[sabrina]

Yesterday Emma-Louise had her first show with Teka who came to us on loan in April. She is a 12 hand Shetland cross Highland 21 years old and a gem of a pony. Emma finished her day with a 3rd, 4th, 1st in the in-hand classes and two 5th places in the ridden. This was her first time off lead rein and I felt she did very well even if she did get in  bit of a panic when doing her little show for the judge. What I felt was not right was the older rider (( show was for 18 and ) on her very stunning 16 hand plus dressage type horse. She won the tack and turn out which was fair, Equitation 13-18 years again she rode a lovely show but when she went into the best pony club class where the kids had to do a small jump as well as a show for the judge I thought wait a minute there is no way that horse was a pony, would it do pony club games i do not think so. Emma was not in the same classes as her but I did feel for the other kids on their little ponies who were not flash but very much pony club type. Lots of the kids rode very well but the judge even picked this girl and her horse in the class pony the judge would most like to take home. At one point I thought would she be in the fancy dress class but at least she had the grace not to be and the kids were a delight to watch. When I say this horse was fancy, I would be very surprised if it cost anything less than £3000 if not more and would score very high marks in dressage so good were its paces. Parents were muttering but did not make a fuss. If she had been in the classes that Emma had been in I would have spoke up.

[ppd]

Pot Hunting me thinks! It is so annoying when people are just out to get as many prizes as they can. I often wonder where the satisfaction in that is!
A big well done to Emma-Louise for the first off lead rein show. That in itself must be worth more than anything. My 7 year old daughter has just come off lead rein too and just had PC camp where she did a lot on her own, but not quite ready for off lead at a show - but soon!
And the girl with the big flash horse is going to get a shock when she has to join the local RC and compete. Won't be so easy then!

[sabrina]

I expect you are right, she did get the trophy for the most points won. its quite sad that people do this and not fair on the other kids. Someone said she was at the Highland Show but not sure if that's true. There were quite a few proud parents, just pleased to see there kids taking part and enjoying themselves.We will be doing another fun show next month.