RHS: Horse numbers down but still a force to be reckoned with

But were the classes in the light horse section the biggest and best we've seen at Ingliston? I don't think so – the current economic climate and a fall-out from Covid put paid to that.

However, there were still good entries, enough to entertain the crowds as well as satisfy the record books with some excellent champions appearing on all four days of the show. Better still, the weather was exceptionally kind to the show most of the time, with only Friday's native workers feeling the brunt of the downpours.

On Friday afternoon, the sun shone for the qualifier for the prestigious Price Family Supreme In-hand Championship at the Horse of the Year Show, in Birmingham, in October. Nigel Hollings brought his knowledge and experience to bear on proceedings as a broad spectrum of section champions from the first two days of judging gathered in the main ring at lunch-time.

His final selections came from the plaited classes, vastly contrasting in size and type and furthermore having travelled from different ends of Britain to compete. All the way from Essex, the championship and qualifying ticket went to Lisha Leeman's quality riding pony colt, Roseberry The Politician, a black free-moving son of the popular sire, Alonby Chardonnier.

Shown and produced by Mrs Leeman's son-in-law, Fraser Lee Atherton, the quality colt has been purchased for stud duties at the family's small stud from which they also produce top class ridden horses. Most certainly, he will be one to follow.

So, too, will be that of the reserve champion, James Munro and Russell Skelton's grey three-year-old from Caithness, James' Future, a huge rangy middleweight hunter sourced for them as a raw recruit in Ireland earlier this year by PJ Casey, in Ireland. Very much the stamp of his Irish draught origins, it will be interesting to see how he matures under his owners' careful guidance. Given that they also sourced the winners of three other class winners at the Highland, if anyone can make something of him it will be them.

Runner up to him in the hunter in-hand section was a two-year-old pure-bred Irish draught colt, Jodie Jackson's Ocean's Victory, which has been purchased to cross with thoroughbred mares at her stud in Dumfries-shire. They came from a depleted section where both numbers and quality were disappointing.

The lovely big quality hunter types showing a thoroughbred influence, which have dominated in the past, were few and far between, although Lynne Reid's home-bred yearling winner, Lynnbank King of the North, showed more than most and looked a likely contender for the weight divisions.

It was obvious that Irish draught bloodlines are currently popular within hunter breeding circles possibly in a bid to bring a bit more bone and substance into the type. However, I suspect that it will take a bit of prudent crossing to raise the standard and perhaps the Sports Horse section might provide the answer.

Another type and not a traditional breed, the improved entry there reflected the various bloodlines selected to breed competition horses, which also conform to acknowledged standards of conformation and movement. There was a good line-up in the championship, which was led by Billy Moran's extensive county show winner, Lisbroughan Tiger Billie, a quality bay three year old event type by Tiger Attack.

Twice runner-up in Price Family In-Hand qualifiers in Ireland and a recent champion at Nottingham and Northumberland County shows, she comes from a great performance family bred by Tom Conlon, from Co Mayo, who was on hand to enjoy her success.

Reserve champion to the filly was one of the stand-out exhibits, a striking dark bay yearling from the Munro/Skelton yard. A real contender for riding horse classes in the future, Ashleas The Banker was bought as a foal from his breeder, Ashley Anderson, who is breeding some outstanding stock in Caithness from her coloured stallion, Freckleton Untouchable.

By chance it was the champion of the coloured horses and ponies section that also caught my eye at the show. This was Wendy McArdle's Future Guilty Liaison, a quality filly with a real future beckoning in the ridden classes and beautifully produced by Kirstine Douglas, from Castle Douglas. This was her first show since winning at the Great Yorkshire and her first outing since judged 'Regional future event' champion at the Elite Foals Registration Tour.

Kirstine also had a good win in the heavy weight ridden show cob class with Morean Hamilton's bay, Morrow's Highwayman, which claimed his ticket for HOYS as well as standing reserve champion on his last appearance at Ingliston when he stood second in the HOYS qualifier at the Scottish Horse Show.

Taking the section championship and a HOYS qualification was the Irish-bred lightweight winner, Whitegate Dazzler, a regular HOYS contender owned by Sue Benson and ridden by Anne Gilliver.

Heading a lightly contested ridden hunter section was Olivia Edmonson, from Manchester, with her elegant bay lightweight, Double Mocha, which earlier in the day had also taken the ladies' side-saddle class. The pair won the ladies' class and HOYS qualification at Staffordshire County earlier in the month.

This one is very interestingly bred as he is by Willowcroft Regal Bronze, a big, free-moving pony stallion imported from Australia to the Stanley Grange Stud.

In a change to form, it was the winning working hunter which was called forward to stand overall hunter reserve for the John McMurchie Memorial Challenge Cup. This was Vicky Tennant's gelding, Bold Adventure, only one of two clear rounds over a testing course in the all weather arena ridden by Allan Birch, who also competes in show jumping competitions with the impressive bay.

Success had gone Scotland's way earlier in the hunter section when Richard Telford rode Cheryl McVay's Bullseye The One to claim the middleweight class, a ticket for HOYS and reserve championship in the weights.

That was on the first day of competition and it was on the last, again in the main ring, that he went one better to stand champion this time in the coloured horse and pony ridden section with Lindsay McCulloch's beautiful piebald mare, Wot Perfection. Already qualified for the Royal International Horse Show at Netherton and riding horse champion at Ayr, this mare also competes successfully in dressage competition with her owner.

So many of our Scottish professional riders come to the fore at the big events and it was from Netherton that Kirsty Aird produces a wide variety of mounts ranging from show jumpers to Mountain and Moorlands both on the flat and over jumps.

It came as no surprise then that she pulled out all the stops once more when she won a huge 143cms M and M working hunter class in appalling weather conditions with Cheryl MacIntosh's Connemara, Woodbank Smokey Sam. He returns to HOYS in 2022 having won there in 2018 the year before he went champion at the RIHS in 2019.

He was headed in the championship to the well-bred Dartmoor, Pumphill Rasputin, a big winner on the flat over the years but now moved over to the workers, ridden by Aliya Khan but owned by Leah Cassells, from Lancashire.

Aliya made it a unique double for Lancashire when she also led the popular ridden M and M section with Claire Connor's diminutive Shetland stallion, Latijn VD Helling. Bred in Holland, he was purchased at the Dutch Shetland grading show as a two-year-old with ridden classes and stud duties in mind for her Acredale Stud – this is his first season under saddle.

Standing reserve and qualifying for HOYS on his first outing this year was the seasoned winner and former Olympia champion, Lynuck The Showman, a Welsh Section C owned by Lynn Scott and ridden by Becky Penny, who was recording her 18th win at the Royal Highland. Always the bridesmaid here, she will just have to wait until next year to claim one of the coveted blue Royal Bank of Scotland sashes which go to the section champions.

The large M and M classes didn't deter Scottish successes in HOYS qualifiers, with home producers leading the way especially in the junior ridden class. Both qualifying tickets went to the two class winners, the first to Natasha Connor – riding Myranda Houton's free-going Welsh Section B, Cadlanvalley Buzzyears – which also stood reserve champion.

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Still only a five-year-old, his consistent performances belie his age and his recent travelling up and down the country, all made worthwhile having already gained his open ticket for HOYS at Lincoln a few days before. Second to him was the reigning HOYS junior champion, Lexi Brash riding Wellbank Gabriel, which secured his journey to HOYS by winning the new HOYS junior native WHP class.

The second of the junior ridden HOYS tickets went to another great performer, the Highland pony, Mozart of Millfields, ridden to win by Morgan Mclaughlan for Elizabeth Hamilton, from North Ayrshire. In a strange change of fortune, it was class runner-up, Hightopps Bridesmaid that took the championship for Annie Hutchin. Nevertheless, spirits in the Mozart camp weren't dampened for long as a delighted Elizabeth rode him to claim another HOYS ticket when she led the ridden Highland class.

Ayrshire also saw success coming its way in the shape of Dunedin Mascot, the hugely successful nine-year-old Highland gelding belonging to Jane McNaught and professionally produced and ridden by Katie Common, from Ross Shire.

He is no stranger to HOYS and will go again this year having gained his ticket at the NPS Scotland Summer Show, where he also took the championship. He had some stiff opposition in the section for Highland ponies under saddle and had a worthy reserve in another pony going to the HOYS finals, Chris Grant's Dunedin McSporran, which made it a double for Anne Mitchell's Dunedin Stud and a double for their sire, Dunedin Marksman.

It was also in the main ring that we saw another double for Ayrshire when Archie Nicoll stood top of the first ridden M and M class with his aunt Zoe's Welsh A gelding, Pinewell Wanaroo. Bred at Auchterarder by Kirsty Miller, this will be the first time at HOYS for Archie who follows in the family footsteps under the leadership of the matriarch of the family, grandmother, Mary.

Success kept on coming for the West of Scotland when Caitlin Galbraith Roberts took ponies for the show hunter pony classes with a win in the intermediate class with the true hunter type, JST Silvermist, one of the 'finds' from Munro and Skelton and ridden at Ingliston by Erin Grier.

It was another from Leah Cassells that took the 153cm class and reserve here, while the champion came in the form of the smallest winner, the 122cm Welsh gelding, Vanessa Anders' Islay Walton Gold.

In the all weather arena, working hunter ponies took centre-stage between the top class show jumping at the Royal Highland. Although numbers continue to drop in the classes, some impressive performances were on view and some top class ponies coming to the top.

Best of them was seasoned campaigner and one of Scotland's leading jockeys from an early age, Zara Weir, riding her intermediate winner, Deloughtane Rockstar. Show jumping bred and another found in Ireland by the Munro/Skelton team and shown by them in riding horse class as a introduction to competition work, Rockstar made little of the course which caught out most of the contestants. This good-looking gelding, which also events, looked the part of a worthy champion.

The 153cm winner in this section was particularly interesting as the Connemara-bred mare, Mia, was ridden by the current leading lady point-to-point rider in the North, Nicola Brown, from the Borders. They missed out for the reserve championship ticket when the 143cm winner, Colourvlle Viva Las Vegas, was called forward, much to his delighted connections from Renfrewshire.

This 16-year-old skewbald seasoned performer, already qualified for the RIHS, heads to HOYS for the first time in his career for owner, Ellie O'Donnell and new rider, Zara Bainbridge.

Having started with the Price Family In hand Qualifier for HOYS, it would be remiss not to return to the in-hand classes which played their part to fill the rings and provide good competition in all sections.

The mixed native breeds in their section were thin on the ground, however they had an attractively marked dark dapple grey four-year-old Fell stallion to take the tricolour. Bred on the Cumbrian Fells with a real pony stamp, Drybarrows Dynasty has the looks of his sire, the former champion at the Royal Highland, Carrick I'm Your Man, whose owner, Alastair Smith, showed Dynasty for his owner, David Thompson. He's already taken the top slots at the breed show and added the Ingliston title this time.

Sadly, Connemara numbers suffered a bit on the day, however one of the season's leading ponies, Wannie Flint, reserve supreme at the Scottish Connemara Breed Show, gave his owner, Lauren Cohen, an exciting championship win here. More regularly seen in the ridden classes with Lauren, he will head for the Blair Finals, in August, having also qualified at the breed show.

All four Welsh breeds were out in force, with strong competition particularly among the Welsh cobs (Section D). The MacNeal family, from Co Durham, are regulars at Highland, so the championship and President's Medal, along with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society Medal had a special meaning when their young stallion, Maesymor Crespo, was asked to stand forward to collect them. The image of his sire, Kylebeck Crespo, he was purchased from South Wales for home-bred mares.

The Costello family, from Lancashire, are also well-known to breeders in the North of England and famed for their Welsh Section C, the pony of cob type. Their champion home-bred mare, Bluehaven Little Miss Perfect, lived up to her name leaning more to the pony model as do all their Sec Cs. This sweet, pretty-headed young mare moved well and surely one to follow as she matures.

The same could be said for the champion among the Welsh Section Bs but for different reasons. This was the Waxwing Stud's Ayr Show supreme, the five-year-old Waxwing Perlena, by Eyarth Beau Geste. Her next move will be to the ridden classes where she will compete before returning to the stud for breeding duties later.

Hopefully, she will follow in the footsteps of her full brother, Waxwing Persia, which has already claimed his ticket for the ridden finals at HOYS.

It was a case of greys heading the Section A section as well, with the stallion, Tamevalley Tom, handled by Josh Hampson, taking the top slot ahead of the class second, Andrew Shaw's Islyn Maverick, in reserve.

An improvement in numbers was witnessed in the pony breeding section so it was fortuitous that the HOYS in hand ticket went to the champion there, Roseberry The Politician, which is bred from the best of ridden show ponies; as was the winner of the Arab and part-bred Arab in hand section, Charlie Cousens' Colonel Mustard, whose dam was a champion ridden show pony for the family.

Now backed and ready to contest ridden classes, Colonel Mustard has already been to HOYS having qualified for the Price Family In Hand Finals last year, here at Ingliston at the Royal Highland Showcase.

Impossible in a report like this to cover all classes and sections, but the final word has to go to the hard-working people who make the Royal Highland Show the success it is and hopefully will continue to be.

From the board members of RHASS, who are responsible to the members, the society employees whose job it is to make it happen and to the many volunteers who help ensure that it does every day – the showing fraternity owe them all a great debt of gratitude.