Well we have all returned from a busy few days at the NEC for what has to be our best HOYS ever,

We had a rather manic Tuesday night with a fair few to work in and then had a mad dash to get our glam rags on and over to the crown plaza for the Showing World Awards as

Buck had been

nominated for the pony personality award.

A nice early start on Wednesday morning having two Connemara’s in the first of the Mountain and Moorland sections, with Sam Roche’s Frosty Cove ridden by Sarah and Katie Bacon’s Galloon Rollover who has been here for a few weeks due to Kate having a broken arm, and despite us all keeping everything crossed that Kate would be well enough to ride Barney, sadly it was not to be this year and so Becki stepped in to take the ride on him. For both ponies it was a first visit to HOYS but they gave a good account of themselves Frosty cove finished 8^th and Galloon Rollover 10^th.

Follow up:

Next up was another HOYS First timer this was the Pennell family’s dales gelding Lowhouses Rebel, who in terms of performance has definitely been one of the most reliable ponies on the yard this season and he certainly didn’t let us down and finished a very credible 5^th in extremely good company.

From a large black hairy one to a slightly smaller black hairy one this time it was the turn of Pumphill Buckthorn who once again buck tried his little heart out and produced one of his amazing performances and was duly rewarded by being called forward into the

top 11, to say the suspense was nail biting would be an understatement by the time they had got to calling out 3^rd Sue decided she could watch no longer and was hiding behind the curtain, Parkbourn Piper was called in to 2^nd place which left 3 ponies stood on the

back line, it seamed to take a lifetime to call that one final number, but it was definitely worth the wait as Buck emerged as the winner of the Dartmoor, Exmoor & Shetland pony of the year.

With all the Working hunters still at home the original plan was to return to the yard Wednesday evening and do a swap over, now with Buck’s championship in at 7.50 weneeded to quickly think of an alternative plan to go collect them and find a stable on the showground for 2 extra ponies for the night.With that all in hand it was time to prepare for the Mountain and Moorland championship, Buck being his usual self he got rather excited by all the lights and crowd with him its definitely a case of the bigger the atmosphere the better he performs, he did a stonking gallop in the international arena and was called forward as the Champion Mountain and Moorland Pony of the year, there were lots more tears but the champagne had to be limited (well to a certain extent) as another 4am start was on the cards.

SEE WHAT THE PRESS SAID

Horse and Hound Artical

Horse Deals Artical

Equitogs Artical