Golden boys do themselves proud

Welsh ponies land top honours as competitors flock to vie for prestigious novice accolades and HOYS qualifications

- ALEX ROBINSON

NPS Spring Festival, Three Counties Showground, Worcs

“I DO love a Welsh cob,” enthused native producer Aimee Devane, who capped a red-letter day with starkly different looking – yet equally promising – Welsh section D stallions.

Berkshire-based Aimee took home National Pony Society (NPS) Silver Medal and British Isles Area supreme-ridden accolades, as well as the NPS winter final qualifiers championship.

Her two respective rides were Clare Granger’s magnificent six-year-old London Golden Eye (Tom), and Lisa O’Rourke’s ultra-typey five-year-old Steppers Relight My Fire (Flame).

“It was only my third show with Tom; we’ve been keeping it all pretty low key,” said Aimee. “He’s been tricky, but the hard work is starting to pay off.”

Aimee initially approached Clare of the Dycott stud in 2020, with the intention of using one of her stallions for breeding duties.

“Clare asked if I wanted to take Tom on for production, and he came to me last June after he’d covered some mares,” continued Aimee. “He’s a big, strong pony to hold together so we’ve taken it slowly, building up his strength and getting him on-side.

“I don’t feel he’s ready for the big qualifiers yet, but today I wanted to dig a little deeper and see what he had to offer.”

Aimee’s pure novice reserve champion Flame returned at the very end of the day to scoop the NPS final’s championship, a reckoning for ponies who had qualified for last year’s NPS finals but didn’t compete due to the cancellation of the show.