AS a pocket-sized, mid-level intermediate horse, who was funny about her ears, it is perhaps unsurprising that Headley Britannia proved impossible to sell. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. Yet really it was the strength in her partnership with rider Lucinda Fredericks that was the making of this ordinary, extraordinary, little horse.
“We used to call her the Queen Mother as she was slightly short and stocky, always smiling and lovely natured,” says Lucinda. “She trotted like a pony, galloped not like a racehorse and jumped not like a showjumper. But she just kept coming out. You would never, ever have pulled her out of a stable and said she'd go round an intermediate – let alone what she did.
“It was extraordinary. That's why I didn't sell her, no one wanted her. I think it was just the partnership that worked. If anybody sat on her and didn't put her in a good spot, she would never have gone.”
THAT “Brit” was born at all was down to a series of coincidences. Her dam, Bambi – a mare with a twisted club foot caused
