South Essex Insurance Brokers Search for a Star 2003

Search "Superstar" Is Not For Sale!

Ex-racehorse earns reserve champion place at HOYS

A potential superstar is how the judges viewed the Cob which won the South Essex Insurance Brokers Search for a Star supreme championship - but owner Rebecca Brierley still said "no" to the people who wanted to buy Barney Rubble V.

"He was a gift from my husband and the two of them gave me the experience of a life time at the Horse of the Year Show," she said. "No money could buy him now."

Mrs Brierley, a company director from Huddersfield, had already taken the Cob Championship to go into the Supreme line-up, where one of the judges, Anne Pritchard, commented that "we may have found a superstar."

Now Barney Rubble V will spend a winter in the hunting field, combined with showjumping and some dressage, before going on to open Cob and working Cob classes next year.

Reserve Champion was the four-year-old ex-racehorse and now Hack, Millimetre. Joint owners Julie Farrell and Hilary Curtis from Surrey bought Millimetre when they went for "a girls day out" to the Ascot Sales. "When he came into the ring we were stunned at the low price, so we bought him," said Julie.

"They were two wonderful horses - indeed, most of the horses we saw in this South Essex Insurance Brokers class could have gone on to compete in the open classes at this most prestigious show," said judge Robert Oliver. Mrs Pritchard said: "Search for a Star has grown into one of the most important show classes and probably the premier novice class of the year."

The Riding Horse championship went to Catherston Goldcrest and ex-Burghley Horse Trials rider Sarah Oldham from Andover, Hampshire, while Lancashire-based Donna Knowles and Secret Melody clinched the Riding Club Show Horse title.

The two pony championships were earned by Jamie Andrew and Ockley Fiasco from Cheshire and Ella Morris with Rotherwood Peterkin. Karen Johnson from Somerset rode her own Rapps Diamond Jack into the working hunter title, and the ridden hunter championship was well-earned by Amazing Grace, owned and
ridden by Christine Booth from Oldham, Lancashire.

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