Austin O'Connor and Colorado Blue
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at
Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International - find out more here
It was a very close call, but Ireland’s Austin O’Connor once again won the Robert Loomes Championship at the Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials
For the sixth consecutive year, the Stamford-based Robert Loomes & Co. had offered one of its highly prized hand made British watches to the rider competing in the Open Intermediate or Advanced Intermediate class who finishes in the top five of wither section and completes the cross country course closest to the optimum time
Austin was the first recipient of the watch in 2014 and there were high hopes this year of a lady taking home the £8,800 prize for the first time. Piggy French came so close to winning it, finishing the cross country on Cooley Monsoon just one second under the time but Austin, the very last rider on course, also matched that feat. This meant that the decision was made based on the show jumping round time and Austin, slightly faster than Piggy, eventually took the coveted prize after much careful checking and deliberation
But as it turned out, the watch did go to a lady – Austin’s wife Amy (although Austin did appear to change his mind at one point in the presentation) and last year's winner, another very popular Irish rider, Jonty Evans, was on hand to assist
We were also delighted that Austin and his baby Alfie seemed very interested in our cross country video prize!
