Scoring an impressive 78.75%, Richard Davison and Hiscox Artemis romped away with the 2010 Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) grand prix freestyle title on Sunday 10th October, the final day of the UK’s legendary show. Other HOYS favourites produced spectacular performances as they battled for pole position.
Riding the Countess of Derby’s 11 year old Florestan gelding, Davison earned a collection of 8’s and 9’s and enthused, “It was fab, Artemis rocked. He was so easy to ride, all I had to do was point him and he picked up the beat.”
Reflecting on the class, International judge David Trott who awarded Davison 78% for technical and 83% for artistic marks said, “It was a very high standard and no-one made any technical mistakes. But Richard’s performance simply shone above the rest and displayed a high degree of difficulty.”??
With more than 12 international grand prix wins over the last 12 months, Davison is creeping up the FEI world individual dressage rankings and is currently the second placed British rider, behind Laura Bechtolsheimer.
Davison has made a point of producing Artemis carefully and said of his Olympic hopeful, “I held him back from WEG selection because I wanted to give him more time to develop and show his real potential. These percentages are edging closer towards the magical 80%, which is really satisfying.”??
Daniel Sheriff and crowd pleaser Steph Croxford battled it out for second place, with Sheriff narrowly defeating Croxford to post a strong score of 73.35%.
Hiscox Artemis is owned by the Countess of Derby, famous for her family’s connection with the classic horse race, and John Dodd. Hiscox, the specialist insurer, is the proud sponsor of Hiscox Artemis and has committed to backing Davison and the horse for the next three years.
Photo © Sebastian Oakley
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