Two riders who experienced a difficult build up to the Sunshine Tour were crowned senior 80cm and 85cm showjumping champions at the Hickstead final last weekend.
Molly Sweeney and Helen French are based at the same yard in Horsham.
Helen has owned Viva la Vida (‘Archibald’) for two-and-a-half years. The Sunshine Tour is only their second outing this year, having qualified the first time out.
Helen bought the gelding when her mare Elsa needed major surgery and faced an uncertain future. She wanted something to ride to “keep her spirits up” during the long rehab process, not knowing if her mare would ever come back.
Archibald was supposed to go back after a year, but by that time she had “fallen in love” with him and he wasn’t going anywhere.
Tragically, she lost her mare several months ago.
“Losing Elsa destroyed me,” said Helen. “Last year, I couldn’t even hold Archibald in the ring, so I stopped jumping him completely. For him to come out today and win is literally a dream come true for me. I cried when we got our rosette.
“I’ve been so, so lucky,” she continued. “We’ve had so much support from our wonderful yard owner, and my husband has been fantastic. I just couldn’t have done it without them.”
‘It was our only chance’
Molly Sweeney’s Sir Dancealot (‘Merlin’) suffered a deep digital flexor injury in January and expected to never jump again.
The rider was preparing to retire him to a life of hacking, but decided to take a chance on rehab, and the gelding recovered.
The duo qualified for the Sunshine Tour at their first attempt, on the last weekend that qualifiers were taking place.
“It was our one and only chance to qualify, and he went out and won the class,” smiled Molly.
