SALCOMBE resident Vicki Rogers has won the SEIB Search for a Star competition at the Horse of the Year Show.

Vicki, and her eight-year-old show hunter mare Yorkies Purple Diamond, known as Lottie, took home the championship after an ‘unexpected season’ in which Vicki suffered from pneumonia and only took part in the qualification event after being persuaded by her friend.

‘My friend Kim Shepherd told me about the Search for a Star competition and persuaded me to go along to the qualifying event. We went very laid back and thought it would just be good experience for Lottie, and then we won and qualified for the Horse of the Year Show!’

Lottie had only been broken a year before, after Vicki bought her as a yearling. ‘I got married and had a couple of kids’, said Vicki, ‘she had a couple of foals and then we broke her, so she’s only been ridden for a year.’

As a school teacher at South and West Devon Academy, Vicki was unable to do much competing until the summer holidays, but just two weeks into the holiday, she was diagnosed with pneumonia and wasn’t allowed to leave Derriford for her first international competition after qualifying for HOYS.

This meant that as she arrived at HOYS, Lottie had only attended one hunter show on August 20. She drove the five hours to Birmingham NEC with Lottie on Wednesday, qualified for the championship on Thursday, drove home, arriving at 2am on Friday, unpacked and repacked the lorry and drove back up on Saturday morning.

‘Lottie can get a bit stressy at these events and won’t eat very much so we made the decision to drive her home and then drive her back for the championship’, said Vicki, ‘HOYS were very accommodating and we were given the same stable she was in at the beginning of the week, so she was more settled.’ Vicki and Lottie were then named Champions on Sunday.

Vicki thanked her friend Kim Shepherd ‘without her I wouldn’t have known about it’, Clare Arden who broke Lottie for her, Emily Farleigh and Caroline Brooker for lessons, her parent Margaret and Barry Brooks and Amanda Wreford-Brown who did physiotherapy for Lottie to get her in perfect shape.

‘It’s crazy’, said Vicki, ‘Lottie is the easiest horse and has the sweetest temperament and this season has just been bizarre, not what I expected, but amazing.’

The SEIB Search for a Star competition offers an opportunity for amateur horses and riders to learn and improve from showing’s best. During qualifying shows, riders are encouraged to discuss with the judges where they might be going wrong, and gain help and encouragement to improve their turn-out and horse’s way of going.