Autumn brings the official Shetland Pony Auctions. There are three in total, one in Worcester, one in Aberdeen and one in Lerwick on Shetland. Many ponies are sold through these auctions from the most renowned studs, in particular at the Lerwick and Aberdeen sales.
My social media feed is full of beautiful young ponies and weaned foals looking for new homes, so I am having to resist the temptation to register to bid.
It is a time for the owners of the studs to sell ponies for which they have retained others of the same bloodlines and to seek to introduce new bloodlines by buying in unrelated ponies.
Island-bred ponies often have special prizes at affiliated shows, and I do have to say that I would love to own one of my own one day. The sales have shows before the sale of the stock being brought forward, so I will be interested to watch those online (and still resist the urge to register as a buyer!). The top-priced lot sold at the Lerwick Sale was a beautiful mare called Scatness Ace.
Closer to home, Diva’s yearling full brother, Melland Vantage, is for sale and thank goodness that he is a colt. If he had been a filly, I think I would be zipping down to the stud in the horsebox with the money burning a hole in my pocket.
I do also keep getting asked if I will put Diva (Melland Queen of Scots) in foal. The answer to that is perhaps! She certainly deserves to breed as her results in the ring prove her worth, and she has lovely bloodlines. I would have to think long and hard about which stallion would be best for her. The Shetland pony stud would have the mare stay with them whilst being covered by the stallion, so I would have to let her go away, which would be quite hard as she has been with me every day since I got her as a yearling. But a baby Diva would be so cute. Very tempting!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.