From outsider to RIHS champion: Hickstead debutante claims surprise win on pony 'never meant for showjumping'

Fifteen-year-old Gabriella Douglas delivered an unexpected win at Hickstead’s Agria Royal International Horse Show (RIHS), taking the Oakley Coachbuilders’ winter grade JC championship on Farravaune Shannen, a pony that wasn’t bred to showjump and on only her second-ever outing on grass.

Turning the form book on its head, the pair beat the favourites with a steady clear that was 17.44sec slower than second place, after every other combination in the nine-rider jump off faulted.

“I wasn’t very fast at all...