The rider flying between hemispheres for her spring five-star prep – and the fellow thoroughbred lover who makes it possible
Sophia Hill revealed her busy spring schedule flying between hemispheres after finishing third in the $100,000 LiftMaster Grand-Prix Eventing Showcase at Bruce’s Field, Aiken, South Carolina last week (27-28 February).
The 28-year-old rider competed in Britain in 2024, including finishing 22nd at Burghley Horse Trials with her top horse Humble Glory, but is opting to base herself between her native Australia and the USA this spring, having been back Down Under last season.
Former racehorse Humble Glory, by Bernardini, has been stabled with US-based New Zealand rider Monica Spencer since Maryland 5 Star last autumn, in which the pair finished sixth.
Sophia Hill has a business and a full yard of other competition horses at home, so she opted to leave “Hughie” with Monica and travel back and forth while preparing for this spring’s Kentucky Three-Day Event (23-26 April).
While she’s away, Monica rides the horse – and she’s well qualified to prepare a thoroughbred for five-star as she was second at Maryland last year on Artist and has been seventh and eighth at Kentucky on him.
Sophia flew into the US to compete in a combined event at Ocala, Florida ahead of the eventing showcase. She returned to Australia the day after, and will be back in the USA to to compete Humble Glory at The Event at TerraNova CCI4*-S (26-29 March). She will fly back to her homeland to compete at Adelaide CCI5* (16-19 April), then head back to the USA to contest Kentucky.
“It’s a lot of flying”
“It’s a lot of flying, but it’s actually easier for us doing it like this than basing in the US, because we have a team of horses in Australia,” said Sophia, who also has a two-year-old child to look after.
“We also have an income in Australia and we’re really lucky. We’re great friends with Monica and really trust her to leave Hughie with her. If it wasn’t for her, this wouldn’t be possible.”
Sophia and Humble Glory were the fastest pair of the day over Jay Hambly’s cross-country course at the showcase.
She said: “We’re pretty much following Monica’s prep to Kentucky and she was coming here, and it’s an awesome event, and there’s some good prize money. We thought ‘Maybe we can help fund Hughie’s time in the US and get some prize money!’”
The pair were 19th after dressage on a score of 35.1, but Sophia was the sole rider to finish on her first-phase score, which was rewarded with a podium place. Phillip Dutton won with Denim and Elisa Wallace was second with Lissavorra Quality
“That was so much fun. I’ve never done a cross-country quite like that,” she said.”It was just like, jump, jump, jump, and everything came up so fast, but I couldn’t have been sat on a better horse for it. He’s just so agile, has such quick acceleration, just loves to gallop and the jumps back him off. He was amazing.”
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