Equestrian People: Holly Chatterton
by Linda Torgoose, LincsMag Equestrian Writer.
Date: 01 July 2014
It was a beautiful sunny evening when we went to see Holly at her home where she keeps her horse, Topflight Syanarra.
Holly got her first pony, Patch when she was 11, a 13.2h mare with a 52 inch girth that no one else wanted. All Holly’s friends laughed at her; however this little mare turned out to be a star who “won everything”. She did Pony Club, Hunter Trails and never missed a day in three seasons hunting. She was a hardy pony, never going lame and loved to live outside.
Holly is extremely lucky to have her own farrier living on-site by way of her father and other members of the family working as S M Chatterton.
It was through her father’s profession that Holly met trainer Carole Pearson and started going to events with her, which led to the purchase of Topflight Syanarra.
Doodles
Holly was in her early teens when she got Narra, also affectionally referred to as Doodles, as a just broken four year old. Narra, a Dutch Warmblood from Darko line, is a stunning skewbald mare, standing at 16h.
At first Holly struggled with Narra, after being used to Patch who never took a wrong canter lead or put a foot wrong; but with help from Carole Pearson, who trains her for jumping and cross country, she has come a long way in the last six years.
Holly says “I definitely wouldn’t have had Narra now if it hadn’t been for Carole”
Impressive Dressage
This May at Shelford Manor Horse Trials the pair took second place in the BE100 Open, staying on an impressive dressage score of 32.5. Over the years dressage has been the hardest challenge for them and it’s thanks to training from Jess Parr that this phase of the competition has been transformed from initial scores in the 50s.
After some ups and downs in previous years, with the highlight being 5th place in a CIC* at Great Witchingham in 2011, at the end of last season Narra had a suspected back problem. Holly retired her during the Show Jumping phase at Prestwold and then she had a few months turn out to come back, fighting fit for the 2014 season.
Being quite a sensitive mare, who easily loses confidence the plan for this season is to run her at Catton in the BE100 Open, then Novice at Buckminster, aiming for CCI* at Osberton International Horse Trials in October.
For Holly the cross country phase of eventing is her favourite, she says of Narra “she is very honest, she won’t hit it, so if she’s going to rub it she won’t go”.
Party Tricks
Narra also has a great character and has developed a couple of “party tricks”, not only being able to untie herself from a double knot; she also loves to drink direct from the hose pipe, which can be seen in the photograph.
Holly has also tried her hand at Jumpcross, Team Chasing, which she greatly enjoyed and Hunter Relay as well as being BSJA affiliated with Narra. A great achievement for the pair was when they were part of the Burton Pony Club Team, who won the Inter-branch Pony Club show jumping competition at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in 2009.
Sponsorship
Without sponsorship, Holly has done a few jobs to help support her love of eventing, working for Charlotte Castle and helping out Carole Pearson, she has even done potato picking. For the last two years she has worked full time for the Gelder Group in their Major Contracts Department.
Outside of work and horses Holly’s ambition is to model equestrian clothing, her first steps toward this came when she was awarded Runner up Miss Lincolnshire in 2013.
Holly certainly has the prospect of a model future in one form or another and will be a rider that we will be watching closely over the coming years.
