A LEADING professional show jumper is looking for a new horse to help him regain his place in the top ten rankings.

Paul Barker, 35, from Northallerton began competing at the age of eight and swiftly became one of the country’s fastest rising stars of showjumping.

He comes from a long line of show jumpers; his father, David Boston Barker was a member of Great Britain’s Nation Cup Team in the 1960s and represented his country at the 1964 Olympic Games.

In his career he has won three international and two national Grand Prix classes and a number of other prestigious competitions.

He regularly competes for his country and has earned high rankings in many European contests.

But although he has a number of highly promising young horses who can hold their own at international level, his personal assistant, Sarah Mousley, said needed an international five star horse to be able to step up the competition and get him back into the top ten ranked show jumpers in the country.

She said they were looking for anyone who could provide him with a top horse or form a syndicate.

“It would be great if we could get Yorkshire behind him,” she said.

“The owners of the horses we have are fantastic and the horses themselves are very promising, but not competing at that international level yet.

“So at the moment he is show casing his natural talent by competing against horses that are at the top of their game and being very successful in doing so. But it’s the equivalent of driving a BMW against a Ferrari and beating them.”

Anyone who can help should contact Sarah on 07712 090513 or email; hannahmou@ hotmail.com