THE new owners of the three-year-old cob Red on the Green are hoping their Ballinasloe Horse Fair purchase will take them all the way to Horse of the Year Show (HOYS).

Well-known UK-based producers Camilla Neame and Val Sheehan were in Ballinasloe last weekend for the annual fair and purchased the potential maxi show cob from the local Whelan family. Camilla is hoping the grey emulates another of her Ballinasloe finds, the legendary So Smart, who stood supreme at HOYS in 2006 with Robert Walker.

“He will be broken over the winter, do some small shows next year and be brought out as a novice for 2026,” Camilla said, adding that her husband, Val, will ride him.

“Tik Tok will be his stable name as, unbeknownst to my sister-in-law Anita Sheehan, she had done a Tik Tok video and sent it to her brother and the horse featured heavily in the video and that sealed the deal. I knew I should buy him the following day! I have been lucky with finds at Ballinasloe, as So Smart was also a purchase many years ago.”

Val, who is originally from Kanturk in Co Cork, is named the ‘cob specialist’ for a reason – he won the cob championship at the Hickstead Derby meeting in June aboard Red Dove. All the more incredible is the fact that Val had his left leg amputated eight years ago after a riding accident.

Could Red on the Green be their next big star? Watch this space!