Dressage Days

Watching a horse you’re involved with develop and achieve success can be an incredibly enjoyable experience. However, you don’t necessarily have to be the one looking through the ears in order to benefi t. For those who adopt the role of owner, the rewards can be immense, as is the case with Annie Hunter Blair (née Whittet) who handed over the reins of Dior UKH, or Pimms, to leading para rider Erin Orford in 2015. We caught up with Annie, who lives in Herefordshire with her husband Alastair and daughter India, to fi nd out just what it has meant to her to support another rider’s career.

I have enjoyed competing for over 10 years on a range of diff erent horses, including imms. A highlight was winning the lementary Freestyle winter regionals on imms and also ualifying for the ationals on her in . I currently ride a horse called allynoe allo who is successfully competing at edium.

We are based in Ross-on-Wye on a acre ara le farm which my hus and farms. I relocated from ampshire in and set up Weir nd Farm uestrian this is now my teaching ase and we also off er training li ery, clinics and arena hire.

imms is an incredi le mare with the most amazing temperament. At the time I met imms she was ased with ynn Wic es who I was training with, and ynn as ed if I would compete her whilst she was for sale on ehalf of client. After a few shows it was impossi le to let her go, so my parents indly allowed her to stay with me.

A friend of mine had always said that imms was orn to e a para horse which, at the time, I ne er really understood his was until rin came to try her at my yard and within e minutes I new what she meant. hey clic ed immediately and went so eautifully together that I new I wasn’t getting the ride ac ou could see imms li ed the way rin rode and it was clear that she would loo after her.

he uropeans in othen urg was incredi ly special. rin and imms had a last minute call up to the team so it was such a surprise to e going. A wee later, um and I were on a plane and we watched rin win her rst senior championship medal. It was such a fun wee and so inspiring to see the para riders rst hand. We also got to go to W in ryon and that whole e perience was hard to ta e in. All the disciplines were at the same enue and for Erin and Pimms to e selected was such a life achie ement.

I can genuinely say I ha e gained more pleasure y eing part of rin’s ourney than my own successes. We ha e tra elled to some ama ing places and met such inspiring people. rin and I are great friends and she allows me to e fully in ol ed in all they do.

ur priority is to eep her happy and healthy, and all the time she is still en oying her o she will eep doing it. he is still a alued mem er of the World lass s uad so we hope to see her carry on competing.

o for it I ha e lo ed e ery moment of imms’ para ourney and feel incredi ly honoured to ha e een part of it. ot many people can say they own a World uestrian ames medal winner

tinna aastrup, athrine ufour, lare alding, yan eynolds, sain olt, ippa Funnell.