Jessie Welch and her 50p former Flat racehorse The Iron Factor competed in their first CSI event at Wellington last weekend. The pair jumped clear rounds in a small tour and big tour class before contesting the 1.25m final.
Welch said the achievement followed four years of effort to register the horse internationally. The FEI accepted his Jockey Club US passport in April after intervention by British Equestrian official Jen Ancliff and meetings with Defra. Welch described the moment the approval arrived as emotional, noting she scanned all 64 pages of the passport within minutes of the email.