Online show an alternative to hitting the road with foals
IT’S the time of year that foal shows pop up all over the country.
They are usually held in local areas because carting babies long distances is hard on them and those looking after them.
To counter this, the organiser of the Mountain and Moorland and Native Ponies of Australia Facebook group, Karen Parrish, came up with the idea of holding an online foal show so that people from anywhere could have their babies judged by a respected overseas judge but the foals could be photographed at home or at any of the other foal shows from this season.
The judge for this year’s online show was British breeder Sue Cambage, who founded the Roecliffe Stud in the 1980s, and has bred and shown hunters, Dartmoors and a few Connemaras.
It is not the first time she has judged in Australia.
“In 2002 I had the pleasure to be invited to judge the Dartmoor Breed Show in Queensland,” Ms Cambage said.
“With my friend and fellow breeder of Dartmoors, Maragret Saunders of the Whinberry Stud, we enjoyed judging some very good ponies.”
For the online show, breeders took to their paddocks with cameras in hand, some, with excellent results. Others, chasing uncooperative foals in circles in muddy paddocks, or having inquisitive foals shoving their fuzzy faces into the camera lens, gave up, laughing that they would be better prepared next year.
All said, an amazing 127 entries arrived from Australia and New Zealand.
The Mountain and Moorland breeders are a quiet lot. It’s not until they pop up in a show like this that you realise how many different breeds there are, from Fells to Dartmoor, and they are spread right around the country and in New Zealand.
The Shetland Ponies were very strong, and the champion, Rosewood Park Eva, bred by Sally Centrone, and the Reserve, Chesapeake Park Brandy Snaps, bred by Jane and Rebecca Gerber, will make outstanding saddle ponies.
Welsh Cobs are being recognized not just for themselves but as the base for good performance horses, and the two winners, Jessica Lee’s Hillswood Lilliebet and Catherine Ashdown’s aptly named Glengarry So Handsome are lovely true-to-type youngsters.
The Highland champion, Rosemarkie Swift, has a truly royal pedigree and lives up to it. Breeder Susan Jarman can be proud of her.
The Connemara champion, the Howe Family’s Nawarrah Park Giorgio is a lovely type, and it was great to see Raylene Steptoe of Raycroft Stud show the champion Dale Pony, Raycroft Briseis Bliss.
The winning Dartmoor Pony was from New Zealand, an unnamed foal from Shilstone Rocks Stud.
The winning Welsh pony was Warrenavepark Jezabel shown by Linda Monaghan.
In the part bred classes, the winners were: Highland, Dalisay Lane Maisey Grace bred by Louane Burnett; Welsh, Mahogany Park Sequel; Connemara, Greenacres Brilliance bred by Lyndie Panitz; and New Forest, an un-named filly bred by Pippa Warman.
GALLERY
Click on any image to view in full.
ABOVE: 1. First placed Connemara filly Dunmurry Philomena by Exmoor Orion out of Glenormiston Dunlaith. (Owner/breeder Di Watt.) 2. Champion Dales Raycroft Briseis Bliss, owned and bred by Raylene Steptoe of Raycroft Stud. Sire: Hett Samson (UK), dam Castledales Boudicea (Imp UK). 3. First Welsh Section C or D colt Glengarry So Handsome by Glengarry Legend out of Kenda Park Lyric. Owned and bred by Catherine Ashdown. 4. Champion Shetland Rosewood Park Eva by Daniel Park Beswick out of Torrieburn Hibiscus. Owned and bred by Sally Centrone. 5. Supreme part-bred Mountain and Moorland Wynara Royal Sovereign by Wynara Royal Paddington by Shez a Shark. Owned by Simone Padoin. 6. Champion Dartmoor Shilstone Rocks Sweet Rain by Shilstone Rocks Mountain Man out of Shilstone Rocks Sugar Snap. Owned and bred by Shilstone Rocks Stud (NZ). 7. First Part Welsh Fillies Mahogany Park Sequel by Fairlight Acres Kassa out of Fairlight Acres Star Shine. 8. Supreme Purebred Mountain and Moorland Warrenavepark Jezabel by Imperial Arran out of Imperial Jazmine. Breeder Linda Monaghan.
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