As previously mentioned in the blog posts, I am suffering from the Shetland Pony Effect to the extent that my first holiday since 2010 was to the Shetland Isles, my pony Diva’s ancestral home.
The catalyst for this decision was that the Shetland Pony Stud-Book Society was holding its annual breed show on the island for the first time in ten years. Whilst attending the show was obviously a big draw, my sister and I planned to explore the island too.
We decided not to take our ponies as we faced an eight-hour road journey to Aberdeen and then a twelve-hour ferry crossing to Shetland. NorthLink Ferries, who were sponsoring the breed show, generously gave out a discount code for the trip so we opted for a cabin with a window to ensure we had a comfortable crossing.
Thankfully the crossing was fairly calm and we arrived in Lerwick, Shetland’s capital, at 7am before making the final part of the journey to the town of Scalloway approximately five miles away. We’d chosen a self-catering chalet for the greater independence and space it provided, and we chose well. Perched on the hill above the town, the view was amazing. On the way there we had our first sighting of Shetland ponies on Shetland!
We visited several studs whilst there, Merkisayre, Robin’s Brae—who had a standard dun/buckskin and white colt I would have happily kidnapped back to the mainland if I had had the chance—Grutness & Laaward, and Bigton. All gave a lovely welcome and showed us some wonderful ponies in truly beautiful settings.
We also got to see puffins at Sumburgh Head at the very southern end of the main island. What wonderful little birds they are and I could have spent hours watching them flying, waddling about and going into their burrows.
My next blog will cover the breed show itself, which was held on the hottest Shetland day in ten years.
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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.