There have been several recent major animal disease outbreaks across the world which are of concern to most horse owners. There is Equine Flu in several states of Australia, a Foot and Mouth outbreak amongst cattle in the UK and most recently the first case of Bluetongue in the UK was found in a cow in Suffolk.

I had not heard of the latter but it is an indicator that African Horse Sickness may be heading towards the UK. Bluetongue is most prevalent in sheep and is spread by the same midge type insect as African Horse Sickness. African Horse Sickness has been spreading north across Europe for the last twenty years and the reason for its spread is believed to be climate change due to global warming. There was an outbreak in Spain and Portugal in the late 80s. The only vaccines currently available for African Horse Sickness are made in South Africa and are not licensed for use in Europe.

This is one of my favourite equestrian events. Not so much for the main professional jumping classes but for the range of classes and championships that form a significant part of the show.

The main novice showjumping championships are held at this show after a year long season of qualifiers and regional finals. These are open to both amateurs and professionals.

Then there are the mounted Pony Club games, which consists of races like bending, potato and sack races. I always quite enjoyed taking part in these myself occasionally both with my ponies and horses. It was always good fun and a test of skill and training.

The first novice championship final took place on 3 October and there was a historic tie with two horses having the identical time in the jump-off. The two horses were also both six-year olds by the same Dutchbred sire.

I saw an article recently on Barbaro’s full brother. He is 14 months old and called Nicanor. He is a bay but with head markings of a star and a strip. Another full brother to Barbaro and Nicanor was born this summer, who apparently looks more like his famous full-brother. Time will tell if they have similar abilities to Barbaro.

I was pleased to read that the British team won the European Eventing Championship at the weekend in Italy. Unfortunately, as usual, I did not find any US TV coverage of the event so did not see any of the competition.

One Man is another of my favourite racehorses and one of the great steeplechasers. Like a number of my other favourite horses, he was a grey. He won twenty races and is the only horse in National Hunt history to have won both the King George Chase (3 miles) and the Champion Chase (2 miles). He won the King George twice and he broke the course record with one of his wins.

He was also special to me because he was trained by a local trainer Arthur Stephenson. After Arthur’s death, there was a dispersal sale in May 1993 and he was sold as lot 111. I actually went to the sale and looked at One Man as he was one of the up and coming stars of the yard. I can’t remember how much he was sold for but he was certainly out of my price bracket.

In 1992 and 1993, he had started his career over hurdles and had shown some promise. After the dispersal sale, he was trained by Gordon Richards and he won at his first attempt over fences in November 1993. It was the start of a great career where he won a number of the major races. He did not win the Cheltenham Gold Cup but did win the Hennessy Gold Cup (3m 2f). He was an exciting jumper and did make a number of jumping mistakes in his career but it was still a terrible shock and loss to the racing world when he died at Aintree in 1998 after a crashing fall only a few weeks after his great win in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

He was a joy to watch and one I continue to remember. I came across a video about him “One Man - The Horse of a Lifetime’ which I have not seen but would recommend if you have not heard of him but are a fan of great racehorses.