Katie Speller reigns supreme on Saturday at the Spring Championships
Saturday 18 March 2023
.jpg "Katie Speller reigns supreme on Saturday at the Spring Championships")
Katie Speller took the British Showjumping Championships by storm on Saturday at Arena UK, taking both Winter 1.35m and Winter 5-year-old Championship titles on offer.
Katie claimed the top-billed Winter 1.35m Final with Cindy Z in a strong jump-off. Twenty-eight competitors faced course-designer Nigel Jess’ 13-fence track and such was the quality, 15 posted initial clears to access the jump-off. But Katie was out for the win, angling fences and taking a flyer to the final oxer to secure victory by a tiny fraction.
Katie, who has been based with Shane Breen at Hickstead, Sussex, for the past four years, only got the ride on the Breen Equestrian’s 9-year-old Cindy (Clarimo x Casall) six weeks ago but they have quickly established a rapport.
“She’s a nice, easy horse but I’m still getting to know her. She can be a little grumpy in the stable but I just give her a scratch and she’s loving and chilled. In the ring, her energy rises and she’s ready to attack the course,” said Katie, who relies on Shane’s vast experience and advice. “He can see where to be tighter on the course and how to get the concentration of the horse to use itself better when warming up.”
Katie wasn’t done. She proved unbeatable in a 19-horse jump-off to decide the Winter 5-year-old title, claiming her second win by 1.28 seconds with Team Z7’s Z7 Pink Panther despite sitting on the Cuick Star Kervec x Obos Quality 004 stallion just a few days earlier.
“I only realised I was bringing him to the show five days before we travelled, Atiya Bussey has been producing him and has done a great job. He has quite a cheeky attitude and has a bit of fight in him but the good ones need to have something about them and he takes the pressure easily,” said Katie.
Daniel May had led most of the way from the front on Double M Stud’s Double M Sensation and steered Double M Extrovert in close behind to stand in the top two places until Katie’s late challenge, relegating him to second and third.
The four-hour journey from Sussex for Katie and the Breen team wasn’t all plain sailing.
“We pulled into a truck stop with two lorries but didn’t realise it was a dead-end. It took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing to navigate us back on the road as both lorries had trailers on the back,” said Katie, who was driving one lorry. “All the lorry drivers were watching us – it definitely wasn’t worth the coffee!”
