With Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) qualifiers done and dusted, those who are fortunate enough to have collected their golden ticket to Birmingham’s NEC this season are well underway with the HOYS prep.
It feels like yesterday that we were heading to Onley for the first Royal International Horse Show (RIHS) qualifiers of the season and now we just have the big one left.
It has been a bit of a different season for me doing a lot of freelance plaiting and turn out at shows rather than full days show grooming. However, it has been nice to have the freedom of working like that.
I’ve also loved helping Izzy with her beautiful 12.2 show pony Annie for the second half of the season.
Nerves struck
The final Stoneleigh show and Moreton show can feel a little like the places where the HOYS dream goes to die for a lot of people.
For most classes those two shows are the final tickets on offer for the season. So if you aren’t one of the lucky ones to collect a HOYS ticket there, it can feel rather deflating after a very long show season, especially if you have had a few near misses.
Thankfully, Stoneleigh was a day to remember for us. Izzy and Annie had had a fabulous second placing at the July Stoneleigh after going beautifully.
However, nerves, understandably, then struck Izzy at RIHS and we had a slightly wobbly run at New Forest.
NPS came around and they had a busy couple of days that, despite a couple of wobbly moments and little miscommunications, proved to be invaluable for the partnership with Izzy riding Annie better and better in every class.
They even had a spin in the evening performance, which Izzy trotted out of absolutely beaming.
Ride it like you stole it!
After a little break for Annie we headed to Stoneleigh with the aim of putting everything we had worked on into practice and to end the season on a positive note no matter the result.
After a low pull from the go round I sent Izzy out to do her show with the instruction of “ride it like you stole it” — and she certainly did!
I always find it nerve-wracking watching the children do their show, but I didn’t need to worry that day. Izzy came out and rode her socks off; Annie was spot on and it all came together perfectly.
After they nailed the conformation as well, I left Izzy to it with a final comment of “top job Iz, best show yet, you should come up a few places but don’t expect to come up to win”.
Well, how wrong was I! As they called the results in reverse order and got down to the top 3 I thought they’d done well to come up to third.
But they weren’t third, or even second — they had indeed come up to win! I think we were all a little shocked that they’d actually pulled it off.
This was always a bonus season with Annie for Izzy to gain experience and ringcraft ready for the qualifiers next year, but they have certainly exceeded expectations.
Looking ahead to HOYS
HOYS prep is well underway. Coat stress is such a big part of that prep. The question of trying to keep the coat or clipping is the first question.
Then, if you decide to clip, it’s what blades do you use and how many days before the show do you clip.
Then comes the inevitable stress of whether the horse or pony has grown enough coat through to get quarter marks in if you clip with a fine or medium blade… Or are they growing too much coat?
Alongside all of this, whether you decide to clip or not, is the constant rug changing, analysing the weather forecast, checking the horses isn’t too warm or too cold and that they are carrying enough weight without being fat.
Then it is a case of ticking them over ahead of the big day, keeping them fresh and interested in their work and ironing out any little kinks that have come to the surface without boring them.
Surprise judges
This year we have five Australian and one South African judge at HOYS, as well as a selection of home judges.
This has been met with a largely positive reception. However, it does mean we won’t find out who will be judging each section until the night before, and so we won’t know if we have a connection to a judge until then. [Editor note: a horse/rider is not allowed to compete under a judge they are connected with in any way for fairness reasons.]
I personally am looking forward to watching the international judges judge. I think they will do a good job and it will be very interesting to see what they make of our horses to ride.
I also think it will make a nice change to not know who is judging until the night before, provided it doesn’t mean anyone is suddenly unable to compete due to a connection.
I’m excited to try out some new products in the run up to and at HOYS. If I like them, I’ll be sure to post them on my social media pages.
I am planning to do a packing list, so stay tuned for those.
I will leave you for now to continue with the preparations.
I still feel a real buzz leading up to HOYS — we all love going to a show in the NEC car park really!
I hope the coat gods are kind to you all…
