Capital Hercules is a half-bred cross with wings, and the description fits. Like Harribo, he is by the Thoroughbred stallion Hat Puntano, a grandson of the legendary Sunday Silence, and carries the gallop, blood and rideability that a good Thoroughbred sire brings to a jumping-bred mare.

His dam side supplies the scope. Hercules’s dam, Capital Hummingbird, is by Hummer van het Bevrijdthof, a son of Cardento, the Capitol I stallion who won team silver for Sweden at the 2004 Athens Olympics and became one of the leading jumping sires of his generation.

Hummingbird’s own dam, Capital Hottie, is by Capital Hitoshi, one of the stud’s own stallions, who jumped to 1.50m with Nicole Horwood and is by Winningmood, the top international horse for Luciana Diniz and a son of the great Darco. It is a dam line rich in genuine jumping blood.

Hercules himself is a real gentleman, with lovely manners on the ground and under saddle. He has a careful jump and grows in confidence with every ride, the sort of straightforward, trainable horse the Thoroughbred cross so often produces. For a rider who values a careful partner with blood and scope in equal measure, he is the ideal choice.