Olympic gold medallist claims first ever HOYS ticket: ‘We were eventing down the road’

Triple Olympic medal-winning event rider Tom McEwen took a detour from eventing at Chard to claim his first ever Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) showjumping ticket.

Competing at the Bicton Midsummer Festival in Devon, Tom teamed up with Kilcannon Mischeif to win the grade C qualifier.

Tom McEwen on HOYS qualification: “She has been jumping a couple of bigger classes”

The eight-year-old mare Kilcannon Mischeif was bought by Tom’s mother Ali from the Goresbridge Go For Gold sale as a three-year-old and had a strong eventing record up to intermediate level, but switched to showjumping this year.

“She has a very good jump, so we thought it was worth trying her [as a show jumper],” said Tom, who jumped clear on her for just one time-penalty in the two-star 1.45 grand prix at the London leg of the Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) last month.

“Being an event horse, she’s used to grass and the arena at Bicton is amazing to jump on. She has been jumping a couple of bigger classes so it was an easier one for her.”

Eventers out in force

Tom beat fellow eventer/showjumper Jess Baugh riding Wellview Luxigraaf to the top spot, and Alice Watson and her home-bred Extra Zest TH, by Big Star out of her great mare Billy Lemon, were just 0.64sec behind Jess to be third.

Tom, who was also part of the gold medal-winning British eventing team at the 2018 world championships with his great partner Toledo De Kerser, hasn’t focused on HOYS qualification this year, but grabbed a ticket with just two qualifiers left to go.

“She tends to come second fiddle to 14 other horses, so poor ‘Maeve’ does have to fit in jumping her when we can, and luckily we were eventing just down the road,” he said. “She has a lovely personality and is very easy to deal with, which makes it easier. She’s flown up the ranks quite quickly.”

The grade C championship at HOYS takes place on the morning of Sunday, 12 October.

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