last updated on October 31, 2006 00:00

Manitu N, the anchor of the British pony dressage team for many years, has been retired from international dressage.

The 15-year-old Danish-bred stallion by Magnum started his career as a member of the Danish team and won team bronze at the 1998 European Pony Dressage Championships.

He was then sold to Britain and took Maria Eilberg, Lorna Edmonds and Samantha Harrison to international success. He won team silver at the European Championships in 2000 and team bronze for the next six consecutive years from 2001 to 2006.

Tracey Harrison, Samantha’s mum and owner of Manitu, said: “We wanted to retire him while he was on a high. He will stay with us for the rest of his life and will probably go to stud next year, although we haven’t decided where yet. He loves jumping, so Samantha might take him to play locally in the meantime.”

Tracey has just leased Becky Moody’s grand prix horse Kwadraat for Samantha, who at 16 is now out of ponies.