Perth Show’s new site layout at the city’s South Inch was well received among the light horse exhibitors who were afforded spacious rings as a result of the reshuffle.
Due to the cancellation of the Friday event last year, courtesy of wet weather, the 2013 show became the 150th event for light horses.
But, disappointingly, only two exhibitors were willing to wait until the very end of play for the supreme horse contest.
Nonetheless, fresh from lifting the overall championship in the hunter arena and from a championship win at the Border Union’s bicentenary show last week, Gilly McCowan’s upstanding lightweight Irish Squire was a worthy winner
impressing supreme Perth judge Angus McDonald, of Letham Grange.
“He’s a big quality horse and has a stamp that is increasingly becoming hard to find,” commented Angus.
“He’s very free moving and is clearly very well schooled,” he added.
Irish Squire, a son of Ghareeb, was originally sourced from Ireland, by Donal Barnwell, of the Billy Stud.
Over the last few seasons, he has lifted the championship at the Royal Highland as well as being a finalist at HOYS on two occasions.
Pat Stirling, of South Blainslie, Galashiels, had earlier placed him hunter supreme: “He is just the most wonderful, quality horse.
“He went superbly and is very much a stand-out animal.”
Rewarded for their long day with the reserve supreme horse rosette were Madderty’s Emma Maitland and her coloured champion, Kinnitty Crackerjack, which had the previous weekend also lifted the coloured championship at Braco.
Prior to the overall horse contest Mr MacDonald also adjudicated the pony supreme from a depleted line-up of just four, selecting Carol Mason’s show pony Rhos Emilia as top of the line-up for Charlie and Olivia Cousens.
“It’s like a small horse a real old fashioned sort of pony,” said Angus.
“If it were a horse, nothing would be able to beat it, and as a pony, I believe it will remain very hard to better.”
Angus took his reserve from the very well filled ranks of mountain and moorland ponies where James Whiteford stood champion with five-year-old Connemara stallion Fuinseoig Boy.
“It was a very well schooled pony, but ultimately the extra quality of the show pony just snatched it the win,” he said.
“However, the Connemara was impeccably behaved with fabulous manners, particularly as it is a stallion.”
During the judging, Kirriemuir’s Marguerite Osborne had placed this stallion reserve supreme M and M to the Raith Hill Stud’s in-hand champion, Abergavenney Andrea.
The six-year-old Welsh section A mare, which is owned by Lynn Tait, previously won a silver medal at NPS Summer.
“It was a very nice moving pony but it offered good substance, too. It has a nice bit of bone to it and was just my kind of pony,” she said.
“The M and M classes as a whole offered very big numbers of good quality ponies,” she said.