ANOTHER Irish visitor to Le Lion d’Angers last week was Heidi Hamilton whose interest mainly lay in the seven-year-old championship where a graduate of her Co Wicklow yard, Johan-Some, finished fourth under Britain’s Gemma Tattersall.

Heidi purchased the Dutch Warmblood gelding unseen as an unbroken three-year-old. “I was at an event one day and as it was lashing down so I sat in my truck and started looking through videos of horses for sale. I was going through ones on offer through Harrington Horses and Johan-Some just caught my eye.

“I wouldn’t be a gambler at all and for me to buy a horse in this way would be very unusual but there was something about him that I really liked. Once he passed the X-rays and vet he came over on the boat and I was delighted with the horse when he got here and set about breaking him.

“As a four-year-old he won the Stepping Stones league and I also did a bit of show jumping with him, mainly at Barnadown where he competed in the four-year-old final at the Breeders’ Classic. I kept jumping him at five although I also started eventing him that year. He won an EI100 at Killossery on just his second start, was fourth in the EI100 national championships and saw out the season when finishing seventh in the Michael Leonard five- and six-year-old championship at Ballindenisk.

“It was around November or December that Gemma came and tried him and she too loved him! She has done a great job with the horse as he has jumped double clear on all his international starts. I am very proud of him and love being able to follow his progress. It was bittersweet seeing him at Le Lion but now I have to concentrate on my next project, The Sequel, who I hope lives up to his name!”