Sam, with owners Dinah Posford and Juliet Donald, receives the award from Shearwater Insurance CEO Jeremy Lawton
Sam Griffiths’ Happy Times has been inducted into the Event Riders Association Hall of Fame
The presentation took place during a dinner hosted by Land Rover and Shearwater Insurance at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials when Happy Times was named as the Horse of the Year and Sir Mark Todd as Rider of the Year
The 17 year old Happy Times, born in Germany and sired by one of the most famous eventing sires of all time, Heraldik, has had an illustrious career spanning many years. He has competed in 11 CCI4* events and finished in the top 20 at eight of those
“He has been an incredibly consistent performer” says Sam fondly of the horse owned by Dinah Posford and Juliet Donald “He has won a lot of events over the years and to stay sound and so competitive for so long makes him such a star. I’ve just been lucky enough to be his rider”
“He joins a group of really illustrious horses and I think it shows how outstanding Happy Times is to be inducted in the same year as the great Mark Todd!”
Happy Times’ long career has included representing Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games, a third place at Badminton Horse Trials and twice third at Burghley, where he has competed seven times during his career. This year Sam and Happy Times had to retire on cross country due to a broken stirrup; they continued on for a while including jumping the enormous Cottesmore Leap but Sam decided that it was not a comfortable experience for either of them and opted to retire
Let’s hope we see Happy Times back at Burghley for another crack in his eighteenth year!
Sam and Happy Times at the 2014 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials where they finished third
