Two small ponies stole the show at this year’s British Show Pony Society Winter Championships at Solihull, carrying off the event’s major supreme awards.
On day one, six-year-old Alexandra Hollings claimed a notable double, taking the Royal International mini championship on the four-year-old Trevaylor Tiger Lily, before going on to stand overall winter Heritage supreme with her ever dependable Dartmoor lead-rein partner, Dykes Rosie Mead, the Heritage mini champion.
Dykes Rosie Mead, a former Kingsford winner at Ponies (UK), has notched up two championships from three outings this term, but it was only the third-ever outing under saddle for Mrs Stanleick’s home-bred Tiger Lily, who is by Ardenhall Missioni, a son of the Hollings’s own stallion, Lechlade Quince.
The strength of mini competitors continued on the second day, when Sue Nicklin’s first ridden contender and winter mini champion, Netherfield Neopolitan, carried Victoria Oakes to the day’s top spot of supreme winter champion with a foot-perfect show, despite a tense atmosphere.
The little grey, by Sunwillow Kitzbul, was not gelded until he was six and came direct from his breeder, Faith Duffin. Originally the ride of Sue’s great-niece, Zoe Love, he qualified for the Horse of the Year Show and RIHS as a show hunter pony last year.
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