“Rest easy Trumby, thank you for letting me live the dream” says Jess Manson of the 2014 Adelaide CCI4* (now CCI5*) winner, Legal Star, who passed away this week aged 22.
Known as Trumby the Brumby, the small grey gelding was started by Jess as a three-year-old and they rose up the ranks together, with success through Pony Club and Interschools on their way to the top level of international competition.
In 2010 they represented Australia as part of the Young Rider Trans-Tasman team in Christchurch (NZ), finishing on their dressage score as the highest placed Australian combination in second place before going on to win the Southern Hemisphere’s only CCI5* in 2014 and the Peppermint Grove Award for the Australian Event Horse of the Year.
He went on become a specialist of the exhibition eventing format, winning a car for Jess at Equestrian in the Park in Perth and following that up with another car during his ‘semi-retirement’ with Olivia Shore, who last competed him in international competition in 2019 when he won the CCI2* at Brigadoon before ‘retiring as full-time lawn mower looked after by Louise Manson and Rod Manson’ says Jess on social media
‘Forever grateful for all the places we travelled and the people we met, including the many, many people that made our journey possible and Warwick Vale who looked after him to the end’
