First win for equestrian Olympic team, with ‘Ros Canter’ – and a Shetland pony

Equestrian Team GB, featuring Ros Canter, Clare Balding, and a 16-year-old Shetland, not to mention the Olympic torch and the Eiffel Tower, has already notched up one gold medal, weeks before the Paris Olympics.

Hanna Adams and her friends and family won the hotly contested fancy dress prize at the Norton District Riding Club show at Newark Showground on 7 July, in a group that also featured an unnamed dressage rider complete with hobby horse.

Hanna, aka the Eiffel Tower, told H&H it was her 10-year-old nephew Freddie, aka Clare, who suggested they go as the Olympic team.

“My daughter Brooke, who’s three, said she was Ros, so we made two cross-country fences to go either side of her Shetland Bumble,” she said. “The class was so competitive; we do county level workers and at the show at Dallas Burton the day before, everyone was more interested in the fancy dress!”

The group features eight-year-old Beatrix as the torch, Tilly, seven, as the Olympic rings, and Charlotte Barker as team coach.

“Beatrix’s little brother, who’s also Freddie, is five and he said he wanted to be a ‘horse boy’, and Brooke told him he was definitely a dressage rider,” Hanna said. “Everything’s home-made, a friend embroidered the T shirts and logo. We’re hoping to do it again at Equifest in August – and that’s quite competitive too!”

The riding club shared a picture of the group on social media and tagged the real Ros, who said: “You look fantastic, just like looking in a mirror!”

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