The most magical edition

A breeder's first to get home-bred to HOYS lifts the ultimate native accolade, while Welsh ponies keep their knees up to dominate over fences

- ALEX ROBINSON

A HOME-BRED New Forest stallion dazzled on his first Birmingham appearance to lift the National Pony Society/ Baileys Horse Feeds mountain and moorland (M&M) ridden pony of the year championship.

Judges Alex Kelly (performance) and Antony Bell (conformation) had the unenviable task of sorting the 11 quality-filled classes held across two days.

Alex, who has ridden at HOYS many times, set a show that focused on the ponies’ trot.

“I asked each combination to walk away and trot back, and for them to trot right across the diagonal, to see if they were balanced and anticipating the transitions,” she explained. “I also wanted to see enough of the walk.”

Alex added: “Each of our winners was a naturally balanced athlete. The standard of turnout was also impressive; it’s obvious that riders and their prep teams put a huge amount of work in.”

The final championship had all 12 breeds represented by the 22 contenders. But it was the eventual champion, Andrew Vine and Laura House’s homebred seven-year-old Vynnes Magical Edition, who shone the brightest under the spotlights, despite having only contested a handful of ridden shows.

“Mr Ed”, who is by Applewitch Pure Magic out of Brookshill Blackberry, was the first Vynnes pony to compete at HOYS, and his producer/rider, Pip Smith, was also marking her best-ever result here.

Pip and Mr Ed, a former breed show in-hand champion, had come over from the Isle of Wight to compete.

“We knew we had a nice pony on our hands, but this was so unexpected,” said Pip. “We don’t do too much with him as he doesn’t like too much pressure. HOYS is only his third show of the year.”