Amy's Royal command performance!

Amy Smith won the Mountain and Moorland Working Hunter Pony Championship for the second-successive year at the Royal Windsor Show.

In front of the Queen in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, at the UK’s largest outdoor horse show, the 31-year-old won two classes – exceeding 122cm but not exceeding 133 cm – on Aigas of Achnacarry, as well as piloting her Connemara Laburnam Richard to victory in the the exceeding 143 cm class, to claim the championship.

The former Ivy Bank pupil, who lives and works in Burnley, added this latest success to wins in all the major shows in Great Britain, including victory in Ireland in the team event, representing Great Britain.

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The show rider won the Horse of the Year Show Working Hunter in 2014, the Royal International Working Hunter in 2015, and in the same year claimed silver in the team at the Dublin Horse Show, and second place individually.

Amy said: “I’m very proud.

“In football terms, this is like the Premier League of showing, it’s one of the biggest events, a really prestigious one to win, in the castle grounds, in front of the Queen.

“But the pinnacle was probably winning the Horse of the Year Show in 2014, and the Royal International the year after.”

Amy has been showing since she was 10, having been introduced to horses by mother Joan, and is currently based on a rented yard in Hapton with sister Vikki.

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And by winning at Royal Windsor, she qualifies for the Longines Royal International Horse Show in July, and the qualifiers for the Horse of the Year Show – “the world’s most famous horse show” – begin in June, with the event itself taking place at the NEC in Birmingham later this year in October.

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