Jaydan’s Leandro – our Foreign Breed showing success

TheArabianMagazine.Com reader Zoe Kershaw shares her story about her beloved gelding, Jaydan’s Leandro, who is turning heads at foreign breed shows. 

Jaydan’s Leandro, by Luigi (Kanz Albidayer x Lolita by Om El Bahreyn) and out of Forelock’s Yuliette (Psytadel x Yakima by Nizjni), came into my life as a yearling colt. Now a seven-year-old gelding, ‘Rufus’ and I have enjoyed attending Foreign Breed and All Breed Shows for a few years now in-hand. In 2025, Rufus was backed and so we started ridden showing as well. Competing in Foreign Breed and All Breed Shows is a fabulous way to show off our beautiful Arabian horses, hopefully encouraging others into owning and exhibiting an Arabian themselves.

One of our favourites are the APHS shows run by Lynn Jarvis. These shows are held all over the country, holding qualifying classes for the Champion of Champions class held at the London Counties Show at the end of season National Finals in October. The shows are open to all breeds of horses, and there is an abundance of well-supported classes to suit all abilities and types, including foreign and rare breeds as well as individual breed classes, all judged by experienced panel judges.

Rufus and I have been lucky enough to have had great success at these APHS shows. In 2025, we achieved the following results:

APHS Northern Counties Show
1^st In-hand Arab
Overall Champion In-hand Foreign Breed
1^st ridden Arab
Overall Champion Ridden Foreign Breed

APHS London Counties
1^st In-hand hand Arab
Overall Champion In-hand Foreign Breed
1^st ridden Arab

Champion of Champions
4^th place Overall
Amateur Champion
Members Champion

Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the 2025 APHS Foreign Breed National Finals to defend our 2024 In-hand Foreign Breed National title as Rufus came down with cellulitis.

With Rufus recovered, I decided it was time for us to start winter dressage to gain more experience and be ready to take on the novice ridden classes next year. We have already started at our local riding club’s winter dressage league and received many positive comments from other members about how lovely it is to see an Arabian out competing within a riding club, noting how well behaved he is.

Indeed, Rufus is a great personality. He competed in the intermediate young handlers’ class at the British Nationals last summer with my stepson, Theodore, and they placed second. Rufus also went into the golden oldies class with my other half, Nick, finishing fourth out of ten. Nick has never handled a horse before in his life, let alone in a ring, so this was a wonderful achievement, and shows how brilliant Arabian horses truly are. My son, Charlie, rides Rufus at home, and I love watching their bond grow on a daily basis.

As we look ahead to 2026, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers, judges and officials of all our shows and events for their hard work and dedication, as without them, we would have nowhere to show off our beautiful horses.

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