Opinion
This was my first visit to Pony of the Year Show (POYS) and I think it’s brilliant for the kids — there are plenty of classes at all levels and the little ones can watch and learn from those in the big classes. My daughter Maisie avidly watched the JA grand prix.
The facilities are a bit higgledy-piggledy but good — a nice bar and rings — but the best thing by far is the Easter egg hunt; I’ve never seen anything like it, all the kids racing around the arena. My two, Maisie and George, had a great time, the right kind of show for a family. Maisie had wanted to go to the Spanish Sunshine Tour but she would have missed too much school, so I promised to bring her here instead with two ponies.
You can’t help the weather. We were parked in the mud but the show is what you make it — I’ve just spent five weeks in Spain and it rained almost every day. The mums and dads are ready to go home but the kids have had a great time.
We live in France so we tied in the visit with visiting family and picking up horses, but my four-day holiday was over quickly and it’s back to work for me competing in Moorsele, Belgium. It was good to see my dad, who came up from Kent. However, he missed the turning into the show and ended up at the nearby prison. He’s been trying to keep out of prison all of his life — he didn’t want to drive in voluntarily!
Ref Horse & Hound; 12 April 2018