Team Skelton take supreme award at college show
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KEEN horse riders from all over Scotland flocked to North Highland College UHI’s inaugural in-hand, ridden and working hunter show.
An impressive 170 entries from as far afield as Aberdeen, Inverness, Ross-shire and Orkney competed in the two-day event on April 21 and 22 at Dale Farm, Halkirk – NHC’s equestrian centre.
Mother-and-daughter-duo Aileen and Jessie Singleton made up the judging panel and were delighted with the high standard of riding and quality of horses.
The winners of the competition included Caithness Farrier Services’ three-year-old-and-under champion Archwood Flashdance, owned by Ashley Anderson. Ashley also owns Kanarth Elvis Costello, who was awarded reserve champion.
Dunedin Roseannah, owned by Alasdair Matheson, clinched the four-year-old-and-over award, with Emma Bisset’s Chiddock High Time scooping the reserve title.
The W & A Geddes ridden champion title was awarded to Bodette owned by James Munro, with reserve awarded to Hamish owned by Cariss Boyd.
The NHC supreme champion of the day was Bodette produced by Team Skelton and ridden by J. Munro. The reserve was Archwood Flashdance, following on from his wins at the Aberdeen Winter Fayre at Thainstone Mart and Ingliston Grand Slam.
The Home Bakery leg of the competition was spilt into two categories for the working hunter pony champion and the working hunter horse champion titles.
The Home Bakery working hunter pony champion was Durran Pedro ridden by Meegan Anderson and reserve was Kingston, ridden by Diane Ross.
Rider Emma Coghill clinched the working hunter horse champion prize for Analong, the underdog of the event, showing he is a horse of many talents as he is usually trained in eventing. Reserve was Lotus ridden by his owner, Zoe Harris, who is an NC student at the college where she also keeps her horse.
James Munro, head of NHC equestrian studies, was thrilled with the success of the inaugural event.
He said: "We were delighted with the amount of people who turned out to take part in our two-day event. It was so successful that we are planning to run another two-day show at the end of the year with evening performances also included.
"We are looking forward to welcoming the winners back to defend their titles and hopefully attracting even more entries. Anyone interested in keeping up to date on our forthcoming events can find out more by following the North Highland College Equestrian Centre Facebook page."
