'Showing is as popular as ever'

Robert Walker on class numbers and showcasing young animals

- Bethan Simons

THE season is now well under way and, as usual, it's great to see established and new faces out showing. With several area association and county shows now under our belts, it's been interesting that, as ever, the numbers of horses and ponies forward vary greatly. This is obviously very frustrating and worrying for some show organisers, but I don't think it's down to one thing with one answer.

Nowadays there is so much choice. When I was growing up, there were the county shows and the agricultural shows. On top of those now, there are area association or society shows, club shows and specific qualifying shows. This means that competitors are inevitably all very spread out.

There's also a lot more choice in classes. When I was a child, there were hacks, hunters and riding ponies - and cobs were emerging. But there were no riding horses, coloureds or mountain and moorlands. Now the latter two sections are very popular, so if we see smaller traditional classes, it could well be that riders who previously showed in those categories have switched to a different type of horse.

OPINION