Another year over again, where does all the time go? Again this year we had a
good standard of entries and by the level of competition Irish Draught Horses
performed at a number of high standard events.
There have been some changes to the rules which we are hoping will encourage
some new faces to compete this season. As the saying goes “you have to be in it
to win it”. Remember points can be gained in all aspects from showing to Le Trec.
If you would like to enter either download an entry form or send a SAE to Liz
Langford, Coldnose Farm, Dewsall, Hereford, HR2 8DD.
Overall & Veteran Champion
Embla Yarrow & Heather White
Picture
© courtesy of Mark Pritchard
Well I can’t quite believe
that we are another year on and that yet again my mare has done me more than
proud. She has now done the hatrick (and in consecutive years), a feat I don’t
believe has been achieved since the inception of the scheme in 1993. What makes
this even more remarkable is that she has won it for the 3rd time aged 18½
years!
The last 12 months have been far from easy. My plans for the year had been to
qualify for the BD Summer Regionals at Novice and then press on with training in
the hope we could establish ourselves properly at Elementary ready for the 2010
summer qualifiers to start in December.
Unfortunately you don’t quite realise how quickly your points add up when you’re
having fun and very soon we were out of Novice points and missing our
qualification. As we hadn’t put together a plan B we pressed on with some
Elementary classes and before we knew where we were we were part qualified for
the Regionals and panicking about finishing them off. With only a couple of
competitions left, and despite our best endeavours, it was not to be. We came
very close obtaining qualifying percentages but coming 2nd on each occasion.
It was clear that we were coming on in leaps and bounds however a decision was
made not to concern ourselves with Winter Regional qualification and merely to
settle ourselves to training. We decided to compete a couple of times just to
benchmark our progress. Emmy clearly didn’t like my plan for our future and, two
competitions and two wins later, we were qualified for the Winter Regional’s!! I
think she was just trying to prove that she really is the one in control. Not
wanting to end there we pressed on with a few Medium tests and qualified for our
local competition centres championship show where we came a respectable 3rd
overall against some much more established combinations.
So, for the future, we will press on and work at being more consistent in our
Medium tests. We will also see how the flying changes come along for some
Advanced Mediums this time next year. I have also made the difficult decision
not to compete in next years Performance Awards. We have a lot of hard work
ahead of us and so won’t be competing as much. Given what we have achieved for
the last three years it’s only fair to my mare to bow out at the top.
I know I say this every year but she really is one in a million and I can’t
imagine life without her.
RID Champion: Milady's Pride:
Lindsey Millar (owner) with Jan Carey & Liz Tyley
This was another fantastic
year for Milly. She is a horse that really works hard and the more work she
gets, the better she goes! We spent the winter competing at Prelim and Novice
dressage in the local area, and we were never out of the ribbons. The show
season saw us competing in a wide variety of classes alongside our dressage:
Ridden and In-Hand Irish Draught, Ridden and In-Hand Hunters, Ridden and In-Hand
Cobs, Riding Club Horse, Show-jumping, Working Hunter, Combined Training and for
the first time this year, Ridden and In-Hand Veteran classes. If you want an
advert for the versatility of the Irish Draught, then Milly must be it! Our
competition season came to an early and abrupt end when Milly became chronically
lame at the Breed Show in September, but I am pleased to report that she is well
on the road to recovery and back in ridden work. My thanks, as ever go to the
two other members of Team Milly, Jan and Liz for their continuous support and
hard work in the in-hand showing and jumping. We couldn't do it without them!
Junior Champion: Littlehill
Flynn & Kirsty Finnie
This year has been the first
year I have competed in the Performance awards with my horse Littlehill Flynn. I
was very pleased to have done well in each of the sections. Myself and
Littlehill Flynn have had a very successful and enjoyable season, winning many
small ridden hunter and BSPS show hunter classes. He also proved very successful
in Sports Horse classes, being Reserve Champion Sports Horse at the annual New
Aberdour Horse Show in Scotland. Flynn also showed to enjoy cross country very
much this year so we hope to event sometime in 2010! At the beginning of the
indoor season Flynn excelled himself at Dressage, winning both his classes with
over 68%, hopefully this success will carry on throughout the winter months.
Once again I am very happy to have been placed in the Performance Awards but
none of this could have been achieved without my instructor, Fiona Mackinnon, a
previous winner of the performance awards. Hopefully Littlehill Flynn will be as
successful in the 2010 performance awards and we will be back next year!
Kirsty Finnie
Unaffiliated Champion
Miss by a Whisker & Jayne Roberts
Picture
© courtesy of Kevin Jones
This is the first year that
Miss by a Whisker (Missy) has taken part in the IDHS Performance Awards and we
are over the moon that we have done so well. I originally saw Missy just after
she was born and I asked her breeder, Mr J R Newcombe b.Vet.Med.MRCVS, that if
he decided to sell her I wanted 1st refusal. After 2 years of pressure he
finally gave in and sold Missy to me. She is the first horse I have purchased,
all our other horses have been home bred. It took a long time for her to mature
but over the last year she has really grown into her frame. I am very lucky that
she is capable of doing a number of disciplines and this year we have competed
in Combined Training, Dressage, Show Jumping, Ridden and In-hand showing.
Missy’s dressage has come on leaps and bounds and thanks to my trainer Denise
O’Reilly, we are consistently getting 7’s and 8’s for our trot work we even got
our 1st 9 a couple of weeks ago, so I am really looking forward to getting the
canter work up to the same standard and getting her affiliated later next year.
The photograph shows my mother, Janet competing in her first ever horse class,
with Missy at the West Midlands Police Horse Show.
In-Hand Champion
Bannvalley Pride of Midnight & Jo Ayroyd
2yr old colt owned by Pride of Meath ex
Carrickrock Midnight Dancer.
I bought Elvis as a foal in
Ireland from Pat and Miriam O'Sullivan who bred him from their beautiful mare,
Midnight. I was looking for a quality Irish draught colt with bone, movement,
excellent temperament, jumping and showing credentials in his breeding and he
had to be grey! As soon as I saw him I knew he was the one and he duly came
across the water and settled in beautifully. We showed him as a yearling with
great success which ended at the breed show with him standing reserve yearling
in the NFU championships. This year he has gone from strength to strength with
some memorable wins and several championships under his belt. Most importantly
to me however is his attitude to life, he really has been a pleasure to own and
has taken everything I have thrown at him in his stride, he loves loose jumping
so hopefully he will take after his father and we'll have many more years of fun
together.
Overall placings:
1st Embla Yarrow
Heather White
2nd John Henry
Claire Bagshaw
3rd Miss By A Whisker
Jayne Roberts
4th Milady’s Pride
Lindsey Millar
5th Grin “N” Bear it
Ann Harrison
6th Embla Warden
Caroline King
7th Littlehill Flynn
Kirsty Finnie
8th Rapps Milstone
Rosemary Brown
9th Moher Diamond Hero
Janice Blakiston
10th Pride of Brumleya
Natalie Smith
11th Bannvalley Pride of Midnight Jo Aykroyd
12th Crimson Sapphire
Carole Stead
13th Buckenhill Brannigan
Louise Crowther
14th Kells Pride of Meath
Kelly Lofthouse
15th Rambling Rose
Ceri Grant-Thomas.
RID Section
1st Milady’s Pride
Lindsey Millar
2nd Grin “N” Bear it
Ann Harrison
3rd Moher Diamond Hero
Janice Blakiston
4th Bannvalley Pride of Midnight Jo Aykroyd
5th Crimson Sapphire
Carole Stead
Unaffiliated Section:
1st Miss By A Whisker
Jayne Roberts
2nd John Henry
Claire Bagshaw
3rd Milady’s Pride
Lindsey Millar
4th Embla Warden
Caroline King
5th Littlehill Flynn
Kirsty Finnie
6th Moher Diamond Hero
Janice Blakiston
In-hand Section:
1st Bannvalley Pride of Midnight Jo Aykroyd
2nd Milady’s Pride
Lindsey Millar
3rd Miss By A Whisker
Jayne Roberts
4th Littlehill Flynn
Kirsty Finnie
5th Buckenhill Brannigan
Louise Crowther
6th Embla Yarrow
Heather White
Veteran Section:
1st Embla Yarrow
Heather White
2nd Miladys Pride
Lindsey Millar
Junior:
1st Littlehill Flynn
Kirsty Finnie
