The RHS’s quality abounds

On my highlights, without question, I’d go to the main ring which hosted two of the greatest spectacles to be found anywhere, I suspect, on the show circuit this season. The first of them came on Saturday evening, when the sun came out to welcome the open cart class in the heavy horse harness and driving section – it filled the Ingliston arena from end to end.

There is always a curious interpretation of style on display in this class, not only from the various breeds of heavy horses, but also from the lady whips resplendent in what only can be described as the most colourful outfits.

While they may well have felt the chill of the westerly wind blowing across the ring, the horses appeared to relish the atmosphere, with the top three demonstrating an exuberance and presence which set them apart from not only the other entrants, but most of the other equines at the show.

Quality and presence are two expressions commonly used to describe top class show animals, difficult to define but obvious when present.

The winner, a magnificent Clydesdale mare, Miss Ellie, is a member of the McMillan family’s successful show team from Rothesay and was driven by Brian McMillan. Oozing both quality and presence she moved out of her skin in front of an appreciative packed grandstand, as did the runner-up, another Clydesdale, Margo McIntyre’s Ozark’s Royal Competitive Edge and third-placed Charlotte Young’s Percheron, Jim.

In many ways this class set the scene for Sunday’s classes when the main ring was packed all morning.

Certainly among the most competitive of all the equine classes at the show and arguably the most difficult to win, both the ridden mountain and moorland and ridden coloured classes filled this ring in a way, I suspect, that no other show ground will experience during the course of the season.

With qualification for the Horse of the Year Show at stake, the line-ups made just as spectacular a sight as the carts had done.

At the west end of the ring, it was impressive to observe how much the plaited coloured horses and ponies have improved in standard over the years, with an even type throughout.

The influence of the continental warmblood was in evidence in the winning horse and eventual reserve champion, Alfie Moon 111, which is by the thoroughbred sire, Posidonas.

Bred by the Sweet Wall Stud, in Antrim, he gave his owner/rider, Felicity Baker, much to celebrate at this year’s show as he also qualified for HOYS when he headed the intermediate show hunter ponies the previous day.

Nevertheless, his further success was blunted in the coloured classes by a pony from the crowd-pleasing native section, where copious amounts of mane, tail and feather seemed to add to the attraction. The champion, all the way from Blackpool, was Richard Ellis’ skewbald gelding, Rocco.

Such is the popularity of the registered native ponies at the show that there are several well-filled sections at the Highland, with the flat ridden classes having to be split over two rings in order to accommodate numbers.

The east end of the main ring held court to the large breeds which required five hours of non-stop judging by two judges to place the 127 entries.

The Highland and Connemara ponies particularly filled the eye, though neither class winners featured in the championship where two of the minority breeds filled the top slots.

The Scottish-bred Fell pony, Bracklinn Jackpot, shown by Hayley Reynolds, from Lancashire, was called in reserve, but not before the surprise of the morning when the Exmoor stallion, Dunkery Wigeon, was selected to stand overall champion.

Professionally produced for his Swansea-based owner, Maureen Richardson, by Sarah Parker and ridden by Pamela Brown – a great supporter of the breed who originates from Newton Mearns.

I say ‘surprised’, because the Exmoor breed is often overlooked in major championships. This tells us that this one must be a good one to attract the selection of not one but four judges who placed the championship.

Wigeon is a real pony type, prettier than some of the larger ponies of his breed, a fine goer with good hind action. His championship victory at Ingliston will have provided a great boost for the type which is riding the crest of a wave following a championship victory in the working hunter pony section at Suffolk County for Barhill Marigold, a mare owned by Julia Rogers, who does much for The Moorland Mousie Trust, a charity whose work encompasses all aspects of Exmoor pony welfare.

It currently has a herd of ponies involved in conservation grazing on Traprain Law, in East Lothian. Both ponies should ensure that the Exmoor flag flies high at the Horse of the Year Show, in October.

We saw Marigold qualify for the Royal International Horse Show, at Oatridge, in the spring. However, this time the stakes were higher in the native worker section, with qualification for HOYS on the cards for a packed catalogue of entries on Friday afternoon.

Graham Barclay again came up with an excellent course for competitors whose ponies, like the show jumpers, revel on the all-weather surface of Ring 5, which must now rate amongst the best in Britain.

With 80% of the marks based on performance in this section (categorised by height) different breeds compete together, it is performance over jumps and on the flat which has most influence on the outcome.

The Fell breed went one better this time when Stirling’s Gwen Rae’s Greenhome Emblem, ridden and produced by Kirsty Aird, provided Scotland with one the hardest fought battles of the week against entries travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles to compete.

Again, we witnessed this combination post their colours early in the season when they stood supreme at the NPS Scotland Spring Show at SNEC. On this occasion, Emblem won his class from the Highland pony, Aigas of Achnacarry, ridden by Laura Marshall, from Burnley, who must have felt blighted by the Fell, as she also stood reserve to him with another Highland, Dougal of Dykes.

Needless to say, ridden Highland ponies eclipsed all other Scottish breeds at this their flagship event and a remarkable sight they make in the main ring for both the breed section on Friday and the HOYS qualifier two days later.

It beggars belief that some continue to ignore the type of pony required for this class as the monetary value of the Highland pony, with few exceptions, must surely lie within its ridden performance ability.

Friday’s champion proved yet another victory for Kirsty Aird, one of our most successful young producers who seems to be able to turn her hand to anything from ponies to show jumpers. This time she led with Susan Fox’s Holmedown Charlotte, an eight-year-old mare, which consolidated this win with a noteworthy second place in a huge class on Sunday behind last year’s ridden native champion, the stallion, Benbreac of Croila.

A young stallion waiting on the sidelines must be the reserve Highland ridden champion, John and Kate Dykes’ Isleman of Mendick, breed champion in hand at the National Stallion Show in February, now ready to embark on a new career for his rider, Ruth Darling.

In some ways, ridden Clydesdales seem to be shaping the destiny of their breed and have managed to capture the imagination of a number of competitors new to the game, including Annette Noble, from Penicuik, who rode Peggyslea Andy to victory in the main ring.

As things currently stand, he adds to a strong Scottish contingent already qualified for HOYS, including another Clydesdale, a Shire and Suffolk Punch.

Such is the pull of the Horse of the Year Show that I wonder if Scotland’s most northerly producers from Caithness, James Munro and Russell Skelton might be tempted by one of their clients to enter the fray of ridden heavy horses. They seem to have their hands full of others, so perhaps not and this year’s Royal Highland gave them a platform to shine with their plaited horses.

Their biggest success came in the hunter ring with two classes to their credit and with them HOYS tickets. Opting not to compete in the championship with their middleweight grey, Chadwick’s Nebu, it left the way clear for their relative novice five-year-old small hunter, Freda Newton’s Irish-bred Ebony King, to sweep the board and take the tri-colour as overall ridden hunter champion.

Ebony King was unable to withstand the challenge of the in hand champion for the overall hunter award, which went to the three-year-old Superior Choice, from Northern Ireland.

Perhaps currently lacking the charisma of a top class show horse, this well-made youngster is an easy mover and stands on the best of limbs, which is little wonder that he attracted the attention of former RHS light horse chairman, Helen Goldie, whose task it was this year to select the representative from the show for the Cuddy in-hand final at HOYS. She had no hesitation in pulling him forward ahead of the big moving Welshman, Caebryn Endeavour, which just minutes before was judged best of the mountain and moorland ponies shown in hand.

Finally, there were three different aspects of the show which captured my imagination at this year’s show.

The first came in the plaited working hunter pony ring. Thankfully, this is one discipline amidst a world of professional production that skilled and dedicated families continue to prevail and in this year’s competition, one such family yet again shone.

Winning two of four hotly contested classes and taking their HOYS tickets were Amelia England, with Rosshill Paddy and her cousin, Freya England, with Lettermuckoo Lucy. Interestingly, the girls along with another cousin, James Houlden, are successfully following the footsteps of former Royal Highland working hunter champion riders and siblings, James, David and Sarah.

And, with the working hunter pony competition in full swing, I witnessed David and Goliath struggle to take a place over the road at the Thistle Ring in the private driving section, where last year’s HOYS champion, Richard Lanni, with his impressive pair of Gelderlanders, was taken on by a young contender in the shape of Gillian McNinch, with her small riding pony, The Longhouse Glam Rock. No stranger to the HOYS arena, the youngster with her immaculate turnout prevailed this time, thus booking her place in the Birmingham finals.

Last, but not least, as a breeder I am very much interested in what other breeders get up to and it was in the sheep tent that I found my inspiration this year.

As much as I was impressed by horses and ponies at the show, it was Duncan Whyte’s pens of Border Leicesters which made their mark this time.

Consistency had to be the key word here with a uniformity of type even obvious to the untrained eye like mine. Not only did they carry perfect condition for the show ring, but they demonstrated the essential traits of all show champions – quality and presence of which his reserve female champion possessed in bucket loads.