NPS Area 5 HOYS Qualifier 28/5.

This was our first Horse Of The Year Show qualifier together at Myerscough College. We got to the place with time to spare, which was great because it meant nobody was stressed! It also meant I had lots of time to watch some classes, warm up properly and make Dolsey look pretty.

There were 32 entered in my class, and watching a class before mine with 17 in it, that was hectic enough! There was barely any room for us all in the big indoor arena, and so instead of everyone going round together they split us in to two rides, one went round first which included me, and the other went round after us. This was still very scary! I had no room so there was no such thing as 'ring craft', I just had to try to get a space and try not to play bumper cars with the ponies in front! Dolsey has a big trot so it's even harder to keep in a space and not restrict her movement too much. We were pulled in any order, and after the other ride had done their go round, I was first out to do my individual show. It went really well, I had to keep it simple as I didn't want to risk any kind of misbehavior from Dolsey. She was great and we did a good gallop, no bucks and no napping! Our ride mark was really good, which reflected our tidy show I think.

Next was the in-hand conformation part of the class. This is the bit I absolutely dread - Dolsey turns into lazy llama camel pony, and our marks really do reflect this behavior too! It was OK, a bit better than last time but still lazy and camel-ish so we have that to work on at home. Mind you at home she runs off with me back to the stables doing a great big welsh trot, so maybe it's to do with the fact that there is no stable with food in it waiting for her at shows. Conformation marks was what i would have expected it to be, and this dragged our score down even though we had one of the best ride marks.

It was a great show - well organsied and the man on the loud speaker thing kept us all in good spirits! Far too many in my class though, so maybe next year I won't do this show even though I enjoyed it. I don't feel the ponies are done much justice when there are 30 ponies that all look the same in there!