COUSINS Jo Waterhouse and Emily Smith had a day to remember when they took Supreme championships in the prestigious Traditional of The Year Show, recently held at Onley Grounds Equestrian Centre, Warwickshire.

Waterhouse, 16, of Stainton, near Kendal, took ridden supreme honours with her seven-year-old stallion Thomas (Too Smart) while Smith, 24, of Holme, took home top honours in the in-hand class with Arnie (Coates Ready to Rumble) at the show, which is the culmination of the season for Traditional Gypsy Cobs.

"Both girls have owned and ridden ponies from a young age as horses have always been part of their families,"explained Hilary Waterhouse, Waterhouse' mother and Smith's auntie.

"When we set off to the show we had no idea if we would even qualify and worst case scenario we would have been coming home at the end of the first day .

"Taking supreme champions was a great achievement for Jo and Too Smart and Emily and Coates Ready To Rumble."

Waterhouse is a pupil of Sue-Helen Shuttlewoth of Traditional Show Cobs and Arnie was only purchased two weeks prior to the show was a last minute addition to the team.

"Qualifiers run throughout the year at various locations across the UK," added Hilary.

"They qualified for the show the day before at the final qualifier as Arnie had only been bought two weeks earlier and Jo had been concentrating on doing Royal international, CHAPS and Horse of The Year show qualifiers on Thomas.

"She also had an extended period in America in the summer and had not been able to attend any prior to this."

She added: "This was Arnie's first ever show prior to which he had been a driving pony and had been purchased to break in and sell on. Jo and Thomas are on their first season together after we bought him in April 2013. Over the winter he had done a couple of winter shows with his previous owner but this year has been his first proper showing season."