Polnoon WH/Sports Horse show write up - SNE

The sun shone down on Greenfields Of Avondale on Sunday the 29th of July as the competitors started to arrive for the Polnoon Castle Riders Working Hunter/Sports Horse show.  This was the second year that the show has been held at this venue and it has received excellent turnout and support as well as very positive comments from both judges and competitors.  The great mixture of classes as well as the meticulously prepared rings with dressed fences contributed to the atmosphere of the day. 

The morning saw the main ring host its Intermediate and Open Working Hunter classes with the later being the Blair qualifier which had a prize pot of £100 under the watchful eye of Lynell Sheridan who had the judges post for the day.  This years lucky winner that walked away with the £50 first prize was Dawn Shaw ridding ‘Banders’, second place went to Heather Donaldson on ‘Sterre’.  This was the first Working Hunter class that Heather had competed in as her main pursuit is Showjumping but has said that she cannot wait to go to the final at Blair. 

In the afternoon after some rearranging of fences, mainly to remove the brightly coloured balls from the water tray and the life sized colourful farm animals away from under the fences, the Novice/Novice workers, won by Marion Garland on the 16year old bay mare ‘Super Sandy’ and then the Novice workers won by Jean Thompson on ‘Millie’ took their turn.

Down in the Ridden ring saw the Sports Horse classes in the morning under the expert eye of Hugh McMahon who scored each class using the correct sports horse method.  His 4-5year old winner was Roxanne McNeill with ’Busy Boy’ followed closely by Trish Hunter on the chestnut gelding ‘Craigloch Fernando’.  The mature sports horses followed suite.

After the sports horses were finished the hunter classes were held, split into weights and expertly judged by Jane Belding (Ridden) and Chris Bar (Confirmation).  The winner of the Lightweights was Nicola Stevenson riding the grey ‘Rioja’ and the Middle/Heavy weights was Marion Garland again with ‘Super Sandy’ scooping her second red rosette of the show.

The third ring, a jumping ring, held the second Blair qualifier of the day which was the newly named Style Jumping.  Judge by Sheila Mckechnie.  Her first placed horse and rider combination was Kirstie MacGillvery riding ‘Irish Malarkey’ who will already be at Blair taking part in the one star event.

The last classes of the day were the ring championships and supreme champion… Hunter champion was given to Nicola Stevenson on ‘Rioja’ and the Workers went to Marion Garland with ‘Super Sandy’.  After a great amount of deliberation and discussion between all the judges the supreme show champion was given to Marion Garland on the very aptly named ‘Super Sandy’.

Polnoon would just like to take this opportunity to thank all the helpers, stewards, judges, course builders, sponsors and competitors that showed their support for this show before, during and after as without this help there would be no show.

Thanks again and hope to see you all again next year!!

Click here for full results
See all the pictures from the show at www.ecossedigitalimaging.com