After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening. I thought Diva might be tired but she strode out back to the ringside with ears pricked.
The Supreme Championships were judged on a slightly different format with three judges: Mr D Hodge (who judged my class and Standard Championship), Mr D Tarpey and Ms J Austin (neither had judged Diva before this) all standing in different parts of the ring and giving each pony forward a mark. The pony with the most marks would be Supreme Shetland Pony.
Each pony entered the ring one at a time at walk until you came to a marker, and then you trotted around the ring, passing all the judges as you did. I was the first forward and I was so pleased with how Diva trotted. I went back to walk and took her in to stand in the middle of the ring as the next pony came in. Unlike normal championships, we stood side on to the front of the ring, so when lined up each pony was nose to tail, enabling the judges to easily compare their conformation. The judges who hadn’t seen Diva in the ring so far that day asked her age, and then the tense wait for results began.
There were prizes for Supreme Champion, Reserve Supreme and Second Reserve, and the results were announced in reverse order. We did it! Diva was the Overall Supreme Shetland Pony!
I was so proud of Diva. She is such a great character and means so much more to me than just showing results, but days like this are such a boost and she so deserved it. We were given a fantastic sash and huge rosette, a rug and a bucketful of goodies, including a bottle of Prosecco and chocolates for me!
We had left home at 6am and Diva was back in her stable at 10.30pm, so a very lazy day was planned for us all the next day.
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.