Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 80

life

EQUESTRIAN

all around her was uncertain.
“With my riding, my ambition has always
been to qualify for The Horse of the Year
Show (HOYS). I qualified the first time
when I had a nice looking horse which I
was showjumping at the time. Someone
said I should do working hunter classes
with it and I took their advice. I qualified
for HOYS the first time out by shear fluke
and that was it really, but I was hooked.”
Karen has now been to HOYS for the
last 20 years competing in working
hunter, coloured and cob classes.
“My main ambition is to win at the
Horse of the Year Show. I have been
placed at the show but I have never won
there. That would be my ambition, but
it’s down to the horse. I’ve only got the
one horse that I’m actually riding at the
moment. HOYS is the unluckiest show in
the world for me. I’ve always had bad
luck there. I think sixth is the highest I
have ever been placed and, funnily, that
was with a horse of quite poor quality
and I really shouldn’t have been there.
“When you are an amateur like me, just
getting there is an achievement. I would
like to win but I’m not under any illusions.
“The working hunter is a class where you
have to jump a course of fences first before

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the second round which is a showing
contest, most of the riders are quite a lot
younger than me. The last time I jumped
round the working hunter at HOYS was
about six years ago and I was the oldest
then. I’m getting a bit old for that now. I
know a lot of our top showjumpers are in
their 50s, but they are doing it for a living
and have a lot of help around them.
“I’m 55 and you have to be realistic
about your age. I can’t go out jumping
big fences now. When you get older, you
only need to have a bump on the floor
and you break something, so you have to
be realistic. I’d rather be at the top of the
line in a different class than be struggling
in the jumping, but of course I am loathe
to let go. I don’t like teaching. You can
either teach or you can’t. I can teach
the horse, but I can’t teach the rider!”
Karen says she’s quite envious of people
who just have one horse and no aspirations.
“When you are competing, horses are
the greatest thing, as well as men, for
making you feel life’s wonderful, or that you
want to give up tomorrow,” she laughs.
Most important to Karen though, are
her dogs, and her whole life is devoted
to keeping them as happy as possible.

“I love my dogs more than anything in
the world,” she says, quite unashamedly.
“The horsebox, for which I have a
massive loan, is designed totally for the
comfort of the dogs, not for humans or
for horses. I’m a complete doggy bore!
I absolutely adore them and I am really
lucky to be able to love them so much.”
They broke the mould when
they made Karen Ledger!

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