AT the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken this September, there were 218 entries in the five-year-old section. Two qualifying rounds reduced the field to a start list of 38 for the final, where two further rounds, the second of which was set to an optimum time, would decide the winner.

The youngest rider in the class, 16-year-old Sam Widger, rode Vintage van de Heyveldhoeve (Kasanova de la Pomme x I Am Moerhoeve’s Star) to a double clear within 0.14 seconds of this optimum time to claim his first world championship title.