Barrollo fulfils potential

Equestrianism

Diane Hogg gained her fourth international win yesterday when she rode her 10-year-old roan, Barrollo, to win the FEI Prix St Georges at the combined British National Dressage Championships and International CDI.

The sturdy Irish-bred gelding would not have been everyone's idea of a potential dressage horse five years ago, when Hogg discovered him in a showing yard close to her Lancashire home and bought him. She liked his presence and his good paces.

Hogg was up at six o'clock yesterday morning, preparing to ride her test just two hours later. First into the arena, she had a fraught four-hour wait before she knew that her prize was secure. The Swiss riding instructor, Gilles Ngovan, posed the biggest threat when finishing a close second on Flingar.

Having been brought on slowly by Hogg, Barrollo is making quite a name for himself. His progress will be followed keenly when he makes his grand prix debut next year.

Dukaat, already well established at grand prix level, won the later FEI Intermediaire II with another Swiss riding instructor, Hans Staub. The 11-year-old Dutch-bred horse was Staub's mount at the Olympics where the Swiss finished in sixth.

Heiner Schiergen, a young German pupil of Dr Uwe Schulten-Baumer (trainer of the Olympic champion, Isabell Werth) was runner-up to Staub on the nine-year-old Hanoverian gelding, Without a Doubt.

Results, Digest, page 25