Brand Ambassador Ellie Archdeacon talks about her new EQ Horsebox, horses, studies and making the most of lockdown.

Ellie Archdeacon is the lucky owner of the gorgeous Scotia Grey EQ Horsebox. The 2020 build is on an automatic 18T chassis, takes 5 large horses and sleeps 6 people.

Ellie combines competing her three horses around her Psychology degree at Sheffield University. She also has a homebred 2-year-old out of her former Grade A mare. She credits some excellent training and help from Jake Saywell, when she took the (then) five-year-old, Donny with Team Saywell to Spain for the sunshine tour. Sadly Jake is located too far from Ellie’s base to sustain regular training, and once lockdown is lifted, Ellie hopes to start regular training with someone new.

Ellie keeps her horses at her family home in Cambridge – where her lorry has come in rather handy as a self contained study centre during lockdown. “It’s too nice not to be used,” she says. Ellie has also used this time to create some smart storage solutions for her horsebox, so everything which lives on board is kept tidy, clean and protected.

Ellie describes her new EQ lorry as “a dream.” “I still can’t quite believe that its ours!” She exclaims. Since having their beautiful new lorry it’s made Ellie and her mum desperate to get to some stay away shows. “The lorry is so practical with a huge horse area and so much locker space that we will be able to go abroad for one of the tours and have enough space for our three horses and everything we need for a number of weeks,” Ellie explains. “It’s all clean and ready to go!” Let’s hope the pandemic doesn’t keep them away for too much longer.

A bit more about Ellie’s horses:

Tinus Van De Laarse Hiede Z, aka Donny: Donny is “roughly” 17hh, a six year old by Tangelo who she’s had since an unbroken three year old.

He is currently jumping newcomers but has all the scope and ability to go much further. Due to his size, Ellie is producing him very slowly and believes his best results are yet to come. In the mean time, she is enjoying the pressure being off the pair as they learn from each other.

Graf Carambole, aka Carrot: Carrot is Ellie’s 16.2hh 9 year old by Carambole/Cassini I. He is currently jumping foxhunters and she hopes to be jumping some 1.30ms and Grade C classes in 2021. Ellie believes this to be “their year” as so far Carrot has had a very disrupted career  due to Ellie’s educational commitments and other “annoying” set-backs. He is extremely bold and careful and has all the makings of a good horse so she’s looking forward to jumping some good classes with him and hopefully getting some good results!

Danny is a 16hh twelve year old by Tangelo who Ellie has had for five years. She describes him as “fantastic.” Currently jumping 1.30m’s with good results jumping at some of the bigger shows, including a win at Scope in the Under 25 B&C prelim and 8th in the final. Ellie hopes to take this horse abroad once she’s finished her degree. “He is a really fun competitive horse that always tries for me so I’m excited for what this year will bring for us,” she says.