DRESSAGE
Tailcoat dreams are realised as one combination’s season is cut short and a prodigious pony and young rider dance their way to a ticket
HIGHLIGHTS
27 May–2 June
Hunters Equestrian, Glos
“WE’VE done everything together, so it’s exciting that we’ve now got the tailcoat on,” said Elice Willett, who rode Gerento (Gerry) to an advanced 102 win. “Gerry has been amazing and given only 16hh but, as my mum points out, you don’t get a diamond as big as a brick.
“He’s ‘Mr Joe Cool’ and has always been supremely self-confident, in a nice way,” added Elice, who still trains with Stephen Wallace nine years later and is aiming to soon be out at prix st georges (PSG).
“The quality of competition at Hunters can leave you a little me so many opportunities.”
The Sorento gelding was “a bit of a shrimp”, according to Elice, as a newly purchased and just-backed four-year-old.
“I was quite scared to show my trainer what we’d gone and bought on our own,” she laughed. “He was always beautiful, just tiny. He’s still awestruck, so it was nice for me to get over my impostor syndrome and realise that you can be in it to win it.”
Stacey Kinnear scored a double prelim win with Francis Morpheus, the six-year-old Franklin gelding she bought a year ago.
“I was looking for an eight-or nine-year-old, ready for elementary or medium, but when Calum Whitworth showed me ‘Morph’ I knew I had to have him,” she said. “He was very green and quite weak but so lovely. I’d never ridden anything like him.”
Named after the god of dreams because o
