Meet Night Prowler, a little horse with a heart of a lion and all the scope in the world – who likes to enjoy a floral snack while going across country.
1st Class Images caught the moment Weasel, as he’s known to his friends, took advantage of his approach to the combination at fence 18abc of the Defender Bramham Horse Trials CCI4*-L last weekend to take a mouthful of the flowers dressing the fence.
Yvette Wheeler, who owns the 11-year-old ridden by Jack Mantel, told H&H that if ever there were a horse to be caught on camera like this, Weasel is the one.
“We didn’t realise how good the pictures were till we zoomed in,” she said. “David, Jack’s groom, said ‘I’m buying both those photos and framing them’, and we looked, and started laughing and said ‘Yes, that’s so Weasel’.”
Yvette said she bought the Irish-bred gelding for herself and another rider to share, a few years ago.
“I was going to do fun stuff and he was going to event him,” she said. “But the other person injured himself and couldn’t event him. And the fitter and weller Weasel got, the cheekier he got. I’m 57, 58 and he got to the point I’d come back from riding thinking ‘I’m glad I’m still on top’! He can spin, he can rear; he’d be ‘You’re not concentrating on me – wham’.
“I know Jack really well, I’ve had horses with him, so I asked if he’d take the ride and he said yes.”
Jack and Night Prowler started at BE100 level and worked their way up, completing their first four-star short at the end of last season. This was their first CCI4*-L, and they cleared all the cross-country jumps on the course – although the results don’t show this.
“He finished and we were washing him off and Jack wondered whether he’d caught a flag at the second-last fence,” Yvette said. “But it turned out there was a big bit in the middle of the fence that was about six feet high, and he’d jumped that, rather than the bit he was supposed to jump.
“The horse just locked on to that bit so we went from running to the finish saying ‘He’s just gone clear in his first four-star long’, ecstatic, to realising it was technical elimination. Jack had always said it’s a big ask for a little horse, but he just flew round.
“So we were gutted, walking round with sad faces, then we saw this picture and it just made us laugh, it couldn’t have been better in that situation.”
Yvette added that she and Jack were both delighted that Weasel did jump clear, albeit over a higher fence than he was supposed to.
“He’s so brave, he will take anything on, you just have to be careful where you aim him!” she said.
“He’s one of those horses when you’re at a competition everyone knows his name within three hours as it’s all ‘Weasel, can you not…?’!” she said. “He wants to grab your hood and pull you around; there’s no malice or nastiness, we all just laugh at him. It’s nice when they’ve got so much character.”
Yvette said she hopes the incident will have been caught on the official video, which she has ordered, and that a spectator might also possibly have caught it, as she would love to see that too.
The fence at which the photos were taken caused some issues and was removed late on cross-country day after the ground on take-off deteriorated, but Jack told H&H Night Prowler had no difficulty with it.
“It was the big skinny after the drop and a lot of horses made mistakes but he was super bold, stood off the skinny and went through the brush element,” he said. “The picture looks like he’s bitten a mouthful of flowers off as he went through.
“He’s orange, the flowers are orange and we had a Hyco numnah, a new sponsor to me, and their brand is orange as well, so it was all quite fitting!”
Jack said he and Weasel had a great round other than the second-last fence.
“Being very bold, he jumped the middle bit,” he said. “We were a bit gutted not to get the qualification but the horse is none the wiser – in his mind he jumped clear – and it did give us a smile to see those pictures as he’s quite a character.”
Jack said the horse was “a bit troubled” three years ago when he arrived.
“Yvette’s been brilliant and we’ve got him right,” he said. “He was doing one-stars less than three years ago and now he’s jumping round four-star long.
“He’s only 16.1hh and has always just done enough but the bigger and wider [it gets], he just keeps on going and he gave me a really good feeling. He’s jumped double clear all season and he’s only 11 so hopefully we can keep going up the grades.”
Picture by 1st Class Images
Jack said Weasel is also a very good showjumper; his plan for the immediate future is to compete in pure dressage.
“He is a little bit exuberant in his changes,” he said. “On Thursday, he was doing a lovely test, then he did do three large bucks, which was interesting! So, there’s a bit of homework to do on that, but he enjoys a party. Then we’ll probably do an OI somewhere, and then Burgham four-star, and probably the Scone four-star long, potentially Blenheim.”
“We’re thrilled with him,” Jack added. “And we’ve got the pictures for the wall.”
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