Equestrian community mourns Charlotte Kirkpatrick

IT was with much sadness that the equestrian community in Northern Ireland and beyond learned of the death last Saturday at her home in Comber of Charlotte Kirkpatrick.

Charlotte, who was born on March 10th, 1954, had been ill for some time. However, in May, she still managed to attend, and enjoy, Balmoral Show where she and husband David had horses competing in the youngstock and hunter sections, all running under their Redwood prefix.

Charlotte and David were a great partnership and would always attend shows together. David would openly say that no horse (well almost no horse) came into Redwood Stables without a nod of approval from Charlotte, or the ‘Senior Management’, as he regularly referred to his wife.

They bought their first horse, a two-year-old El Teide filly, in 1978 and have continually shown and produced horses since then. Among the many winners to pass through their hands were Redwood Thyme (champion in 2006 at Balmoral, the Royal Highland and Dublin) and Redwood Ash (champion at the Royal Highland in 2008).

Charlotte loved to follow the careers of horses they had sold. This year she took particular delight in seeing Redwood Clover, who was third in the four-year-old young event horse class at Dublin in 2013, jump clear around the CCI5*-L cross-country track at Luhmühlen.

In 1996, Charlotte took on the role of administrator of the Northern Ireland Horse Board, quickly becoming highly- respected throughout the industry and proving extremely helpful to anyone with a registration problem. She developed really good working relationships with the other equestrian organisations, especially with Horse Sport Ireland.

Charlotte, whose funeral service was held in the Second Presbyterian Church, Comber on Wednesday, is survived by her husband David, daughter Sara and son Alan to whom The Irish Field wishes to extend its deepest sympathies.