Clare Blaskey and Blue Chip are very sad to announce the loss of their much loved I’m Blue Chip Too. On Thursday the thirteenth of December, exactly twenty years after she bought him as a three year old, Clare Blaskey’s wonderful Large Riding Horse I’m Blue Chip Too AKA Glen was put to sleep.
I’m Blue Chip Too was famously twice Champion at The Horse of the Year Show the first time as a four old, the youngest Riding Horse to win this title, and then as a five year old. That same year he was also Champion at The Royal International all with Robert Walker.
It all began when Clare picked up a six week old copy of Horse and Hound in 1998. Clare says “I was looking through an old copy of the Horse & Hound and in the classified section at the back of the magazine was a small advert with a Riding Horse for sale. People had been to see him but no one had bought him as he was quite a character. I arranged to see him on my way to Olympia. I loved him the moment I set eyes on him and continued to adore him for the next twenty years. There will never be another like him.”
Clare started showing him as a five year old, and there after he was produced from home, where his stable was outside her kitchen window. Nigel Hollings said Glen was the most perfect pattern of a Riding Horse and he won his first show in 1995 at five weeks of age shown by his breeder Dot Collins and his last at twenty years old in 2015.
Glen was very successful as a ridden horse in HOYS, RIHS, and Olympia qualifiers with 35 championships, 21 Reserve Championships and 58 first places under his belt. He qualified for HOYS and the RIHS consistently from 1999-2010 and was subsequently then shown with great success in Senior Showing classes being Reserve Champion Veteran at Olympia and also placed there.
At their local County Show in Bakewell Clare and Glen won five Championships as a Riding Horse and then as a Senior Show Horse.
Glen was four times National Best Trained Show Horse and also a Dressage winner. His last award was in 2017 when he was runner up in Showing Worlds Horse Personality of the Year.
Glen gave many people their first experience of riding a top Show Horse, and taught Clare’s Granddaughter aged nine to ride side saddle. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.