A Diamond display
A mountain and moorland producer who is more used to watching her daughters take the glory tops the Heritage lines and Team Harvey clean up in the plaited ranks
UNTIL recently, Sussex-based breeder and producer Debbie Barr would be found at the ringside watching daughter Alice show their mountain and moorland (M&M) ponies. However, on this occasion Debbie dusted down her own riding clothes and partnered their Fell stallion Drummersdale Black Diamond to the Royal International Horse Show (RIHS) Heritage M&M title.
“Alice went to Australia for six months in November and I’ve spent the first part of the season finding riders to show the ponies. I thought I might as well try to do it myself,” said Debbie, who bought the nine-year-old Black Diamond because she used to own his sire, Burnhead Henry.
“He’s exactly like his dad,” she said. “He was a late starter after spending a few years running out on the fells. He is a huge character. There’s no lock he can’t undo and if he chooses to let himself out, there’s no way of stopping him.”
Judge Ruth Newman’s reserve champion was Sam Roberts with the Dartmoor Newoak Furious, Joyce and Jacky Newbery’s 2017 Windsor and Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) winner.
A FORMIDABLE TEAM
WITH six rings in operation at the beautiful Ashfields Carriage and Polo Club, it was a busy day for most competitors, none more so than John Harvey’s Hertfordshire team, who began with the championship and reserve in the RIHS show pony section.
Champion was 11-year-old Freya Herring, having only her second ride on Pip Baker-Beall’s Whiteleaze Secret Charm.
“Freya did a great job and I’m so pleased for Pip,” said John. “She hasn’t been in the best of health recently and hopefully this will give her a boost.”
This was a case of a good “littlun” beating an equally good “bigun”, as Ellis Taverner-Burns settled for reserve on the 148cm winner Small-Land Dream
Maker. This pair had their own triumph, as they went on to become Sue Rawding’s choice for the RIHS part-bred title. Ellis and Dream Maker then finished their day with a flourish by standing British Show Pony Society (BSPS) intermediate champions.
The RIHS show hunter pony champion also came from Team Harvey. Ella Georgakis rode her father Tony’s 133cm class winner Fayre Dafydd beautifully and, with a stirring gallop, clinched the title over Charlotte Tuck and the 143cm winner Romanno Romany Gypsy. Charlotte, who rides for Lindsay Hillyard’s Suffolk team, was another rider on top form, with four RIHS tickets including show pony and M&M wins.
“He’s an amazing pony and is so easy to ride, but I think galloping is the favourite thing for us both,” she said.
CHARMING GIFT
JESSICA MCINTOSH, seven, went home to Buckinghamshire with two champion rosettes. She began by taking the mini show pony title with the lead-rein winner, Cosford Charming Gift, a mare leased from breeder
Paul Brightwell.
“This pony is every mother’s dream,” said Jessica’s mother, Charlotte.
Charming Gift is an old hand, but Jessica, a keen member of the Whaddon Chase branch of the Pony Club, also has the ride on a new star. Beverley Abel’s four-year-old Welsh section A Manorlea Maverick was at his first show under saddle and Jessica sat on him for the first time here, but they never put a foot wrong in their RIHS M&M lead-rein class and the mini championship.
Jessica may have plenty of experience in the show ring, but for nine-year-old Mara Waller, her RIHS nursery stakes win and mini workers’ title on Millcroft Dow Jones was a first for her family.
“It’s our first ever ticket to any major show in any discipline,” said Mara’s mother, Sam.
Buckinghamshire-based Mara got Dow Jones, her only pony, in August, and workers are her favourite showing classes.
The trip from Norfolk proved worthwhile for Eleanor Hirst, who took two RIHS workers’ tickets. A fabulous jumping round that scored 19 out of 20 from judges Sue Rawding and Paul Cook led the way to open victory on Lislan Defi, back after a winter