Success stories Amroth Bay - a (nearly) perfect match from the start

(Written by Sophie Brown)

As someone straight out of racing school and starting their first job in racing, my nerves on my first day were horrendous. However first lot was in fact a horse called Amroth Bay and ten minutes into riding him, he decided to whip round and drop me. After this I rode and looked after Amroth every day, our friendship grew and he found a very special place in my heart. Amroth was also the first winner that I led up during my racing career.

In 2015, when he turned eleven, the owners, together with Dan Skelton, very kindly asked me if I would like him as my own. Obviously I jumped at the chance as I loved him so much already. Once home, I decided to turned him away for a few months for a summer break. During this time he flourished and is now know as 'fats', still to this day he lives out in the field on not much more than fresh air and a field full of grass.

When bringing Amroth slowly back into work, I decided I wanted to event him, which we did for the following two seasons. We competed in BE90 and BE100 although dressage and show jumping were not his strongest areas, he showed his true potential in the cross country field and would eat up any cross country course. However still working full time in racing made it very difficult for me to keep eventing him as I didn’t have the time.

So the following season, I found the RoR Showing Series and decided to try Showing. The first show I ever took him to was the RoR Goffs UK Championships at Aintree Equestrian Centre. I entered the RoR Retrained Racehorse Challenge Show Class and to my surprise we won. However, the high of this the trip was then cut short, as when loading him up to compete the next day he banged his head and required fifteen staples to fix him up. Thankfully he took everything in his stride and has done ever since.

Last year we carried on competing in the RoR Showing Series and had great success. We once again attended the RoR Goffs UK Championships at Aintree and to my surprise, this wonderful horse performed exceptionally and we had another win.

This year I made a decision to get to as many shows as possible whilst working full time for Karl Burke racing. Myself and Amroth have been to two shows this year and both times we were given overall champion.

We have already achieved so much as we are now qualified for the RoR Retrained Racehorse Challenge, RoR Veteran and the RoR Jockey Club Novice all at the Championships at the Aintree and to top it off, we have just qualified for the RoR Tattersalls Show Series at Hickstead for 2020.

Amroth Bay, has been an absolute dream to retrain and I can safely say he is one of the best horses I have ever had and ever will have. He gives his 110% every time I take him out to compete and I am looking forward to the rest of the season with this absolute dude of a horse!