Royal Highland Show Report - 21st June 2008

I am pleased to say that normal services were resumed this year at the Royal Highland, we were back in our normal ring and it was great to see all the turnouts being able to move and show of their paces unlike last year when we were put in the goat ring not very classy but we shall not dwell on that, we were also lucky to have better weather than last year… well for most of the driving classes unfortunately those that were in the championship did not fair as well.

There was a slight drop in entrants this year; I put this down to last year’s events at the show, however it was lovely to see competitors from far a field supporting the show.

The first class of the afternoon was the Hackney horse or pony in harness class, which was won by Grieselda MacDonald driving her lovely Hackney pony Gillcrest Sir James.

Following on from the Hackney class was the relatively new Private Driving Singles class for heavy, draught horses in single harness, it is always a wonderful sight to see these gentle giants in private vehicles rather than drays that most people associate them with this class was well supported and was won by Ruth Skinner driving Jake.

The multiples class saw a drop in numbers this year but it was wonderful to see Jo Tonkinson from Shetland driving her lovely tandem of Shetlands Ramnaberg Andy & Charlie, these two were driven as a pair at last years show so it was wonderful to see Jo driving them in tandem. They have only been in tandem for a little while but went very well for Jo.

The Private Driving class was another big class of the day and was won by John Dobson driving St Helens Regency Katie. The Shetland class sadly another class to see a slight drop in entries this year was won by Elma Ball Driving her lovely Shetland Roose of Thanet, the final driving class of the afternoon was the Highland pony class which was won by Audrey Barron driving her lovely grey Highland pony Kincardine Bluebell.

It was fantastic to see so many turnouts at this years show and what was even better was for the first time in many years the Private Driving Championships were held in the main arena a fantastic arena to showcase our brilliant sport, with all first and second place winners in the main arena it was an exquisite sight for the spectators.

Liz Russell our Judge found her overall champion and HOYS qualifier in John Dobson’s St Helens Regency Katie, well worth the trip north for John and reserve went to Grieselda MacDonald’s wonderful Hackney pony Gillcrest Sir James.

Congratulations to all winners and we hope to see you all again for next years Royal Highland.