Geoff put him to sleep on the 3rd November this year and wrote:
We didn’t always see eye to eye, but there again he was bigger than me. He had his moments of glory, too: twice the UK Champion Veteran Stallion and once the Reserve UK National Champion Stallion. Romero XXV never quite forgave him for that!
I have added:
There was something about this horse when I went out to Spain (1997) to look for a driving horse. He was already harnessed and tied to a wall in a dealers yard when I arrived to see him. Perhaps alarm bells should have rung!!
He was an extremely lively drive, certainly not a novice drive but very traffic proof, lorries, rattley white vans, & trains never bothered him but 'standing still' and standing on all fours was not in his vocabulary for the first couple of years.
I competed him in the Indoor Driving Championships one year - he nearly always won the dressage phase but was so impatient with the cones and obstacles that we always threw it away. As time went on he became less stressed and more chilled out and relaxed but you could never say he was 'laid back'. His last year was spent in his paddock. He used to look forward to going out every day, weather permitting, I thought and hoped his legs were getting better but towards the end he had stopped shouting and running to greet us. So the inevitable decision was made and at the end of a warm Autumn day and before the bad weather started Geoff kindly put him down in his paddock.
schooling in harness
The day the Spanish TV sent a photographer and interview team over from Spain. Zafiro had only been in this country a few days when we were contacted by the TV company as his previous owner was to appear on a 'This is your Life' type of programme. They wanted him to travel back to Spain to actually appear on the programme. We were very tempted but felt the journey was too much for him, 2600miles there and back in a week so we said no. However, they sent a team over to interview us and to film him.
He was ridden as well as driven
At home in the garden
