All About You


Ridden veteran champions at Royal Windsor


result to finish on, with a lovely third placing.


Back in the stabling area at Olympia following their placing


and she had a cold at the time, so she wasn’t feeling great anyway. When she finally realised she had won, she was absolutely delighted. We had got up at 3am that morning to travel down to Windsor and then had to wait until the evening for the championship. But to win was an amazing achievement and made the long day worthwhile.


“During the warm-up at Windsor, Tyra had felt intimidated by all the larger horses that were warming up alongside her. However, renowned


show producer Robert Walker took her under his wing, telling everyone else to stay out of her way and telling Tyra to follow him. I messaged him that night to say thank you... And to tell him that Tyra had won and qualified for Olympia.


“When we headed off to Olympia, over half a year later, we found it to be an amazing place and everyone was so friendly. My best friend came with me to help out and when we arrived, we put Justin in his stable before attending a meeting, where


Justin has given Tyra so much confidence


they talked us through absolutely everything. After that, we went to check on Justin and bumped into Camilla Parker-Bowles! One of her ‘people’ called us over so that Camilla could come to meet Justin, and Camilla wished Tyra all the best and said she hoped she would win.


“Tyra was quite laid back about being at Olympia. I grabbed Justin for a quick ride just to make sure he was going to be well behaved and also to say I have ridden at Olympia! I did ride at HOYS once, but never Olympia. Tyra warmed him up for her class and then got dressed and lined up in the collecting ring. They were called in in size order. The girl behind Tyra was a little nervous and Tyra turned to her saying: ‘Just follow Justin, you’ll be fine’. That girl went on to finish fourth and her mum sent me a message to say thank you and tell me what a delightful girl Tyra is. I was a very proud mum.


Tyra and Justin stood reserve champion at the NPS Summer Championships


“Tyra and Justin did an amazing show at Olympia, which moved them up from 17th position to third. It was a long day and Tyra was quite emotional, but what a great


“Following Olympia, while we hadn’t necessarily planned to sell Justin, I knew that Tyra was going to be out of the first ridden classes and she unfortunately was starting to look quite big on him. A good friend of mine, with her sensible head on, suggested it would be wise to pass him on to a new rider, as Justin needs to do his job helping another young jockey, and Tyra would be able to then move onto something bigger. A lady recently enquired about him and now he has gone to a wonderful new home, where he will continue to do first riddens with his new eight year old jockey Gracie Jenkin. Tyra was devastated to say goodbye to Justin – in fact she still is. We do still have days where we wonder if we did the right thing, but I know we did, and we take comfort in the fact we found this lovely pony the home he deserves.


“We have another Dartmoor, but he’s proved to be a bit tricky – not easy like Justin. We are still working on him, so we will see what happens. Tyra rides my Connemara, but he hasn’t done much to date. I bought him a couple of years ago and some people have told me he would make a cracking worker, even though I bought him to do flat classes. As yet, we haven’t found Tyra a new pony to show, and I am not entirely sure what I am looking for. Who knows, maybe one will find me.”


Telephone 01380 734374 | ISSUE 120 MARCH 2018 | The Native Pony | 5


© Kerry Bates


© Nixonphoto


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