Team Harker

Two teenagers and their mother are making a great start to the season after nailing their first HOYS victory in October. Tricia Johnson finds out what lies ahead for Jenny and daughters Victoria and Emma

- Tricia Johnson

A YOUNG Yorkshire-based producer is looking forward to building on last year’s success, when she orchestrated her family’s first-ever Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) victory in just her first full season of “turning pro.”

Victoria Harker, then just 18, took the brave decision at the end of 2021 to produce professionally, after the Covid pandemic had put paid to her original plans to do GSCEs and then go to ride in Australia to expand her education. Last year was her first full season.

The family team then had their best-ever result at HOYS with the evergreen 14-year-old 128cm show pony Ardenhall Blenheim (Joules) – formerly ridden by Victoria’s younger sister Emma – who first headed his class with new rider, 10-year-old Lola Carabine, and then pinged along in the spotlight to land the coveted title against seriously stiff competition.

It was no fluke either. “We took seven ponies to HOYS and with a couple of them doing two classes, we achieved two wins, one championship, three-second placings, a third and a sixth,” recalls Victoria’s mother Jenny, who used to produce the family’s ponies herself at home.

“Joules has been our yard flagbearer over the years so it was especially lovely for him finally to have his day; he was also second in the part-birds. Lola had a great show – she won the junior native workers on her mother’s Vennebos Pearly King too, and finished second on Rebecca Hartland’s Barkway Alfie Moon in the first ridden show ponies.