Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Kerrilee Wilson
Dazzling Olympia Success .
Kerrilee and Maddigen at Olympia
It was celebrations all round for Kerrilee Wilson and Maddigen, as they were crowned Olympia Supreme Senior Champions 2016.
Maddigen is a pure bred Irish draft, bred by Kerrilee and her family, so what better reward could they have wished for?
Kerrilee is quick to say she has many friends and family who have helped and supported her along the way to Olympia success, but extra special thanks go to her mum.
Said Kerrilee: "My mum Vicky helps me and supports me day in day out and comes to every single show with me."
Kerrilee and Maddigen had been competing for a few years with moderate success before she took the decision to change Maddigen's feed regime.
Maddigen is now fed on a TopSpec feed regime consisting of TopSpec Senior Lite Feed Balancer, TopChop Grass and TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes.
Kerrilee believes this change in feed successfully transformed Maddigen into an Olympia Champion.
"We qualified at the very first open qualifier at Hambleton in North Yorkshire in May 2016. This was such a big shock to qualify at the first show, I was totally and utterly over the moon!" she said.
Kerrilee acknowledges that once the days began to shorten in autumn, it was an increasing challenge to keep Maddigen fit for Olympia.
Not always having ready access to a school, Kerrilee was not deterred and would regularly strap all kinds of fluorescent and reflective clothing and head torches on, and ride on the roads in order to keep Maddigen fit.
All this dedication was rewarded by their fantastic success at Olympia. Said Kerrilee: "I still cannot believe that we won, it's the thing that dreams are made of! It still hasn't sunk in for me. After the competition, my mum put all the sashes on me and we walked around some of the shops at Olympia. I couldn't believe the amount of people that wanted to have their photo taken with me and I even got asked for my autograph!"
Looking to the future, Kerrilee and Maddigen are going to concentrate on ladies' side saddle classes from now on.
Kerrilee saves her biggest thanks to her most important and best friend Maddi, saying "She has taken me to places beyond my wildest dreams. There will never be another horse like her, she is my absolute horse of a lifetime and I thank the stars every day that she is mine."