Thursday, February 26, 2009

Legends; Show Jumping's, Milton, "Simply The Best."


Watch A Video of Milton : click

Milton, dubbed Britain's number one Show Jumper and argued as the worlds greatest Show Jumper, bred by John Harding-Rolls. The great grey was born on February 16th, 1977. Milton was the son of the dutch-bred Show Jumping stallion, Marius.

As a weanling, Milton was purchased by Caroline Bradley who also rode his sire, Marius to winning title of, "Leading Show Jumper of the Year," in 1978. Mrs. Bradley had hopes, that Milton would be her ride to the Olympics. Caroline, trained and rode Milton until her un-timely death at the age of 37, in 1983. Knowing how devoted Caroline was to Milton and adamant that he was a horse with talent to reach the Olympic level, Mrs. Bradley's parents approached John Whitaker about riding the grey gelding.

John rode Milton to many successes which include over 1 million in prize money and an Individual Silver and Team Gold at the 1987 European Championships and winner of two FEI World Cup Finals.

Milton was retired from Show Jumping at the 1994 Olympia Horse Show.

Milton was known not only for his talent and successes, but also his personality in the ring. He would leap into the air on que, showing off to his many devoted fans.

John once described Milton as, "Simply The Best."

Sadly, in 1999 at the age of 22, Milton was euthanized due to intestinal complications.


Top Right Photo: (C) Kit Houghton

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