Don Rosario

Anyone who knows Don Rosario (Rex) will remember that at last year’s National Championships there was a momentary glitch with the music in the adjoining freestyle to music arena, resulting in a few caprioles and courbettes from Rex. This year I was determined that he would be able to show himself off to his best and let everyone see how much he has blossomed and matured over the past season. So we wracked our collective heads and thought what was the loudest, most blustery, most colourful thing we could bring him to, the result was a show class in the annual Iverk Show. Now, standing at 18 2, there aren’t many options left open to him. So we took ourselves under the tutelage of one of the countries most reputable show horse producers, Sheila Gettins, and ended up choosing the Heavyweight Show Hunter Class. This class allowed to do all the things we rarely do at dressage shows -- work under circumstances that aren’t high pressure, have lots of time and space to ride him in and let him look about. Umbrellas, screaming children, run-about dogs, loud music, and galloping ponies were merely some of the things surrounding the arena. Amongst a huge class of seasoned show horses and show riders Rex did incredibly well and placed fourth, behaving as if he had been doing it all his life, not batting an eyelid at his environment. Certainly as dressage competitors we could take a leaf from the show persons handbook, very inexpensive entries, good judges and great prize money meant for very well attended classes, with over almost eighty in the hunter classes alone.

The Show Hunter riding judge was slightly smaller than me!!

Discussing final decisions.

Rex attracting some admirers.