Blackpool youngster Penelope Rae Dale qualifies for Horse of the Year Show - and she's only three

The tiny tot, who still isn’t old enough to attend primary school, booked her place in the finals after winning her class in the Royal Cheshire agricultural show in Knutsford last week.

Penelope is now the UK’s youngest rider to have qualified for Horse of the Year Show, which is the top equestrian event of its kind in the world.

Riding her beloved pony, Hisley Caliph (known affectionately as Sven), Penelope was competing against riders twice her age in the Mini Mountain and Moorland Championship, a qualifier for the big show..

Her rivals in the event were riders aged seven or eight, but Penelope was adjudged to have shown exceptional poise and riding abilities in a hugely competitive field.

Proud mum Leigh, 33, who lives off Newton Drive, Blackpool, said: “Penelope is a natural, she absolutely loves riding her pony and she just sits up straight and off she goes.

“She wasn’t nervous going into the competition.

"It’s probably in her blood, because my side of the family have always been involved in horses.

"I used to ride when I was younger and my own mum, Michelle, is Sven’s main groom.

"My dad makes horse boxes too, so in one way or other we’re all involved.

"The Horse of the Year Show is a massive event, like the World Cup finals of the horse riding world, so we really are proud.”

Leigh, a nursing sister at Trinity Hospice, added: “I think she has the ability to go on and work with horses as a career – but she’s also very caring and nursey so she might end up becoming a nurse like me!”

Could the youngster, who attends the nursery at AKS Lytham Independent School, even be a future Olympian?

Leigh said: “At the Olympics it’s more show jumping and dressage, but you never know!

"We’ll take things one step at a time – the main thing is that she enjoys it and loves what she is doing.”

Next stop, it’ Horse of the Year Show at the Birmingham NEC in October.