Richard Gowing explains his choice of the winner

In a side ring a 'New Judges' competition was in progress. A class of in-hand horses were shown and 'judged' by aspirants of all ages under the guidance of the official judge, Mr Richard Gowing of Soaham. Each competitor had to assess the horses in the ring and award them marks for being true to the breed. Once their score sheets had been completed Mr Gowing judged the class himself, lining up the horses in his preferred order. He then took his group of 'new' judges along the line-up, explaining his reasoning and the horses' respective merits.

Apart from being good fun and instructional for the competitors, a class such as this has real value for shows of the future. Judges have to come from somewhere and one wonders why classes of this nature are not commonplace. They certainly should be and could be made entertaining for spectators at the same time if the official judge's comments were relayed by the P.A. Doubtless some judges will throw up their hands in horror at such a suggestion, but showing could be made much more entertaining for spectators, especially those with limited knowledge of horses at first hand. On this occasion, the top 'new judge' was 14-year-old Heather Scurrell from Dorset who beat joint runners-up Mrs Norma Bradley and Paul Smith.

Also held in the side ring was the Working Carthorse Competition. Once again I wondered why this kind of competition isn't seen more often - at least at shows which cater for working horses? A 'carter' had to hitch his horse to the cart, lead it through obstacles, load the cart, open and close a 'gate' (where the horse had to stand when unattended), back the horse into a narrow opening, unload the cart and finally unhitch it. A simple test, but one that showed clearly how well the horse had been trained to do one of the jobs for which it had been bred.

NOT the Pony Club games!

It has to be said that rather less skill was displayed in the Gymkhana events - by some parties at least! A highly entertaining way to round off the afternoon, it was fun to see these horses ridden bareback in traditional gymkhana events such as bending and sack races - although it has to be admitted that there did seem to be a high level of cheating, not to mention some very out of breath handlers. Pony Club members may not be lining up to swap their lightning quick ponies for Suffolk Punches but for sheer entertainment value the latter may have the edge!

A lovely afternoon concluded with the aforementioned Grand Parade. Let's hope that in a generation from now it will still be possible to fill a ring with these horses. They are a living part of our national heritage and as such deserve to be cherished and preserved for the enjoyment of all.

A superb Stallion in the Grand Parade	.....many youngsters took part