The 104th Liskeard Show took place today 14th July 2007 at Merrymeet, between Callington and Liskard in Cornwall. We were blessed by clear skies but the ground was very heavy underfoot and the entrance to the parking field for horse boxes was a mud bath.
The local farmers did a splendid job towing what seemed to be every second vehicle through the mud and out onto a clear field – at least it was clear to begin with! The knock on effect was that the Classes were delayed by 45minutes but this was great as it gave everyone a bit of extra time to get ready.
The Liskeard Show has been likened to a mini Royal Cornwall and there were plenty of Classes including Riding Ponies, Show Ponies, Show Hunter Pony, Pony Club Pony, Working Hunter Pony, Spotted Pony and Shetland Pony.
We were Showing in the Mountain & Moorland Lead Rein Class with our Welsh B. If you are not familiar with this Class it is open to ponies fully registered with one of the Native Pony Breed Societies (excluding Shetlands who have their own class). This show is a qualifier for the Native Pony Association of Cornwall Champion of Champions 2007 event later in the year.
Competition was tough as this was clearly a step above the local shows and it was fantastic to see so many professionally turned out Native Ponies- not to mention mums, dads & daughters! As an example, there were 9 ponies in the ring for the Lead Rein Class both ponies & riders must be aged 4yrs or over. Ponies are led and an individual show must be performed consisting of a walk and trot on both reins this is carried out in a figure of eight sequence.
There were 6 further Mountain & Moorland Classes and the Native Pony Association of Cornwall was awarding qualifying cards for the Champion of Champions 2007 in some of the classes. This appeared to be a very busy Class today.
Elsewhere there seemed to be a great turnout in both Ridden and Lead Rein classes and notwithstanding the mud on the way in to the event. I’m sure the Liskeard Show website will publish the results.
As usual I was taking as many photos as I could of the Miniature Pony, Shetland Pony , Mountain & Moorland & Pony Classes in general so please come to the website www.theponytackshop.co.uk and see if we have any of you.
Please look out for my piece on buying second hand horse and pony trailers so if you are trying to get one in the second hand market you can benefit from the hard lessons we have learned.
You can learn more about us and see our photos at www.theponytackshop.co.uk
