WHEN Harry met Kate, not only was a winning combination born, but history was made too.

Few ringside spectators at Kington Show will forget Kate Mills' victory side-saddle gallop on Nolton Hareton, better known as Harry, after horse and rider scooped top honours at the event.

"It was a pretty spectacular day, I haven't stopped smiling," says the vivacious 22-year-old from Peterchurch. Winning the supreme championship trophy was a "dream come true" for Kate, who works for Woonton-based Financial Solutions, an agricultural credit broker. "It's such a special way of riding, so traditional, and if I'm the first person in over 100 years to compete riding side-saddle at Kington Show, then that's pretty cool!"

She praises 17.2hh Harry, an "amenable" horse capable of "going up 10 more gears" when needed, and says it was an "extremely emotional" moment when the victor's sash was put around his neck. "We celebrated after with a bottle of champagne," says Kate who has become the toast of the town - and country. "Galloping around the ring was the highlight of my career."

Show president Robert Jones believes her performance made history, a view echoed by show committee member, Richard Eckley. "There hasn't been a side-saddle competitor at Kington for at least 80 years and probably much longer," said Mr Eckley, who works for insurance company, Bryan James & Co at Leominster, sponsors of the champion horse class. "Everyone was so thrilled to see horse and rider with so many ribbons and rosettes!"

Kate, who rides with the Radnor & West Hunt, says she was riding before she could walk. An early photograph shows her on horseback with her mother, Isobel when she was five weeks old. By the time she was two, her mum, and dad Floyd, had bought Kate her first pony, Spirit who remains a firm fixture at home in the Golden Valley. "There really wasn't a non-horsey option for me!" she laughs.

Her introduction to riding side-saddle came two years ago, when she was already a proficient dressage rider. "I thought, how hard can it be? But in fact it's like learning to ride all over again, you have to develop different muscles, and learn how to counter-balance the shift in weight for the horse. It's totally different and getting that look of elegance is extremely hard," she says.

But she believes the style is coming back into fashion. "It had died out really, but now more and more are wanting to ride side-saddle," she says. "I had been pestering to get a side-saddle event at Kington Show!"

When Beryl Gough suggested her 10-year-old hunter, Harry, Kate leapt at the chance. "You have to have a 'mannerly' horse, not a 'brutey' one, and Harry took to it like a duck to water," she says. On their first ride out, Kate was startled to see timber workers about to fell a 70ft tree, but Harry simply "flicked his ear" and continued on.

"I thought, if he can deal with that, he can deal with anything!" says Kate.