Man Williams’ a number of puissance-winning journey Mr Blue Sky UK has proven he’s simply nearly as good, if not higher, with out footwear.
Man and Caroline and Rupert Phillips’ Chacco-Blue gelding retained their London Worldwide Horse Present title on Thursday (15 December), clearing 2.15m to take the win collectively with Joseph Trunkfield on Cruze.
The 13-year-old is a celebrity over the purple wall, profitable at Horse of the Yr Present (HOYS), Rouen and Liverpool in addition to the earlier three London titles. He completed third within the class at HOYS 2022, which Man stated was ‘most likely the one time he’s had the wall down”. However he has since come again in model.
Man informed H&H his daughter Maisy has been competing the versatile gray in younger rider lessons – he has beforehand joked about his “household horse” – and it was she who proposed the change.
“My daughter took the footwear off her stallion and he’s been leaping clear at 1.45m and going higher, so she requested if she may take the footwear off all hers, and I stated sure,” he stated.
“I used to be going to place them again on however thought I’d depart him; I haven’t been driving him a lot however he got here right here and jumped tremendous.”
Man added that he’s “not a [barefoot] convert but however we’ll see”.
“We’ll play it by ear,” he stated. “Everybody in Europe appears to be leaping with out footwear so why not strive it? I believe they lose a little bit of stride [length] which has been helpful for Maisy as a result of he’s a giant horse.
“So perhaps it’s helped him – nevertheless it definitely hasn’t hindered him!”
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Credit score: Peter Nixon
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