A pony bought for £50, a scaffolder and an aspiring jockey secure their tickets to Your Horse Live

Home / News / A pony bought for £50, a scaffolder and an aspiring jockey secure their tickets to Your Horse Live

A pony bought from Facebook for £50, a local scaffolder and an aspiring young jockey were among the winners at the latest SEIB Search for a Star Your Horse Live qualifiers which took place at Greenlands Arena near Carlisle last month.

Tickets for Your Horse Live, which will take place at Stoneleigh Park on Friday 7 – Sunday 9 November 2025, are on sale now.

Alongside hosting the SEIB Search for a Star Championships, British dressage star Becky Moody will also be giving demonstrations, Oliver Townend and Geoff Billington will entertain the crowds and renowned horse trainer Emma Massingale will bring her team of Connemaras and Shetland ponies to show her training methods.

In-hand rare, native and traditional breeds

Chelcea Brough and Luneside Mario took the spoils in the rare, native and traditional breeds in-hand class.

Native pony Luneside Mario and his owner and handler, Chelcea Brough, triumphed in the rare, native and traditional breeds in-hand class.

“I’ve had him since he was six-and-a-half months old. Mum saw him advertised on Facebook and dad bought him for £50,” said Chelcea.

“Mario came from Kendall and was bred by Donna Gough. He loves jumping, cross country, showing, beach rides and fun rides. We started competing in in-hand qualifiers last year and we’ve already qualified for STARS this year. We are planning to compete in the ridden native and traditional at Great Yorkshire and Equifest.”

Chelcea combines working as a full-time carer with eight horses and 40 Texel and Beltex sheep.

In-hand plaited horse and hogged show cob

Thomas Peet and the three-year-old bay gelding Monivea The Dark Secret were crowned champions in the in-hand plaited horse and hogged show cob class.

“She was out of a Thoroughbred mare and we bought her as a foal at foot. Our aim is to get her out eventually showing under saddle in riding horse or hack classes,” said Thomas, who works as a scaffolder.

“We’ve been out a bit and took the supreme in-hand title at the Northern Sport Horse at Mysercough College. She also won the Hack Breeding Championship at Derbyshire County and Cheshire County. She was part-bred champion at the Royal Highland too. I love doing the in-hand classes and am very much an amateur competitor.”

In-hand amateur veteran horse or pony

Aspiring jockey Arabella Carr and her 21-year-old ex-racing pony, Rhoshill Showman who is known at home as Rusty, took top spot in the in-hand amateur veteran horse or pony.

“Rusty is 21 years old but he acts like he’s five. I ride him out and sometimes we do a bit of jumping,” said Arabella.

“I want to be a jockey when I grow up. My dad has a racehorse called Molly. She’s in foal and I’m going to ride her baby when she’s old enough.”

Arabella’s dad and Rusty’s owner, Dave Carr added: “Getting out showing with Rusty has been great for Arabella’s confidence. She’s determined to be a jockey and Rusty has helped inspire her – she even got a message from Oisin Murphy that said to ‘keep kicking’!”

Mountain and Moorland

The Mountain and Moorland class was won by Jaydn-Ema Durham and Danielle Walker’s Connemara My Girl Shannon. The mare was bred by John Lafferty in Co Donegal and imported from Ireland as a five-year-old.

“She used to be an endurance pony; I’ve retrained her all myself. We were both 11 when I got her,” said Jaydn-Ema.

Taking the runner-up spot was 12-year-old Harper-Kay Hodkinson and Clawddcoch Royal Emperor, a Welsh section B who is owned by Becky Rigby.

Open ridden veteran

Amber Flynn and Jennifer Whittaker’s ex-dressage horse Landin proved the pair to beat in the open ridden veteran class.

The pair qualified for Horse of the Year Show in the Search for a Star riding horse hack class in April this year at Hartpury College.

“He’s 17 years old and feels fabulous. I’m so pleased with him – he’s smashing it in his first year out showing,” said Amber.

“As well as qualifying for HOYS and now Your Horse Live, he’s also qualified for Royal International and the London International Horse Show. Landin previously competed to Prix St Georges level in dressage.”

Finishing as runners-up in this class were Emily Isbell and her own 16-year-old part-bred Irish Draught Ardrinane Beauty.

Pony Club lead rein

Taking first place in the Pony Club lead rein class was five-year-old Ada Stephenson and her Welsh section A pony, Nantfforchog Blue Rococo, known at home as Rocco.

“They are having a great time. We’ve owned Rocco since January. They love jumping and Ada enjoys attempting to gallop. Ada and Rocco are looking forward to camp with the Dumfriesshire Pony Club – they both get to stay over and Ada is very excited about sleeping in a tent,” said Ada’s mum and Rocco’s owner, Heather Rothwell Gillows Hall.

First ridden

The First Ridden class was awarded to Morpeth Pony Club member Lucy Oliver and Telaid Peter Pan, a Welsh section A who is owned by Ali Oliver.

“The pony does everything with a smile on his face,” said Ali.

“We came to this qualifier last year but they were the only pair in the class so it’s awesome to come back and to win properly in a decent sized class. The Search for a Star Pony Club Championship is really lovely for standard Pony Club showing ponies.”

Pony Club open

Aylesbury Pony Club member Poppy Makin piloted Emma Makin’s Bill into first place in the Pony Club open class to make their long trip up from Bedfordshire worthwhile.

“I’ve got a friend that lives in Durham so we decided to come up and make a long weekend of it,” explained Emma.

“We’ve owned Bill for just over a year. They are hoping to do some jumping and cross-country and arena eventing over the summer.”

Poppy, who’s 12, also competes in running at county level and chose to come to the Search for a Star qualifier over a running competition.

In-hand plaited pony

The in-hand plaited pony class went to mental health nurse Bethany Clark and her Fell x Warmblood pony, Drybarrows Lunar Eclipse.

“I bought Lunar as a foal. I saw a picture of her when she was just five days old and fell in love. A friend had a Fell x Warmblood and I’d seen a few others about – they are great,” said Bethany.

“I had an older mare and thought I’d get Lunar so she would be ready when the other one retired. My sister Sam would like to event Lunar, we’ve had her out in-hand showing since she was a yearling, we’ll back her next year. She won the Sports Horse Breeding Great Britain Stepping Stones as a yearling and has won at county and local level as a two-and-three-year-old.”

In-hand Mountain and Moorland

Andrew Elsworth and Chilham Night Sky won the Mountain and Moorland in-hand class.

Andrew Elsworth and the Connemara mare Chilham Night Sky took the spoils in the in-hand Mountain and Moorland class.

Vera, as the mare is known at home, and Andrew started in-hand showing in 2024.

“Vera is my daughter Molly’s pony. Molly has had Vera for three years and they mainly compete in showing. She does ridden classes on her and I get to do the in-hand ones as it encourages me to drive them to shows,” said Andrew.

“We’ve also taken third place at York show and the Supreme President’s Cup at the NCPA show. We’ve been to the Stoneleigh and Pickering Grange Search for a Star qualifiers this season as well and Vera had been placed every time with Molly riding and then with me in-hand. I’ve even won the best groom’s prize at Search for a Star as well.

“A friend recommended we come to Search for a Star, it’s good and well organised so we keep coming back. We’ve got a younger Connemara at home that we plan to bring next year.”

British Riding Clubs

HR director Susan Mitchell and her own dark bay gelding Valeroyal Dankango finished first in The British Riding Club’s SEIB Search for a Star show horse and pony class.

“He is so level-headed – you could ride him through London,” said Susan who is a member of Ayr Riding Club.

“We came along to do this class as I liked the description of it, good conformation of the horse is a key requirement. I bought Jasper, as we call him, as a two-year-old. We did a year of in-hand classes to get to know each other, and the plan was to do large riding horse classes, but he grew very big and strong so we turned to dressage instead and he became a true dressage diva.

“We now compete at elementary level and have qualified for the area championship at this level. Hopefully we will move up to medium over the winter.

“Jasper lives at home alongside lots of guinea pigs. My son is a guinea pig showing enthusiast and will soon be heading out to Australia to judge a guinea pig show.”

“A real treat”

The judging team at Greenlands Arena included Richard Ramsay, Jerome Harforth, Hannah Atkinson, Michaela Bowling, Nicola Taylor and Dena King.

“It was a real treat to come back to Greenlands. There was a relaxed atmosphere and some fabulous horses and ponies competed on the day,” said Nicolina MacKenzie, SEIB Search for a Star organiser.

“Our whole team puts so much effort into Search for a Star. They are on hand to support competitors when they need it and some really positive social media comments from those competing really meant a lot to us all.”