Welfare

THE Great Yorkshire Show organisers are known for their forthright approach to enforcing what they believe is best practice, and to protecting horse welfare. It was a few years ago now that they ruffled feathers by asking riders to dismount if they felt they were too heavy for the animals they were riding, which sparked a trend for other venues following suit.

This year, they have said they will not be permitting adults to warm up ponies for children’s classes.

This decision will be met with criticism from some esteemed members of the showing community – I expect even some of our columnists. And I see their arguments that it can be deemed necessary for a more experienced rider to warm up a child’s pony in an exciting environment, and a lightweight, small, balanced adult may not be a welfare issue on a pony. But there will be others prevented from riding ponies that are simply too small for them, and that is a good thing.

Putting size and welfare to one side, it’s never seemed quite right to me that this can happen in showing, when, for example, a pony showjumper wouldn’t be able to ask their trainer to warm up their 128cm superstar.

Again I see the argument that sharp show ponies with very young jockeys are a safety concern, but in other disciplines we simply wouldn’t see those animals competing until their jockeys had developed the skills needed to ride them. A sharp pony can still be lunged, but do they need to be schooled by an adult to be appropriate for a child to ride? It’s an interesting topic and I’d be keen to hear your views – do write to us at hhletters@ futurenet.com Sarah Jenkins Editor-in-Chief