All showed out

I'm not sure how much I enjoy the former but accept that it is all part of the aging process. With regards to judging ridden classes at Haddington and the Great Yorkshire were the highlights.

It may seem fairly unlikely that I should mention Haddington and the Great Yorkshire in the same breath, however I unhesitantly do because both shows brought their joys albeit at totally different levels. It would appear that the move to the new show site of East Fortune Airfield has been a wise one and it is well suited to a show which was much bigger in size that I had remembered from some thirty years ago. From what I could gather, the entry in the unaffiliated ridden hunter pony classes was largely drawn from the local area and enjoyment was palpably the name of the game. The day was made all the more enjoyable by a good lunch and a main ring attraction prior to judging the supreme involving an arresting commentary on dogs chasing a lure from a Durham lad with an obvious passion.

Haddington and the Great Yorkshire Show (a personal favourite) could not have been more different in ethos although they shared the same fate last year when torrential rain caused havoc with their show grounds resulting in eventual cancellation. Considering that it took a week to empty the Harrogate show ground of vehicles last year, it looked none the worse and bettered by a network of roads throughout the lorry park.

With all the formality of a top county show and an entry considered second to none across Britain, the ridden Mountain and Moorland classes, which I co-judged, lived up to expectations with a huge, high class entry literally squeezed into a very short time frame. Thankfully there was an excellent stewarding team at hand headed by well-known pony steward and prominent hay dealer, Philip Judge, who keeps everyone up to speed and the exhibitors smiling with his good humour. The time taken to process the judges' marks to obtain the final result remains an issue for this as it does many shows and may only be resolved by bringing in additional stewards whose sole job it is to do the numbers.

I thought that it was encouraging that three of our Horse of the Year Show qualifying tickets went 'down the line' to third placed ponies, indicating the first and seconds were competing at the show because they wanted to rather than had to. The last class of the day (arguably the most difficult) for Dales and Fell ponies brought back memories of old when I remember being captivated by a wonderful little Dales mare shown in hand named Betsy, Supreme at the Royal Show over thirty years ago. Quite unlike many of her breed we see in the show ring today, she was very pony in character, short coupled and moved off all fours showing the activity of hock action that should typify the Dales breed. Betsy was unusually dark bay in colour, as was the winner of this year's ridden class at Harrogate, a mare like her, which showed all the qualities I admired in Betsy, with manners and way of gong that befits a top class ridden pony. She is easily the best ridden native pony I have judged for years.

As much as these ridden classes were of the highest calibre, the Welsh mountain pony breeding classes, which I judged the following day, were disappointing. The highlight for me was the championship where there were some high class ponies competing but, dear oh dear, where were all the beautiful ponies I expected to see? I hope for the sake of the breed that it was the judge who kept them away. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd comment that the Welsh mountain ponies were better at the Royal Highland this year than at the Great Yorkshire.

This brings me to the Eriskay ponies which I had the 'honour' of judging at this year's Royal Highland Show. Having been spoilt by previously showing the mare, Alba, arguably the best the breed has so far seen, I was disappointed by the entry which only confirmed my personally held view that the Eriskay, albeit with its ancient and romantic history, is not a breed that conforms to show ring standards. Having never been selected by its island breeders for conformation and movement, would it not be better suited to some sort of display which demonstrates its qualities of hardiness and tractability for which it is well known? This would surely provide its enthusiasts with a more appropriate platform to promote for their breed.