M P E R F E C T PA R T N E R S
Alanna Richards and France Show rider Alanna Richards tells SONIA CAEIRO ALVAREZ of her long obsession with a handsome Warmblood that fortuitously led to a remarkable partnership both in and out of the arena.
any perfect partnerships begin with first impressions and Alanna Richards describes her first meeting with France, a Warmblood bay gelding, as magical. “I’d never ridden an animal that size and from the moment I sat on him I felt like a queen,” she tells me. “We worked well together from the get-go. At 17 hands and 790 kilograms, he’s a big horse to put together, and just the most impressive, exquisite horse I’d ever seen.” Alanna explains that she had always keenly followed France, and then a friend alerted her to his potential sale. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I mean, no way! Not that horse? I was obsessed with him.” She high tailed it to Melbourne and spent the next two days riding him. At the time France was still competing for
