Although we have some Royal Welsh Winners in the stud we have never been to Royal Welsh before, which made it very special for us to visit in 2022 since we had both Laithehill Overture and Smokeycott Shezam entered!
The night before their classes I was so nervous that I could almost not get any sleep at all, because as many of you know Royal Welsh is the most prestigious show there is in the world and it is in the heart of Wales in the UK – the origin for the Welsh ponies.
The first one out was Smokeycott Shezam, or Bims as she is called, and since she had only been with her producer for 1 month before the show we were cutting it short! Even though she was in show condition and trained at her breeders it takes time for a handler to get to know a pony, to show them the best possible way…
We could hardly believe it when we heard her name being called out as being 2nd in the class! That is HUGE at Royal Welsh – especially since it is the 4th show she has ever been to!
Please visit this Youtube film where you can hear us (Eleonor Marklund) being mentioned at 2:24 https://youtu.be/KJrdgsysqaA
After Shezam we had to wait for Laithehill Overture and his class. He is amazing to watch as we have had huge success with him in the UK this year. It was a very tough class but he was also placed with a rozette at 4th place. Being 4th and having a rozette from the Royal Welsh Show is something to be proud of and for us to have BOTH our horses (from different studs) coming home with rozettes from the world’s biggest welsh show really shows that we know how to pick our breeding material!
Thank you so much to all the people and organizations behind The Royal Welsh Show – it was lovely to be there, and thank you to all our friends that we met there, and hopefully we will meet many more next year! Congratulations to everyone being placed but also to the ones not being placed because to just be there is a big step towards a bright future!
We are so grateful to our amazing producers and handlers, Sue Kernan, Ellie Stunt, Tom Clark & Ceri Powell!