Breen Finds the Key to Success with Konrad Obolensky

Thursday 24 July 2025

Ireland’s Trevor Breen made the most of his penultimate draw to win today’s Unibed-High Performance Equine Bedding British Showjumping Winter Grades B&C Championship, the feature class on Wednesday at the Agria Royal International Horse Show.

It’s been 11 years since Trevor last won this class, winning with Classic III back in 2014.

Nine of the 24 starters made it through to today’s jump-off, with Trevor and the eight-year-old Konrad Obolensky completing the second round in a time of 42.44sec. It put them 0.74sec ahead of first drawn Hollie Pearce and James O Hara H, who had held the lead for most of the jump-off. Britain’s European Team Silver medallist Matt Sampson produced the quickest of the jump-off rounds on Maxima Z, with a time of 41.28sec, but knocked down the final fence to relegate them to 10th.

Konrad Obolensky was formerly campaigned by Trevor’s brother Shane, before being sold at the Brilliance Horse Auction in December to Trevor’s parents-in-law Ian and Heather Black. “I missed the first couple of months with him because I was in Dubai, so Shane kept him ticking along for me,” explained Trevor. “It took a while for us to get to know one another, and I was riding him a bit slow – but then, just before the two-star at Wellington International, I started to ride him much faster. It's not my natural way of riding – it's more aggressive – but he loves it. The faster you go, he just goes higher and tries harder.”

This trait really came into play in today’s jump-off. “It's like I got off one horse and got onto a different horse," Trevor added. "He's always been super talented, I just had to figure out what he liked. That's our job as riders - they don't all have to conform to how we ride." 

The Agria Royal International Horse Show takes place at Hickstead in West Sussex from 23-27 July. Tickets are available at the gate or from www.hickstead.co.uk. The action will also be shown live on ClipMyHorse.TV.

Image: Boots and Hooves Photography

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