Young Horses Off to a Flying Start at the 2021 Sunshine Tour

Another week of top-class equestrian action got underway at the 2021 Sunshine Tour on Monday, with a plethora of clear rounds in the Young Horse Classes.

The majority of competitors, and their mounts, rode strong clear rounds to make it into the jump off. In the 5-year-olds class, 92 horses entered with a total of 71 jumping clear. The 6-year-olds class was held in the Milton arena, which was very well attended with a total of 168 horses jumping, with 121 of those riding clear.

The 7yr old, two phase class, was divided in to two sections. Section A was won by David Will who is from Germany and is always very successful here at the Tour, riding “Junior Kannan”. In second place was a British rider we haven’t seen for a while,  Tamarin Christie riding “Janita”. Third was the Swedish rider, Linda Heed with “Calvin FPZ”. Section B was won by Kim Emmen from the Netherlands with “Astrid’s Lad”, second was the German rider Jens Baackmann with “Dark Grey”. The winner of Sunday’s Horseware Grand Prix, Jérôme Guery was third with the up and coming “Tender Dream Hero Z”.

A Tribute to a Showjumping Legend

The Milton arena is ideal for young horses as it is expansive, measuring up at a whopping 105 x 75m. The arena was named after the world renowned, Milton who was of course ridden by legendary British rider, John Whitaker. The pairing wowed crowds and continuously exceeded expectations by winning various World Cups and European Championships. No one realised then that this striking grey horse would turn out to be the first to win over a million euros, 1.400.000€, outside of the racing world.

Born in 1977,  Milton aka ‘Marius Silver Jubilee’ was bought, trained and rode competitively by Caroline Bradley. John took over the ride later in the horse’s career (1985) a couple of years after Caroline had sadly passed away. Caroline had often remarked “as a youngster he was like a grumpy pony”, however, she knew of Milton’s potential early on, as she told her parents he would be her Olympic mount, they retained the horse for a couple of years following Caroline’s death.

John Whitaker rode him for the first time in the autumn of 1985, when he was 8-years-old. John had only done a few small shows with the horse before he took him to the Berlin CSI5* where they finished third in the Grand Prix class. Years later he proved to be exceptional as he went on to win gold in various European Championships, World Cup Finals, and both silver and bronze in the Stockholm World Equestrian games. He was retired in 1994 at the Olympia Horse Show to adoring crowds and he passed away on the 4th of July 1999 after suffering bouts of colic. During his lifetime, Milton won over 1 million pounds in prize money. He is buried on the Whitakers’ farm in Yorkshire.

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