‘She loved him then and always did’: final farewell to double HOYS champion aged 32

A two-time Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) champion who was the love of his owners’ lives has died aged 32 after a long and happy retirement.

Gosh had lived for the past nearly 20 years with Jackie Thompson and her daughter Emma, who had to take the decision to let him go as his age was finally catching up with him.

“We were all in tears, including the vet,” Jackie told H&H. “When you have horses, you have to be ready for when that day comes.”

Gosh, a son of the legendary Mill Reef, was first spotted for the show ring by Jerome Harforth and Andrea Charlesworth, who gave him his name.

“When they went to see him, they just looked over the door and said ‘Gosh!’ and that was it,” Jackie said. “They bought him as a youngster and sold him to Natalie Lintott, who won the HOYS riding horse championship in 2005, and the racehorse to riding horse in 2006.

“Then we bought him. My daughter loved him then and always did.”

Jackie said Gosh was originally sold to a friend of Emma’s, who asked Emma to ride him for her.

“She kept coming home saying he was the ride of all time,” she said. “We ended up buying him and she had him as a happy hacker, and he stayed with us all these years. She’s had some beautiful horses she competed with – but she always loved him the most.”

Jackie said Gosh had his quirks, such as a dislike of traffic – “he ended up sitting on the milkman’s float once!” – but that Emma always said he was “like a Rolls Royce to ride”.

“She absolutely loved him,” she said. “He was quite a legend; Simon Charlesworth also rode him at one or two shows and he said he was the best horse he’d sat on. Anyone who had anything to do with him said what a character he was.

“I can’t think of anything bad to say about him; he will certainly leave a big hole.”

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