Veteran Fife stud bows out in style by taking overall supreme title

It was fitting that the final time the Waxwing

Stud will be seen showing their ponies, they stood overall supreme in-hand mountain and moorland champion with Waxwing Perlena.

This year marked the 42nd year the Fife-based stud have been showing at the Royal Highland Show and, while they will still be involved at the show behind the scenes, they bowed out on a high with Perlena looking an absolute picture to take the Welsh section B championship before standing overall supreme.

Handled by Tom Best, the home-bred five-yearold dappled grey mare is by the stud’s prolific stallion Eyarth Beau Geste. She stood supreme on her only outing at Ayr County and has now been sold to continue a ridden career.

The reserve was the Highland pony champion, Aylwin Pillai’s six-yearold stallion Fandango Na Dailach, shown by her sister Virginia Osborne-antolovi.

Lifting the overall of the Scottish native horse breeds was the Clydesdales supreme Collessie Jennifer from RH Black, Fife.

Judge Marguerite Osborne from Angus deliberated for some time before deciding on Jennifer for the trophy.

“My champion was a lovely-quality horse, which moved beautifully and was light on her feet,” said Mrs Osborne.

Standing overall reserve was the standard Shetland pony champion HP Sleigh and Son’s 12-year-old black stallion Wells Legend.

The ridden Clydesdale championship, a direct qualifier to the Horse of the Year Show, saw 20 entries with the win going to Thurso rider Isla Miller and Stobilee Zac.

They qualified at Three Counties Show at Malvern the previous weekend with the qualifying ticket going to second-placed Peggyslea Buddy and Ailsa Noble.

The ridden Highland pony classes again saw good entries forward and the championship was presented to the large height winner Jane Mcnaught’s Dunedin Mascot, ridden by Katie Common from Inverness.

The 10-year-old gelding by Dunedin Marksman was champion at Fife and only two weeks ago stood open ridden champion and qualified for the Horse of the Year Show at NPS Scotland Summer Show at Strathallan.

The reserve was the second-placed from the not exceeding 14hh class, Chris Grant riding Dunedin Mcsporran, a 10-year-old gelding also by Dunedin Marksman, which has also qualified for Horse of the Year Show after qualifying at Derbyshire Festival.

● Perthshire poultry farmer Sandy Cameron won Marks & Spencer’s Farming Innovation Award for his low-carbon, innovative system which also provides diversified income for his farm.

He installed two 200-kilowatt biomass boilers on his poultry site then a 500-kilowatt unit was added with a drying floor.

The farm is now in the process of chipping wood and drying the chips on a drying floor to feed biomass boilers at the chicken sheds.

Waxwing Perlena was an overall supreme champion.