Promising four-star event horse sold to the US for Olympic medallist to ride

Promising four-star horse Imposant has been sold to the US for seven-time Olympian Phillip Dutton to ride.

Emily King has been “lucky enough” to ride the 10-year-old by Namelus R for Peter and Susan Kerr-Dineen and their daughter Minnie for three years, after he started his eventing career with Stephen Smith and Minnie.

“He came to me at Hafod Stables to be sold and he turned out to be a pretty special horse when I was getting a feel for him over that first winter, so the Kerr-Dineen family decided to keep him with me to produce a bit longer, which was fantastic,” Emily told H&H. “In that time he gained some amazing results and really grew as a horse and in his confidence.

“The plan always was to sell him, but the owners were keen for him to go to a good rider who could continue to produce him to best of his ability. It was good timing when we heard Phillip was looking. He came and tried the horse and they got on so well. He’s a phenomenal horse and Phillip is obviously a phenomenal rider.

­“It’s always sad to wave goodbye to really good horses, but that was always the plan when he came to me and I didn’t have any other owners I was working with that were in a position to get involved in a horse like him. So it wasn’t a surprise and it’s lovely he’s gone to somewhere where he can reach full potential. It will be great to follow their progress together and hopefully he’ll make some trips back to Europe too.”

Irish event horse agent Carol Gee has been instrumental in a number of purchases of horses from Europe for Phillip, including his 2016 Olympic individual bronze medallist Mighty Nice, and was involved in bringing this new partnership together, along with Andrew Williams.

Imposant has now headed off to his new home.

“He’ll be enjoying the lovely sunny weather!” joked Emily.

With Emily, Imposant won the CCI2*-L at Houghton in 2021 and in 2022 finished second in the CCI3*-S at Kelsall Hill, seventh in the CCI3*-L at Millstreet and fifth in the eight- and nine-year-0ld CCI4*-S at Blenheim Horse Trials. He also won seven times at national level over his three seasons with Emily.

Emily said: “Blenheim was a pretty tough first four-star run and we were excited to see how he’d cope with not only a bigger question but the atmosphere and everything and he was incredible. I took him a bit slower round the cross-country there because it was his first time that level, so I looked after him.

“He’s been an amazingly successful horse – he’s so consistent and incredibly beautiful, which helps.”

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