Conquistador VII - The inhand winner

The classes for pure and part bred Spanish and Lusitano horses at the Royal Windsor Horse Show were the first major outing for many of the exhibitors this year. The ridden classes were especially well supported and the organisers have obviously realised the error of their ways in putting such 'crowd pleasers' on too early in the day (as happened in 1993). When moved to late morning and afternoon slots they did indeed attract tremendous crowd support and this show in now one of the major 'showcases' for Iberian horses in the UK Some Spanish visitors standing close by were agreeably surprised by the numbers and quality of the horses on display in the ridden classes. Perhaps the time when not all the best Iberian horses are to be found in Spain or Portugal is not so very far away after all......

The classes began with the Spanish 'Andalusian' pure and part bred horses in hand. The judge for all the Spanish horse classes was the renowned judge and author, Sr Juan Llamas and it has to be said that the judging proved to be somewhat idiosyncratic to say the least.

Sr Llames watches 'Danes Doncella' in her private show

If you had blinked you would certainly have missed the in hand classes. Having seen the horses preparing to come into the ring, the spectators went to get themselves a seat in the grandstand only to find themselves staring at an empty ring with a 20 minute, quite unscheduled, 'interval'! The horses had walked into the ring and after only one circuit trotted up in front of the judge - somewhat unceremoniously handed their rosettes and then 'dismissed'. It was quite extraordinary and whilst the show organisers had in previous years not always given every individual a chance to give a private show in the very large classes, this year they could not be faulted. Two judges were called upon where numbers dictated The Winner seemed almost incidental but the grey stallion Conquistador VII was Sr Llamas' selection......

Sr Llamas is not a stranger to judging in the UK so this somewhat farcical performance still remains something to a mystery. Presumably with relatively few entries which probably consisted of horses already known to him, it was easy for him to come to come to a very sudden decision. He had perhaps failed to appreciate that no horse show exists for the judge 's benefit, but to give exhibitors an opportunity to show off their horses, and above all for spectators to have a chance to enjoy seeing them. Without spectators there would be no horse show in the first place, thus entertainment must always be a high priority.

It was fairly obvious that someone had pointed this out to Sr. Llamas because when called upon to judge the ridden classes, an amazing change of policy was in evidence! In fact in the ridden class, English style the competitors were kept moving around the perimeter of the ring for such a long time that it seemed a winner was to be chosen without the horses being brought into line at all. All the time horses were not allowed to change their position in the sequence of exhibitors and this did cause some of them difficulties. Dale Lassetter for one had difficulty in maintaining a canter of any kind behind another extremely collected horse. To everyone's relief a line up was called and we had the opportunity to see each horse perform individually. Perhaps Sr. Llamas was enjoying sane kind of private joke? It was at least highly entertaining and caused more comment than the result of the class as we all waited with baited breath to see what would , or wouldn't , come next....

In fact there was a high quality turn out for this class and last year's winner Miss J. Coodall 's Fetiche VI finished only fourth behind Danes Ibncella, Conquistador VII (the in hand winner) and Carina. Danes Ibncella was ridden by Deirdre Cowan and really goes consistently well in the ring. Last year she was Champion at Chertsey and indeed finished reserve in the Open Horse Riding Championship against the winners from all the various ridden winners at the show) and will undoubtedly help convert the as yet 'uncommitted' to this breed. Surely anyone would be pleased to own such a lovely mare? Bearing in mind though that the Spanish never ride mares it was just a little surprising that she was chosen by a Spanish judge in preference to stallions.

AMoroso XXVIII

The ridden class Spanish style was a much more uneventful affair with the winner being the dark grey stallion Amoroso XXVIII ridden by Mrs Barham. He had to show himself at this best to beat dale Lassetter on Fetuche who in fact had finished in front of him in the English style ridden class.......

There were no in hand classes for the pure or part bred Lusitanos but again the ridden classes were well filled. The judge was Dr A.R.B. Paes and in the English style class he had 14 entries to assess. He chose last year 's winner, the 7 year old grey gelding Lucca ridden by Diane Thurman- Baker. In second place was Jogosto , another grey gelding, ridden by the Hon. Lucinda Wynn. Lucca was bred by the Turville Valley Stud being by their stallion Diabo - and what an excellent advertisement for his sire he is! Lucca was beautifully produced and ridden showing a perfect temperament and lovely paces. Since he is still only 7 years old he must have many other championships ahead of him.

"Lucca" & Diane Thurman - Baker

Lucca swept the hoard at Windsor taking the ridden class Portuguese style into the bargain, where the striking grey stallion, Jardineiro ridden by Sherene Pabmatallali was placed second. Her daughter looked extremely elegant riding side saddle on Caju who had won this class the previous year. The golden dun stallion Embucado was 3rd and Hilary Linnet's dapple grey Juno was in 4th place. That a horse of his quality should finish fourth indicates what a high overall standard there was at this show.

Juno has been competing very successfully in dressage competitions and Hilary is planning the hold move of taking the horse back to Portugal to compete in the dressage at the Lisbon show.

"Caju"

She is believed to be the first person to take a horse back to compete in Portugal's major show and whatever results she achieves there she is to be commended for showing such initiative and we wish her the best of luck!