Thistledown Copper Lustre Part 2

by Penny Walster

After his successful youngstock years, Thistledown Copper Lustre - Harry - had arrived at his fourth year; he had already learnt to lunge, long line and had been bitted. He had walked out in hand down the roads and obviously seen so many things at shows, and he was a well adjusted youngster. To be honest, I was busy competing my two other horses and didn't really think about backing Harry until early Summer.

I started lunging him in tack to start him off and did that for a couple of days then got a bit bored as he was foot perfect, so I decided I would just get on him. He’s 12.2hh, so it’s not far to fall after all! He thought his mum was a bit mad, and he was slightly confused, but we wandered back to the yard quite successfully!

A few days later I decided I would officially back him, so I tacked him up, jumped on him and proceeded to take him for a hack! Off we went down the road for a mile to our local village, turned round and came back. Harry was backed!

A day or so later, a Romany caravan appeared at the bottom of our hill, so I decided to jump on Harry and ride down to say hello. I threw a bridle on him, jumped on bareback and rode down. Harry was a star, and took everything in his stride. It was a bit exciting, having the lovely coloured mare to chat to, but he was very polite and stood whilst I invited them to call at our yard for some water. We were thrilled the next morning when he called; he was travelling back from Appleby down to Cornwall, with his lovely mare and a super little donkey, and estimated a three week journey. And he thought Harry and I would fit in well at Appleby!

Harry and I worked properly for a while, although he was used in lessons with some regular children who ride with us. I like the ponies to be "proper" ponies, played with, ragged around and so what if they're not in an outline or on the right leg, it really doesn't matter. The children knew he was a stallion and not to put the mares under his nose, but he never gave them a thought whilst being ridden - nothing fazed him at all.

Late Summer, my dressage trainer asked how he was going and when was she going to see him. After a few weeks under saddle, he was now more established in his way of going, so I took him for a lesson. She thought he was fabulous and encouraged me to enter our first competition and to also speak to the Sports Pony Studbook Society (SPSS) regarding their Stallion Grading.

September came, and I decided to enter Harry into his first unaffiliated competition. He was superbly behaved and did three tests gaining a 1st,and 2nd,place in the Prelims with 65%, and a third place in the Novice with 60.37%. I obviously was thrilled and entered him the next week at another venue. His scores again were super with scores ranging from 69% to 72.2%. We were on a roll!

I had in the meantime booked both Harry and Loveden Sea Swallow, one of our broodmares, into the SPSS Grading to be held in October. That day came, and, not knowing anything about the Grading system, or any system for that matter, I decided to arrive early to see how everything ran. Ponies bathed, plaited and trimmed, my partner and I set off at 5.30am and arrived in good time. The ponies travelled superbly together and we took a massive picnic to keep us going. I watched how everything ran, noting how the ponies were run around the triangle and how they needed to be presented. I made a personal note of where I felt people could improve and which had presented their ponies well, realising that this was a very different way of presenting from in the show ring. That said, with the Welshies, they are shown much faster than a show horse so I felt nervous but confident we would be able to show our ponies how they were expecting.

Both the ponies were shown in-hand, then loose, and Harry was shown under saddle. Obviously not long being backed, he wasn't completely established in his way of going but was well mannered, and showed he was trainable and that his obvious potential was there. He gained some lovely comments such as "attentive to rider throughout".

I was thrilled he was granted a temporary licence and asked to represent the following year to assess his results and progeny. Swallow graded into the Main Stud Book with a high score of 78.5%. We came home feeling very proud of both of them, also having learnt a huge amount about grading systems and just how important they are for our British-bred stock.

Harry continued working quietly over the Winter months and had a trip to the beach, which he loved, happily cantering up and down with the children on board (one of which was myself having never ridden on the beach before!). Then in March we started back in the dressage arena.

The year flew past. His scores were fantastic, and he now had started in the affiliated competitions at Prelim and Novice and was gaining scores of 65% to 78% in the Open sections. He qualified for numerous Championships and Trailblazers, where he finished 3rd on the first day and 11th on the second out of 140 starters. At the Badminton Horse Feeds Championships, he finished 9th, and 11th, when he competed after a 4 1/2 hour journey. He also qualified for the British Dressage Winter Regional Finals, but unfortunately, and very disappointingly, he was unable to attend as I had been injured when a horse fell on me.

He was placed 4th in the British Dressage Young Pony Championships and also took one of our Young Riders to the Talent Spotting qualifiers; she finished in 2nd place but the child who swapped onto him rode him absolutely beautifully and qualified to go to the finals. She came to find me afterwards and couldn't thank me enough for her being able to ride him – again, how proud he made me.

At the end of 2006 he was entered in his first Elementary and gained a fantastic score of 64.4%; the following two elementary Opens gained his qualification to the Regional Finals, although I felt he wasn't established for that level at that time. However, in the Novice Open at the Regional Finals, he came in 13th place with a super score of 64.2% - not bad for a young 12.2hh pony.

Time and again, he has proved how trainable he is and, after a busy couple of years, he has had some time out of the competition arena and quietly trained at home. He now works to Medium level and we hope to start again in the affiliated arena this season of 2010, although he had a trip out at the end of 2009 and won both the Novice and Elementary on scores over 68%, just to remind everyone he is still about! He actually went because I felt like taking something and with all the bad weather nothing had really been in work so I thought "Harry might like to go!" He was clipped, mane and tail pulled and bathed that morning, and just proved what a star he is! I will admit to 5 minutes of him bouncing around the collecting arena which he was forgiven for!

He wasn't required to be represented at the Stallion Grading in the end; I forwarded all his results and his progeny have now started to come through and prove themselves in their own right, gaining 1st premiums at the BEF, winners at County Level, youngstock who have won at the annual SPSS grading and show. He also has a mare graded with the SPSS. I was thrilled when he was granted permanent Stallion Status with the Studbook.

This is a one in a million pony who can turn his hoof to anything; as well as his dressage achievements, he has been hunting, starred in a pantomime and proved over and over again what a versatile pony he really is.