European gold comes as quite a shock for Farnon

Debuting in the ‘elementary’ dressage division, Farnon performed to her son Thomas’s composition onboard her Spanish purebred Defensor, awing the judges and winning the Carmencita music freestyle.

She picked up an average of 68.39% to pinch top honours over established competitors from across Europe.

‘I was very, very shocked – I did not expect to win, I did not know that I would be capable of winning but my horse was very, very good,’ she said.

Farnon was coming off fourth place in the previous day’s Golega, while fellow Sarnian Steph Warr and her horse Animus represented the ‘mediums’ with 14th in the Sevilla and then sixth in the equivalent music class.

Both had to deal with the challenge of competing indoors for the first time and watched their results improve as their horses acclimatised.

‘It was a great experience – Steph did really well as well because both of our horses had never competed indoors before at the time,’ added Farnon.

‘They were a bit nervous about it all but by the second performance, they were getting used to it and were able to perform a lot better.’

Several British competitors, Sarnians included, met penalties after a last-minute rule change that was somewhat lost in translation but GB still took overall silver in the first ever home hosting of the event.