Lovell’s family mare takes champion title at Queensland Royal Show

Their horse Sapphire also won her class on Sunday.

On Wednesday, she also won the novice show hunter hack class and was awarded the Reserve Champion Novice Show Hunter Hack.

Vet Kat Lovell said her family was pleased the horse, one of their youngest in the stables, came out with wins.

“It is very exciting because it’s her first royal show and to perform well in such a prestigious class is amazing,” she said.

Ms Lovell said the six-year-old horse was among about 10 other beautiful mares in the open judging competition but was confident her character and beauty would shine through.

“I think she has a real presence and a great personality,” she said.

“We like to think she is a bit of a model because you can’t help but think she is beautiful.”

Sapphire was judged on combination, confirmation, manners and presentation with the Lovells taking hours of work into preparing her for the ring.

Ms Lovell said the judge complemented on her type, potential and how she was shown very well.

She said her blood line was an advantage in the competition, being a sibling of one of their other horses that won a national competition last year.

“Years of work has gone into breeding a horse like sapphire,” she said.

“We were lucky to buy her from the Dicavalli Stud, they are known for breeding beautiful and successful horses, because they only breed a number of them.”

She said the task of getting a horse ready for the show was not a simple task, with her sister Abbey spending time plating hair, painting hooves and settling the horse down with a ride on the big day.

Sapphire will go on to compete in more saddle classes at the end of the week.