of the Year Show with her piebald family cob Rosie.

The pair have tried for the last three years to qualify, each time coming close and being consistently well placed.

But their hard work paid off at the qualifier at Badgeworth in Somerset, on Sunday, when they won to qualify at the NEC in Birmingham (October 7-11).

Kirby, who lives with her husband and two young children on their farm in Winchester, is a member of Winchester Riding Club, who hold many events and clinics for riders and owners local to the Winchester area.

She bought Rosie as a three-year-old coloured cob from a friend who had rescued her in a very poor, emaciated state with a foal at foot.

She and Rosie have ridden western and side saddle and represented their previous riding club in the show jumping team and cross country. They have had most success in dressage and showing.

The pair are competing at their first Le Trec competition, run by Winchester Riding Club in September.

This year they have qualified for the Trailblazers Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh and the affiliated Petplan Area Festival of Dressage at Wellington in September.

For the last three years they have been showing and in the first year qualified for the BSHA National Championships.

They have qualified each year for the CHAPS National Championships and the BSPA National Championships, Ponies (UK) Kempley Cob and Commanche Coloured National Champs and the Royal London Show (both as a coloured and a cob).

The Horse of the Year Show search for a star competition, sponsored by SEIB Insurance Brokers is designed to give amateur riders and owners an opportunity to compete at the prestigious Horse of the Year Show and to identify top class horses and ponies which otherwise may not be given the chance to compete at this level.

For any young girl keen on ponies/horses it is a childhood dream to compete at the likes of HOYS but for it to actually become reality for a working mum of two, on her own family gypsy cob, is a fantastic achievement.

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