By Tom Best

The sight of a working hunter pony judge in a powder blue suit last week made me stop in my tracks at a show recently, as it was definitely a first for me.

The young man in question was obviously making a fashion statement as well a drawing a lot of attention to himself rather than the ponies he was judging. Can I say that I was surprised? No, I don’t think that I was since the fashions within the equestrian world seem to have changed quite markedly over the past fifty years or so and even more so if you clock the past century.

In many ways it comes as a surprise that so many established traditions have lasted the test of time.

The fashion statement which continues to enjoy most comment must surely be outfits of the ladies on the end of the leading rein whose tastes seem to be flamboyant to say the least.

The tasteful if not understated look can still impress and most of the leaders do look great and they should do as their outfits cost a fortune. I judged ridden show ponies recently and I happened to notice that the trend for children wearing short sleeved and short skirted jackets had thankfully come and gone and they are back to wearing jackets which look as if they were bought for them and not for their younger siblings.

Poor children, what we adults do to them to get them noticed, even when it is in bad taste. Of course, it all stemmed from one very successful, and therefore, influential producer who had the brain wave to set her riders apart from others by dressing them in this way.

Much the same can be said for the famous ‘Wilkie’ bit, developed by Peter Wilkinson, in Lancashire, himself a well-known exhibitor of top class ponies as well as leading saddler. He was also responsible for the first highly popular bespoke working hunter pony saddles which must have sold in their hundreds as this classification grew.

He is a clever chap and his bit is lasting the test of time not only for the small ponies for which they were designed but I also notice that they have crept in to replace the traditional bradoon in some double bridles.

With its mild gag action, the Wilkie bit was aimed at first ridden ponies with a view to affording more control for the youngest of our independent riders.

As a judge I fail to understand why they have been adopted almost completely by the lead rein exhibitors. What does it tell you about the ponies if they need a stronger bit?

Of course, its purpose in this case has nothing to do with control but to help produce the infamous ‘outline’, something demanded by the judges in the modern show animal. By knotting the reins and getting the little riders to hold the knots on the now-permitted saddle strap, the pony is effectively submitted to side reins which technically come within the rules.

Sadly such ponies perform with stiff backs, short strides behind and a rigid head and neck. The finished product in my view is very artificial and I have to ask the question, at what point does the child learn to ride in the show ring? I’m all for the poking nose, obvious attempts at steering but a still head achieved by the simple egg butt snaffle and a rider who doesn’t hold on to anything but the saddle if they happen to get unbalanced - but then they call that old-fashioned.

On the subject of bits, I happened to come across my 1966 copy of Elwyn Hartley Edwards definitive text on saddlery first published in 1963, where the number of different bits available at that time is a mere fraction of the number available today. You only have to look at modern saddlery catalogues for evidence.

I also came across a type of noseband which has become very popular today, the ‘flash’, a simple cavesson to which has been attached a thin leather strap which is secured under the bit and behind the chin to achieve control in a drop action. I had no idea it had been so designed to accommodate a standing martingale, something which is not possible with an ordinary drop noseband.

While acceptable in classes over jumps, neither have been acceptable for flat classes as, again, their use indicates an artificial need for control. It surprises me that one pony society rule book states that they are “to be discouraged in flat classes” in other words they are actually all right as it has no intention to do anything about their use. I hope and trust that judges suitably penalise their use by placing down the line ponies requiring them in a bid to uphold the integrity of horsemanship based on tradition and not fashion within the show ring.

This doesn’t mean to say that there isn’t a place for them within other equestrian disciplines and I am interested to see that ‘flash’ and the similarly designed ‘Grakle’ nosebands (appropriately named after the 1931 Grand National winner) have become very common place within the National Hunt industry.

Here is a discipline where more than nosebands have changed as schooling both on the flat and over jumps has followed a pattern more akin to dressage and show jumping. My show jumping friends also tell me that all their horses have to be better on the flat now than ever in order to compete on the highly technical courses which have developed over the years.

Long gone are the days when power and speed ruled the placings and as a result have riders themselves developed a new style of riding? One can only wonder what Harvey Smith, a star within his own sport of show jumping as well as racing, thinks as he watches on as his son, Robert, schools and jumps his horses at home and in competitions. I wonder if he has a gesture which sums up his own view?