Trinity mirrors previous triumph
An exemplary Shetland is HOYS-bound again, a teenager from down under tops a new class, and a resilient rider bounces back from concussion to head the lightweights
A STUPENDOUS Shetland and new classes made this year’s show one to remember, even when a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours and left lorries up to their axles in mud.
Last year, David Hodge’s and Julian Walters’ nine-year-old mare, Sharptor Trinity, became the first Shetland in 30 years to compete in the Cuddy final.
Here, she drew cheers from a packed grandstand when David Ingle chose her to contest the title again at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS).
“She’s a great example of the breed, moves straight as a die and has a stunning foal at foot,” said David. “Although I was judging the mare, this is a breeding
championship and so I took that into consideration.
“I loved her as soon as she walked past me and she just got better and better as the championship went on.”
Trinity’s filly foal, Sharptor Trixie, is by Julian and David’s stallion, Email Of St Ninian.
“We still have Trinity’s dam, Blazefield Tracey, who had a foal last year at the age of 25 and looks a picture,” said Julian.
David chose another nineyear-old broodmare as reserve: Mark Buckley’s British riding pony, Whiteleaze Sonata, who is by Cusop Dimension out of Spinningdale Sonata. Mark has already earmarked her colt foal by Turberry Topcat as a potential stallion.
Sharptor Trinity came through as Russell Sutcliffe’s choice as in-hand mountain and moorland (M&M) in-hand champion.
HIGHLAND TAKES TICKET NUMBER SIX
LATER, Russell judged the M&M ridden championship, where he set riders a challenge and won widespread approval.
“I told them to show me their ponies at their best paces,” he said.
Clare Fitch did just that on Edwina Warner’s Highland stallion, Strathleven Drumochter
(Drummy Bear). Clare celebrated her birthday by collecting the pony’s sixth consecutive HOYS ticket, with Katherine Bowling-Hartenfeld reserve on her sixyear-old Connemara gelding,
Cree Marvin.
“The Highland couldn’t be anything else, even if you saw him from a mile away,” said Russell. “He was very light and balanced, as was my reserve. So many Connemaras are being shown in a fixed outline, but this one swung along freely.”
Clare said that Drummy Bear is naturally light on his feet, but that international dressage rider and trainer David Pincus has helped her make the most of the stallion’s way of going.
“He has a good canter now, but it wasn’t always like that,” said Clare. “We did a lot of hillwork and cantering downhill in nearby orchards, as well as exercises from David. Drummy loves his work and we’re going to do some dressage this winter.”
The show held HOYS junior ridden M&M classes for the first time. Annabel Drake, 12, rode the Connemara Walstead Guiness to win the large section and stand champion over small section winner Savannah Spilman Penn on Bricklefield Jack, a section B.
Walstead Guiness is owned by Annabel’s godmother, Vanessa Clark, who breeds Connemaras under her Chilham prefix.
“I bought him for myself after seeing him at the breed show last year,” she said. “I qualified him for the open classes first time out, but he’s so genuine — he’s happy being a junior pony all day long.”
Unfortunately, Annabel can’t ride this pony in the final, as she has qualified her own pony for
the first ridden final and HOYS doesn’t allow riders to compete in both.
Savannah, 12, has been riding Bricklefield Jack for six months, but her mother, Tilly, has had her eye on him for much longer.
“I bought him from his breeder, Lynette Bates,” she said. “Savannah had been riding a section A and I kept saying, ‘you’ve got to let me have him now, because we need a section B’.
“Lynette said I had to wait until she was sure he was right for Savannah. Moving from As to Bs is such a difficult transition for children, because the Bs have much scopier movement.”
AUSTRALIAN TEENAGER TAKES NEW CLASS
THE new part-bred pony of the year class had 10 forward, with the qualifying ticket going to a rider from down under. Brynie Lee, from Melbourne, Australia, piloted Jeanette MatthewsGriffiths’ Wadacre Whisper for producer Jerome Harforth, and booked her ticket for HOYS.
Last year, 16-year-old Brynie was one of six Australian and four New Zealand young show riders who came over to compete against UK riders in international challenge classes. A team of British riders will go out to New Zealand this year.
Brynie, who stayed at Jerome’s Stanley Grange Stud, came back to her host to gain more experience and has also qualified a hack and an intermediate for the yard.
Jerome said the part-bred class was a great opportunity to boost the profile of the British riding pony. It also gives more opportunities to riders, as there are no age restrictions.
Brynie and Wadacre Whisper took reserve and £250 in the show’s own ridden supreme championship. Norfolk producer Allister Hood claimed the overall title and £500 on Lady Caroline Tyrrell’s lightweight cob Our Cashel Blue, qualifying as British Skewbald and Piebald Association (BSPA) ridden champion.
Leah Webber, 14, made a confidence breakthrough by winning her Royal International Horse Show (RIHS) ticket and taking BSPA ridden reserve on her traditional pony, Bob VIII.
Leah’s mother, Hayley, said producer Christina Gillett had qualified Bob in previous years but, until this show, Leah felt she couldn’t compete at that level. They now keep Bob at home with his companion, a sheep.
Rings rode beautifully, thanks to old and well-maintained turf that is a gift for great gallopers. Jayne Ross made the most of it to stand champion hunter on winning lightweight Time 2 Reflect over heavyweight class victors Katie Jerram-Hunnable on Tower Bridge.
“The lightweight is a quality mare who really gallops,” said conformation judge Henrietta Knight. “She has a great back end, which is so important because it’s where the power comes from.
“The reserve has an amazing gallop for a heavyweight, but our champion, being a lightweight, has just that bit more quality.”
Ride judge Terry Chalmers — who had stepped in at two days’ notice — agreed.
“Our champion’s gallop would put some racehorses to shame, but she was so easy to get back at the end,” he said.
‘BEETLE’ TOPS THE COBS
KATIE couldn’t be denied the cob championship on Ruth Flack’s heavyweight, Copycat, with Dawn Clark on lightweight winner Cromptons Rolo reserve.
“We used to call him ‘the beetle’, because he beetled along,” said Katie. “But he’s learned to carry himself in front, and gives a much bigger ride.”
Dawn, who bought Cromptons Rolo as a two-year-old, deserved her reserve slot for sheer tenacity. She came out of hospital the previous week, then was knocked out in a freak accident three days before this show.
“We took a pony to a local show for experience and my number string broke,” she said. “It hit him on the back and he panicked, sending me off backwards.”
Justine Armstrong-Small surprised herself by winning the workers on her relatively inexperienced Carlingford King.
“I entered him for the novice workers, but Sport Horse
Breeding (GB) changed the amount you could win to be eligible from £100 to £200,” she said.
“He’s bold, so I decided to swap to the open and see how we got on. I didn’t expect to win, though.”
One fence down was compensated for by the best scores in style and presence, conformation and ride, leaving Justine four marks ahead of second-placed Victoria Tennant on Bloomfield Bergerac. Victoria had one of only two clears, the other notched up by Chris Moorfield on Heather McCloy’s Castle Rock, in third.
Judges Kath Barley (ride) and Martin Jones (conformation) chose Leon King on the large riding horse winner, Hot Gossip, as champion over Oliver Hood on Lisha Leeman’s winning small, Kellythorpes Moulin Rouge.
“We’ve made a few changes,” said Leon, who produces Hot Gossip for owner Sharon Harris and will hand over the reins at HOYS to the horse’s usual rider, Jess Goodier. “We changed his bit to a double bridle, although I didn’t have to touch the curb rein, and he’s done fewer shows this season, which seems to suit him.”
The new partnership of Emily Constable and Montgomery claimed the ridden Arabian championship in the sloping Waveney ring. Emily — a former working pupil of dressage supremo Stephen Clarke — gave a textbook demonstration of riding in rhythm and balance.