Swedish National Show 2011
This year’s Swedish national show was held on the weekend 17-19 June and saw a good number of ponies participating in spite of being a good month and a half earlier than usual.
Friday afternoon was devoted to ridden and Working Hunter Pony classes. The Open Ridden class was won by the 15-year-old gelding Lidens Mr Li, a son of Janus out of the Elite premium mare May-Li. Mr Li had a very successful weekend competing in most types of classes and doing very well. The Open Working Hunter Pony was won by another Lidens pony, the bay Lidens Gentleman. He is by the not so much used stallion Uranus out of Lady-Li, a daughter of May-Li, so Mr Li and Gentleman are closely related.
On Saturday morning there were dressage competitions including the Swedish Connemara championship in dressage. Among the 130-140 cm ponies the championship winner was the bay Molliere (out of Brolotens Samba). His sire is the highly successful dressage stallion Juno Rory (half brother of Janus). The winner of the 140-148 cm ponies was the 7-year-old mare Azalea (out of Liljegardens Graze). This lovely dun is by Frederiksminde Hazy Chance, so a grand daughter of Hazy Dawn. She won the young pony championships in dressage last year and gave a very nice display at the breed show. There was also a class for over-height ponies and over-age riders (i.e. more than 18 years old) where the victory went to the winner of the Open Ridden class, Lidens Mr Li.
In-hand judges this year were Maria Holdhaus from Sweden and Ciaran Curran from Ireland and during Saturday afternoon they took on the youngstock and the geldings. They found their youngstock champion in the two-year-old colt Castle Verdi, born in Ireland, but imported to Sweden. Verdi has an international pedigree being by Swedish-born Janus out of the French-bred Orphee Schueracher. Reserve youngstock champion was Bjennesby Janis Joplin (out of Hagens Yulie). Her sire is the Finnish stallion Rockfield Scarface who spent two seasons in Sweden
In the two gelding classes the older geldings came out on top and Lidens Mr Li took a third win and was chosen champion gelding with Hagens Zinzano as reserve. Zinzano is by Spinway Corona, a full brother of Spinway Comet in the UK while his dam Abbeyleix Flora probably is best known in Ireland as the dam of Abbey Fort.
Sunday tested the weather tolerance of the ponies with a continuous rain throughout the day. In the morning the ponies competed in show jumping for Swedish Connemara show jumping championship. Many brave tried their best under the difficult circumstances offered.
The champion among the 130-140 cm ponies was the little mare Idylle. She lived up to a strong performance pedigree with her sire having been a successful show jumpers in his days and her dam, Gina 2nd, being by the Elite premium stallion Finney Master, renowned for his performance offspring. The 140 – 148 cm pony class was won by the grey mare Holmtebo Our Winnie (by Hagens Zephyr out of Hagens Ultra) and Nice-n’-Cherry (by Carnaby Patrick Hooligan out of Dory-Nice) took the title for over-height ponies and over-age riders.
Fortunately the in-hand classes of Sunday could be held in the indoor school and out of the rain. At the end of the day, in the limited space indoors, the best in show ring was crowded with nice-looking ponies. This year the younger ponies were the strongest contestants and the judges chose the five-year-old Erinmore Golden Marble (out of Glaskopf Grey Joanna) as their reserve supreme champion. Erinmore Golden Marble is the last son of Oxenholm Marble Jr who is also the grandsire of the supreme champion, the youngstock champion Castle Verdi.
