THE temperature kept changing at the recent Balmoral Show but the rain held off most of the time. Unfortunately, it decided to start falling late on the Friday morning just as the Clydesdales were coming forward to be judged.

Sadly, there has been a drop in the number of entries in these classes in recent years with the cost of entry invariably being put forward as the cause. For all that, the show’s title sponsor, Ulster Bank, is committed to supporting these classes and some stalwarts keep returning year on year.

While Friday’s judging began with the ridden class, it is the in-hand section which interests spectators the most and judge Peter Keron’s champion, Macfin Sweet Melody (who also took the title in 2017 and 2016), came from the four-strong yeld mare class. Owned and bred by the Hanna family of Ballymoney, the five-year-old Glebeview Sir Charles bay is out of the Brockloch Majestic mare, Kirkhouse Amazing Grace.

Travelling

Scotland-born Yvonne Hanna is spokesperson for the family and informed the Irish Horse World that the mare would not be travelling over to the Royal Highland Show which runs from June 20th to 24th. “We decided not to bring her to the Highland this year as we want to get her in foal.”

To this end, on the Saturday morning after Balmoral, the champion was covered with Muirton Sabre (the 2011 Cawdor Cup winner).

Melody, who was photographed with Yvonne for the Ulster Bank poster last year, is a full-sister to Macfin Diamond Queen who was overall Clydesdale champion at the Royal Highland in 2016 when she went on to be the best native horse or pony.

Then, capping a great week, she claimed the top accolade of the show, the Queen’s Cup, which circulates between the beef, dairy, sheep and heavy horse sections each year.

The reserve champion at Balmoral was Patrick O’Boyle’s two-year-old filly, Carrickammon Kylie (by Carrickmannon Big Ben), while the best exhibit of the opposite sex was Victor and Raymond Scott’s Dillars Top Gun yearling colt, Glebeview Ralph.

Expensive hobby

The Tanner family from Coleraine has had a lot of success in the Balmoral rings over the years and, at this year’s show, Geoffrey Tanner won the yearling filly class with Doura Lizzy, a bay who was bred near Ayr in Scotland by Charlotte Young.

The filly is the first foal by the now five-year-old Doura King Maker stallion Doura Aird Ambition who Tanner and his wife Lesley have leased for a year from the Young family’s Doura Stud.

“He’s proving popular with breeders over here and the fact that the filly won at Balmoral will be a good advertisement for him,” said Tanner who is a builder by trade and keeps a stallion and three broodmares.

“The horses are just a hobby – and an expensive one! We have had six champions at Balmoral and have done well selling horses to Scotland. Mind you, we haven’t done as well as those Scottish buyers who then sell on the horses we breed to America!”

Tanner will not be bringing the filly, or any other stock, over to the Royal Highland Show this year. “Oh, I’ll be going myself, I wouldn’t miss it, but it will only be for the Clyesdales,” he concluded.

Four of the five entries in the ridden class at Balmoral, judged by Emma Green, were owned by Victor and Raymond Scott, so it was little surprise when the Limavady exhibitors won the class with their six-year-old Carnaff Ambassador gelding Glebeview Samson who was partnered by Julia Wilson.

The father and son team of Derek and Robert Bailey are possibly the best-known breeders and exhibitors of Clydesdales in the south (under their Slievenamon Clydesdales banner) and regularly judge in Northern Ireland and across the water.

At the upcoming Royal Highland Show, Robert will be judging conformation for the ridden Clydesdale class, which is a Horse of The Year Show qualifier, as well as judging the young handlers and young stockmen classes.