news Our Old Fella continues to succeed in Eventing

• Our Old Fella and Piggy March claim victory to win the RoR Novice Eventing Championship

• From former racehorse and former polo pony to Elite Eventing Champion

With a glorious spell of British summer weather and set on the stunning Marlborough Downs, the RoR Novice Eventing Championships got underway on Friday 8^th July. Held at Barbury Castle home to the International Horse Trials, 12 former racehorses competed in all three phases, for only one to be crowed champion.

The 11-year-old gelding, Our Old Fella, started life as a racehorse but only managed one run at Wolverhampton Racecourse, enough to show that was not going to be his forte, he then tried his hand at polo before switching disciplines again to give eventing a go.

It was in 2021 were Our Old Fella found his niche under the careful care of Team GB rider Piggy March. The pair were crowned 2021 RoR Elite Eventing Champions, having accumulated the most British Eventing points in one season and have continued to succeed being crowned the RoR Novice Champions last Friday, finishing on their dressage score of 30.8.

Owner Jayne McGiven initially purchased Our Old Fella and brought him to Piggy to be retrained for Eventing. Afterwards Piggy March said: “From the moment I saw him there was just something I really liked about him, he has a super character, he’s a fun little horse, and he just makes you smile.

This little horse owes nothing to anyone, and we will continue to enjoy him at Novice level and would be a fantastic horse for anyone to learn the ropes on.”

Runner up was Olive Nicholls and Galley Proof, a ten-year-old gelding who was bred and owned by HM The Queen. Galley Proof had two runs on the flat for trainer William Haggis before retiring in 2016. Since being retrained, he has moved up the British Eventing circuit from BE90 to CCI-S 3* level.

All-time favourite and former RoR Elite Eventing champions, Andrew Downes and Gold Nugget took third position with an unlucky 8 faults in the show jumping phase that may have cost them second.

Di Arbuthnot, Chief Executive of RoR, added: It’s fantastic to see these horses competing on an international stage, the level of horses just keeps improving. The new novice section will hopefully grow and is something for riders to aim at.” Our thanks to Barbury for hosting such a wonderful event.