TALK about riding success, Tony Dunn, the director of a Hampshire company that supplies metalwork to the construction industry, has earned the highest professional award a mechanical engineer can hope to achieve.

Tony, 52, who launched Gosport-based Specialized Fabrications with friend and colleague Tony World in 1986, is on cloud nine after being awarded a Fellowship from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

The businessman is a familiar figure in regional business circles - and in the world of dressage.

Keen horse rider Tony, 52, reached the southern area regional finals at novice level.

His horse, Charlie, a six-year-old Hanoverian bred in Germany, was bought at four years old and is trained by British dressage expert Sara Jane Lanning.

Tony, who was brought up at Hythe and educated at Totton Grammar School (now Totton College), said: "It's a very relaxing way to wind down and forget about the pressures of work."

He worked for Petters in Hamble and Pall Europe in Portsmouth before helping to set up Specialized, which turns over more than £4.5m annual employs 75 people and makes products like staircases, lift shafts, handrails and balustrades. Tony said of the award, which involved course work after a hard day's graft, said: "You get what you put in."