Chris makes it a puissance double

The class, sponsored by Equitop Myoplast, was billed as the New Year’s Eve highlight at Liverpool’s Echo Arena, and it did not disappoint as 18-year-old Chris claimed victory from one of his fiercest puissance rivals Peter Smyth.

Chris and Seapatrick Cruise Cavalier cleared the famous red wall at 2.10 metres (6ft 11in), and celebrated in style as a bumper crowd revelled in his brilliant performance.

“I am really happy,” he said. “He is not a normal horse, he is very special.

“We’ve had him since he was an eight-year-old, and we have never quite found what to do with him. He evented for a while, and then I jumped him for a while, and we sort of fell into puissance. And I have to say, ever since we started, he has been a real star.

“I love the puissance. You get a little bit nervous with him, because you don’t know what he can do, but as long as you get him to the right spot, he will always try his best.

“The puissance is a competition that the crowd love, and the atmosphere in there was brilliant.”

This latest victory comes hot on the heels of success at The London International Horse Show where Chris, a first-timer at Olympia, shared the spoils with Holly Smith (GBR) in a thrilling finale to the Cayenne Puissance.