In June, Tiffany Foster (CAN) announced the retirement of her longtime partner, Artisan Farm’s Brighton, celebrating the gelding’s remarkable career with a beautiful ceremony at the Odlum Brown BC Open.

“There will never be another horse like Brighty for me. Anyone who knows him knows how special he is,” Foster shared in a heartfelt Instagram post.

To find a successor to Brighton—while not a championship mount, a superior speed and 1.50m horse—might seem like an impossible task, but Foster already has a successor in mind. And the 13-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare Northern Light has quickly understood her assignment, topping the CSI3* Heavy Metal Equipment 1.50m at the Summer Fort Welcome.

“We have some of these younger horses moving up, so we’ve kind of made a decision with her owners, Andy and Carlene Ziegler, to kind of slot her a little bit more in this 1.50m role, just because it’s very easy for her,” Foster shared. “And with Brighton retiring, you know…When you bring Nora into a class like this, you’re bringing a gun to a knife fight.”

To imply that “Nora” is the next Brighton is high praise. But Brighty didn’t win a five-star Grand Prix, either. Northern Light gave Foster her first win at the level when they topped the CSI5* MLSJ Grand Prix—fittingly, at tbird—in 2023.

“She’s been an incredible horse for me,” Foster said. “She’s jumped a lot of clear rounds and five star Grands Prix, [but] she kind of tells me sometimes that she would rather jump a little smaller.”

According to Jumpr App, the numbers are in line with a comparison to one of Foster’s most successful horses. Like Brighton, Northern Light’s best rounds have been achieved at 1.45m and 1.50m.

Nora has averaged just 3.1 faults at 1.45m in her career and is jumping clear 42% of the time at both 1.45m and 1.50m. Brighton, remarkably, averaged just 1.7 faults from 94 career rounds at 1.45m. His best clear round rate came at 1.50m, when he jumped clear 63% of the time in 100 rounds at the level.

If there were a Hall of Fame for speed horses, Brighton would be at the top of the class, so there is still work to be done for his heir apparent. But Northern Light is unquestionably trending upward. In 2024, Nora is averaging just 0.8 faults from five rounds at 1.50m, jumping clear at an impressive 80% clip.

“The cool thing with Nora is she’s experienced. You know, she’s 13 years old. I’ve had her for five years now,” Foster said. “So we know each other really well, and I know that you can come on a really blind angle with her.”

Look for Nora to take more of those as she finds a more permanent place in ranking classes.

“She knows. She’s a girl,” Foster said. “She’s so smart. She’s very intuitive.”