Parkgate Royal Visit William back on top of hacks

Last year’s Supreme Horse winner Robert Walker has put in a strong bid for this year’s title, after taking top honours in the Saracen Horse Feeds Supreme Hack Championship with the small hack victor Parkgate Royal Visit William.

Owned by the Brookes family, who also enjoyed a win in the Longines International Arena when Zara Brookes and Merrycorner Mister Bui took the Enablelink Supreme Show Hunter Pony Championship on Wednesday, the 13-year-old is returning to the Royal International after missing last year’s show due to injury. Prior to that, he’d won on all three appearances with Robert. “He’s just the most lovely horse – he’s a real treat," said the Cheshire showman. 

Robert’s game plan today was to make the most of the gelding’s natural paces and workmanlike, game brain. “You’ve only got a short window to impress the judges, so you want to show off the best paces. He’s got amazing rhythm and cadence, so when I got the opportunity I showed it off in his trot, and the balance in the one-handed canter. Everything I tried in there, he accepted. He’s a genuine little horse, a proper little smasher to have around the yard, and he really didn’t get worked up by the atmosphere in there.”

Zara, who competes the gelding in intermediate classes, will be heading to the Horse of the Year Show with Parkgate Royal Visit William – but before that there's the small matter of Sunday's Barberstown Castle Supreme Ridden Horse Championship. But where the Supreme is concerned, reigning champion Robert remains pragmatic.

“We’ve had the most amazing week – I think this is our fifth win of the show out of six horses,” he says. “I’d love to win the Supreme again, and I’m sure when I get in there I’ll feel ultra-competitive, but it’s just an added bonus to the week. To get here and go in the classes that we’ve already won, that was our aim.”

In the Culford Lodge Commodities Small Hunter Championship, seven-year-old Briarhill Buddy Bolden got the nod from the judges to stand champion for Meg Edmondson, with Will Morton on Lenhalls Legacy in reserve.