Out of your Dreams.....Into your Life
 
Welcome to Irish Draught Horse Society (GB)
Wednesday, March 10 2010 @ 12:13 AM GMT

IDHS(GB) Performance Awards Scheme

The Performance Awards scheme was introduced around 1993 and very kindly set-up by Mrs Cook. The objectives of the Performance Award Scheme are to encourage and reward the performance capabilities of the Irish Draught horse, both pure and part-bred. The importance of versatility is recognised and it is hoped that the wide range of events and classes will encourage even the single horse owner to take part.

The competition has awards, in the form of rosettes and trophies, for Unaffiliated, Junior, Pure Bred and Overall Champion. All competitors who gain over 300 points will receive a rosette and an achievement card. Points can be gained in a variety of disciplines, ranging from showing, show-jumping, dressage, long distance and hunter trials to name but a few, affiliated and un-affiliated sections are catered for also. The aforementioned disciplines can be ridden astride or side saddle.

In 2007 In-Hand, Loose Jumping, Le Trec and Jump Cross were added to the points system, as-well as a special award for the most points gained In-Hand. At just £10 (£5 for Juniors, i.e. up to 18 years), and £15 for non-members,  it does encourage the average rider or competitor to get out with their Irish Draughts and show everyone just how versatile they are. The 'Rules & Conditions for the Irish Draught Horse Society Performance Awards' can be viewed below.

Rules & Conditions for the IDHS (GB) Performance Awards - HERE
Download Entry Form or Rules - Downloads
/Forms - here
Online Entry Form - here

December 2009
The Irish Draught Horse Society in line with other breed societies award schemes, have brought in a new ruling for 2009/10 Performance Awards Scheme that the 2008/09 year’s winner cannot compete in the SECTION that they won. However, they can still enter and compete in other categories; the ruling was brought in to encourage new faces to compete. Previous winners will be eligible to compete again in 2010/11 in the category that they have previously won.

All current competitors would have received a letter notifying them of this in October. Entries now being taken for the 2009/10 season. Anybody wishing to speak to Liz regarding the changes please call her in the evening (before 9.30pm) or at weekends on 01432 353468.

 

Performance Awards 2008/09 Winners

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

 

View 'Performance Awards' Media Gallery
 View 2007-08 Results

For entry forms, further information regarding the Performance Award Scheme or just a chat, contact Liz Langford on 01432 353468 (evenings).


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