Heading

The second weekend in June saw the holding of the 2005 IHSGB Summer Show (incorporating British Championships) held at Hedge End Farm, Dorset - Mike and Elizabeth Adams not only were kind enough to offer the IHSGB the use of their private facilities for the show but had also specially ordered glorious sunshine for the event - thank you.

This year the IHSGB Sport Committee had sought to encourage us lesser mortals to come along to the show by emphasising the 'Summer Show' aspect of the event and had laid on social and fun events to help tempt us. Ovalbahning is not everybody's cup of tea and Hedge End is a long way South for those 'oop north' and beyond - however there was still a reasonable turn out of folks and an encouraging number of youth riders this year. In addition a fair Scottish contingent had also forayed south to show us Southern Softies what it's all about.

Click here to see the gallery of pictures from the show!

Friday was a relaxed introduction to the weekend - many people, including us, had arrived on the Thursday - so we spent Friday sorting out loose ends, hacking out and the more serious competitors had a rehearsal on the oval track or on Mike and Elizabeth's marvellous pace track. That evening there was a 'meet the judges over drinkies' where we were introduced to our judges and the Tournament Leader - Marina van de Bunt. Marina treated us to an amusing laying down of the rules for the event and, I have to say, this was the last time I think I saw her stand still until Sunday evening - she ran (or cycled) around all weekend to ensure that the event went well.

Fiona and I were bringing along Gæla for the Elementary classes, Húni and Drift for the Intermediates and I was also bringing Hetja but, seeing as there were no clown classes we were just contenting ourselves with trying to put everybody else off in the Intermediates. However, a few days before the show, I was offered a ride on Snuggur by Mandy and Smári for the event and, after ooooh - maybe two milliseconds of pondering - bit their hands off and poor old Gæla got bounced onto the subs' bench.

Saturday saw the qualifying rounds during the day and, in the late afternoon, the Dark Science Events - Pace and Dressage. I say Dark Science as I had never seen any pace events apart from FIPO Five Gait on the track and dressage? Well let's not go there - you've all seen my horse handling skills. I have to thank Mike Adams for taking the time to explain the complexities of the pace events to me and Tim Hutchinson who sat down next to us to watch Janice doing her dressage test and ended up giving me Dressage 101 instead. (Janice not only won the Dressage but also the adult Feather Award for the lightest seat).

Saturday night was barbie time! All the competitors, spectators and officials were served up copious amounts of roasted scoff followed by an over-abundance of dessert seasoned with drinks of our choice and topped off with some great conversation - darkness and tiredness finally put paid to us around 10.30pm so it was off to bed in readiness for Sunday - Finals Day.

Click here to see the gallery of pictures from the show!

Personally? Sunday went pretty swimmingly really. Hetja and I even managed to get through the weekend with average scores of 3 or over which, for us, is a big first. However my pièce de résistance was the Intermediate Four Gait with Snuggur where I managed two - yup, just read 'em and weep - two, not one but two, huge, whole, entire rounds of piggy pace - yaaaay!! Mind you - it was supposed to be trot so maybe that's why all three judges gave me my usual 'Royuame Uni - nil points'. First place in the preliminary round to last in the final - way to go Graeme eh?

Having blown any chance of anything meant that I could watch Fiona and Tim having a bit of a ding dong in the rest of the class - my mental arithmetic being on a par with my ability to paint oils on canvas meant that whilst I had no idea who had scooped the class I knew they were close until the final scores were tallied - Tim piped Fiona who later in the day returned the compliment in the Intermediate Tölt Final.

Following my guddling around on the track we were able to shuck off the glad rags and grab a bale to watch the big guns fight it out in the FIPO classes. All good stuff - whilst I have only been faffing around with Icelandics for about three years even in that time it has been apparent that the judges' marks for our good horse/rider combinations are gradually creeping up and up. This year was no exception with seven and over being awarded frequently. The cherry on the cake was when the very last mark awarded after the very last round of the show was an eight for Smári on Dropi. (I guess that makes my zero-zero-zero the fly in the ointment then?)

After the presentations and awards some folks headed off straight away to points north whilst others stayed the night and left the following morning - once again thanks to Mike and Elizabeth for allowing us the use of their facilities and for all the lovely, long grass that the horses got to munch on. A lot of people put a lot of time into ensuring that things went smoothly for the competitors - I've already commented on the fact that Marina did not stand still all weekend - however I also noticed that Mike was 'everywhere at once' too; Elizabeth was beavering away behind the scenes and both were aided and abetted by the Sport Committee and a band of unsung helpers - thank you all for giving us a good time.

So? The future? Well as I write we are a fortnight away from WC2005 in Sweden and the British Team who were selected after BC2005 are now in their secret, high altitude training camp getting fit for the long swim across the North Sea . I'm in my high altitude training camp here on the edge of Dartmoor trying to suss out the difference between pigy pace and trot - well, after all, they do SOUND the same.

Click here to see the gallery of pictures from the show!

text here