Dressage personalities dominated the inaugural Horse & Hound Awards at a ceremony at Ascot Racecourse last night. From over 1000 nominations, a panel whittled a short list of five in each of the ten categories for readers to vote on on-line – and 27,000 voted! In the ten public votes, dressage claimed four awards.
Following her phenomenal Rio performances, Charlotte Dujardin was voted ‘Professional rider of the year’ while her dancing partner Valegro, owned by Carl Hester, Roly Luard and Anne Barrott, picked up ‘Horse of the year’ (sadly not in person!). ‘Super groom’ Alan Davies, who has played a huge supporting role in both Valegro and Charlotte’s success, made it a hat-trick for ‘Team Valegro’ in claiming ‘Groom of the year’.
It was great news for Dr Claire Abel when she was announced as the winner of the ‘Amateur rider of the year’. Claire has a busy full time role as an accountant which she calls her ‘real life’ but combines that with her dressage ‘hobby’ with horses Rowan Magic and Ro Coco. And she’s pretty proficient at this hobby… She’s trained and competed Rowan Magic from Novice to Small Tour and competed on European soil for the first time at Saumur CDI3*, finishing in the top five of all three classes. Ro Coco has also risen from the Novice ranks under Claire’s training. A friend of Facebook summed up the award for Claire, or Tig as she’s known, in saying; “Sometimes hard work, commitment and dedication do pay off!”
The panel announced a special award, the Horse & Hound Inspiration which was given posthumously to Hannah Francis, the teenage eventer who set up the Willberry Wonder Pony charity during her own battle with cancer which has raised, and continues to raise, thousands for bone cancer research and ‘Willberry’s Wishes’ which makes memorable experiences for seriously ill youngsters. British Dressage is delighted to be supporting the charity as part of this year’s National Convention, 19 – 20 November.
Award winners included:
Horse & Hound Lifetime achievement award: Nick Skelton
Spillers Professional rider of the year: Charlotte Dujardin
Charles Owen Most memorable moment of the year: Ben Hobday
Country & Stable Horse of the year: Valegro
Horseware Groom of the year: Alan Davies
Pikeur Amateur rider of the year: Claire Abel
NAF Five Star Riding club of the year: Crown
TopSpec Vet of the year: Ken Anderson
Equoevents.co.uk Volunteer of the year: Jane Cepok
NAF Five Star Profeet Farrier of the year: Paul Woodall
Horse & Hound Inspiration: Hannah Francis
Thanks to Charlotte Dujardin’s Facebook page for the photo.