TALENTED YOUNGSTERS MAKE A MARK IN SHOW JUMPING

Bob Le Cob and Madge have both been stepped up this season, with outstanding results to their credit in the ring.

They are home produced and trained at the family base at Dichling, where Peter works with his father Brian, who himself has ridden many outstanding show jumpers, including Ben and Brecon, to win top events in the Hickstead International Arena.

Brian has always had a shrewd eye for a good horse, buying them as raw youngsters in Ireland, bringing them home to break-in and bring on.

Peter was brought up in the show jumping environment and competed as a youngster, taking a break to qualify as a tree surgeon at Plumpton College and then worked at the Southdown and Eridge Hunt kennels for two years before working for his father, and resuming showjumping, riding both his father's horses and those of other people.

Peter said: "The beauty about buying horses in the way that we do is that they come to us as unbroken three-year-olds from Ireland. They have not acquired any bad habits and we can work on them from scratch. We sell on quite a number, but there are some that we keep ourselves, like Bob Le Cob and Madge."

This season, Bob Le Cob has come into his own as a six-year-old. He won a six-year-old qualifier at the July Hickstead meeting and was third in a Grade Two event at the South of England Show, as well as being placed in five yellow classes.

"Bob's grandsire is Clover Hill. He came in looking like a hairy cob when we started to work on him '“ hence his name. He's a real Jack the Lad and full of enthusiasm, which I have to try to contain. He will go to a practice fence squealing with excitement. Dad believes he will be one of the best horses he has had," said Peter.

Madge is a five-year-old, who started competing in November. She was second at the recent Hickstead show in a five-year-old class, and won a Foxhunter class at Kent County Show last month, as well as winning a British Novice second round at Royal Leisure Centre. She won a Discovery class at Limes Farm, Kent last weekend.

See Sussex Horse World, West Sussex Gazette Aug 1 for full story