SUE Carson and her talented eight-year-old Hulland V-Max have qualified for the Winter Dressage Championships at Hartpury College.

Based at Brassington in Derbyshire, Sue who is a well known as a dressage rider, trainer and saddlery expert was delighted to qualify through to the prestigious championships with Max, as he is known at home.

“Producing a top class dressage horse takes a lot of time, effort and training, and you have to find the right horse in the first place, so to qualify and compete at the Winter Championships is wonderful,” said Sue.

Sue and Max, who is by Gribaldi will be competing in the Elementary Music Freestyle Championships at the event.

When Sue is not riding and teaching she is busy running her Sue Carson Saddles business, experts in creating totally bespoke saddles to each individual horse and rider.

Max has won many classes with Sue up to Advanced medium level and they train with Tim Downes and Beverley Brightman.

Max was originally bought from Brightwells sales as a three-year-old by Emma Hawley who sold him to Henry Boswell when she had a back operation. He was placed at the British Dressage Championships as a five-year-old in the Novice and the young horse championship.

Sue was at Henry's saddle testing with the appliance system and the Gaite analysis system she uses, when his father asked Sue to ride Max thinking she might know a customer for him, Sue ended up buying him!